Registering multiple dates to a single record and showing it in Timeline or Gant (pro plan)

[n0xp]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently building a rental (lending) system for my inventory and I need help tackling an issue with how I register multiple rentals on the same item.

I've entered an inventory of some 150 items in one table, a lender registry in another and a project list in a third.

I've made a separate table where I register loans and returns back into the inventory. Consider this a log.

Here I've made a formula, where you pick who the lender is, what project they are affiliated with, and what items they are lending.

When the record is submitted, it updates all items in the inventory and changes their status from in-house to unavailable or vice versa.

All of that works thanks to several links, automations and formulas.

However!

I would like to register future loans and when they are expected to be returned.

And here is where it all gets dicey.

How do I register multiple dates in a timeline or gant view on the same item and line?

Especially since the solution should suit infinite entries due to the fact that logs will continue to be made into the foreseeable future.

I could gather all of the start and end dates in a lookup field, but the Timeline and Gant view obviously cannot compare the start and end date lookup fields and make the right conclusion on what are intervals.

Furthermore it would be great if I could make a check in formula making it impossible to lend stuff which is unavailable on certain dates - but that seems like science fiction at this point.

[matt_stewart1 · Accepted solution]

only way I can think to have same record appear multiple times in a timeline view is by grouping. 

So you would group timeline by a multiselect / collaborator / linked record and choose option to split multiple values.

For record setup, you would use an automation or manually apply the number of versions needed to said field for each record setup.

However these would all share same date field. If you need separate date for each tag, I think it would need to be separate records, and therefore maybe using a linked record field that is automated and only used for this use-case?

[n0xp]

My GUY! 

I had no idea, there was an option to split into multiple values.

I've played around with it for a moment, and it seems it all works if I use the Timeline view in my log table.

Thank you very very much.

Now I need to figure out how to register the items as available/unavailable based on these intervals - and especially how to not allow the future lending of items which will be unavailable on the same dates in the future.