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Re: HELP - Attendance log with add new record option in a form or interface

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Daniela_Fernand
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Hi, 

I need an attendance tracker for a nonprofit organization that organizes different activities throughout the year. I first tried doing a form that our coordinators of each activity would use to report the activity, time, description/impact, and attendance. The attendance is linked to a table that compiles the beneficiaries of the different activities that are run by the Non-profit. 

We already have some beneficiaries or previous participants in this table and so some of the attendees are already in our records, but when we have new attendees, I would like to be able to generate a new record from a form. I am able to add a new record in the grid view, but not in the Form. I have already tried doing an interface and it still won't give me the option to add new records in both form or interface. I do have a plus plan (not the free version).

Our objective is to be able to have a beneficiary registry or a complete list of beneficiaries to report to our donors every year. We also want to be able to track those people who participate in more than one activity, or those who come back year after year). If you have any other ideas to do this I would really appreciate it!

Important to point out that the idea is to have our activity coordinators use tablets to log this information and track attendance.

Is this even possible in Airtable? or maybe a google form integration work?

Thank you!!!!

2 Solutions

Accepted Solutions
pressGO_design
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

tldr: you’re going to need a bigger boat. And by bigger boat, I mean either another form platform or a different workflow. 

The big project constraint I see here is that you would prefer that your coordinators use a form and not have to have Airtable accounts. This means two things. One, that you can’t use interfaces, because those require Airtable accounts, and two, that you’re going to need to look elsewhere for your form entry, because native Airtable forms aren’t going to let you do what you want to do. Even if you say, “Ugh fine I will make them get Airtable accounts,” they’re going to need to have paid seats in order to do what you want them to do in the interface. So I’m not sure that’s a great solution for you. 

In general, Airtable forms allow a non-Airtable user to add *one* record in *one* table in *one* base. Now, you can use automations and syncs to then take data out of that record and copy it to other places, but what you need is different. You need to be able to create (at least) two records: one record in the Attendance table for the form submission and one in the Beneficiaries table for the Beneficiary that doesn’t exist yet.

You could play around with a form that has the activity and the beneficiaries as linked fields and then asking the user “How many new beneficiaries are there?” and having them enter some amount of data that would allow you to create an automation that creates records in your Beneficiaries table based on the data in the form submit. But that’s not something that the user will be able to use effectively at check-in. Or you would have a form that captures just the existing beneficiaries and ask new people to fill out another form (either on paper or on Airtable) that you can use to get their information and then create those records afterwards.

 

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pressGO_design
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

That's because you're trying to use an interface form. You want to start with a blank canvas and use Record Picker and Field elements to get that functionality.

See Solution in Thread

11 Replies 11

Yes, this is possible. Using this base, I created an interface that will allow your activity coordinators to add existing or new attendees to the activity.

The idea is that your activity coordinators choose an activity, add a date, and then add the attendees. They can either choose an attendee that already exists or they can add one.

The hiccup is that your activity coordinators must have Editor permissions in order to do this, and on the Plus plan those Editor seats aren't free.

Oops I forgot to attach this screen recording showing the interface part.

Daniela_Fernand
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

I will try this and let you know if it worked! Thank you so so much! 

Curious, is there a workaround to maybe do this with form view so my coordinators don't have to have an airtable account. Mainly because they rotate a lot. I have coordinators for a season and then new ones everytime.

Thank you so much!!!

I think you can do that with fillout forms. Am not 100% sure. 

Hi PressGo!

I watched your video and tried the interface (mine has a bit more variables but in essence, it is the same thing).

It still doesn't give me the option to add a new attendee or add any new record! Here is a video where you can also see that the forms view won't let me add new records. Only the grid view lets me add new records. 

I'm desperate because I don't understand why it doesn't work, I must be missing something. I have the Pro license and I'm the creator of the base, I don't understand.

pressGO_design
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

tldr: you’re going to need a bigger boat. And by bigger boat, I mean either another form platform or a different workflow. 

The big project constraint I see here is that you would prefer that your coordinators use a form and not have to have Airtable accounts. This means two things. One, that you can’t use interfaces, because those require Airtable accounts, and two, that you’re going to need to look elsewhere for your form entry, because native Airtable forms aren’t going to let you do what you want to do. Even if you say, “Ugh fine I will make them get Airtable accounts,” they’re going to need to have paid seats in order to do what you want them to do in the interface. So I’m not sure that’s a great solution for you. 

In general, Airtable forms allow a non-Airtable user to add *one* record in *one* table in *one* base. Now, you can use automations and syncs to then take data out of that record and copy it to other places, but what you need is different. You need to be able to create (at least) two records: one record in the Attendance table for the form submission and one in the Beneficiaries table for the Beneficiary that doesn’t exist yet.

You could play around with a form that has the activity and the beneficiaries as linked fields and then asking the user “How many new beneficiaries are there?” and having them enter some amount of data that would allow you to create an automation that creates records in your Beneficiaries table based on the data in the form submit. But that’s not something that the user will be able to use effectively at check-in. Or you would have a form that captures just the existing beneficiaries and ask new people to fill out another form (either on paper or on Airtable) that you can use to get their information and then create those records afterwards.

 

Daniela_Fernand
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Thank you...

I'm ok with using interfaces and getting them a paid account (I prefer forms because we are a nonprofit) but ultimately I want to facilitate their work and that is super valuable to us. The problem is, that interfaces didn't work either. I tried the interface option and I still would not get the "add new record" option. I think there might be a settings option I'm not seeing.

If you know how to fix the interface solution. I would really appreciate it. 

Thank you so much!!!

 

 

The permissions to allow users to create new records is on the right side. I made a movie that hopefully will help.

Daniela_Fernand
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

I don't have the "Permissions" section...

😣