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Setting up a tracker for dates

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Sean_Lake1
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

Good day all!

Currently we schedule training that has been nicely integrated with GCal.  Recently, we decided to track rescheduled training for better communication and reporting.  

I've added a "RESCHEDULED" check box to be marked when a training has been rescheduled.  My idea is to have another table, that "holds" all the rescheduling.  I'd like it to hold:

  • Training Title (obviously) which it would get from the linked record to this table.
  • Old training date and time
  • New training date and time

Now how can my automation ensure it copies and pastes the Start Date and Time prior to changing that field to the new Start Date and Time without overwriting the old Start Date and Time?  

I want to avoid the process from overwriting the data it's intended on tracking LOL.

Ideas?

4 Replies 4

I'm assuming every calendar update results in a single record in a table, and you've got another table where each record represents a meeting and is linked to the various update records?

If so, perhaps you could just use a rollup field with the `MAX(values)` check on the created time, which would give you the training date and time of the latest update (which should be the latest reschedule), and create another field that shows all the date and time values of the records that aren't from the latest update record.  If you had >2 update records per meeting it might get weird though

Hmmm. This is a fun puzzle.

What if, instead of having an automation trigger that happens after the meeting has been rescheduled, the automation triggers the start of the workflow? The reschedule button creates a record in the rescheduled table that copies the existing start/end field and links it to the training that is going to be rescheduled and then, once the new training dates have been entered, there’s another automation (maybe a checkbox? If you’re doing this via a form, maybe a form submit?) that finds and updates the record that was just created.

Huge possibility that I haven’t had enough coffee and none of this makes sense ️ if that’s the case let me know and I’ll clarify…..

Sean_Lake1
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

Yeah, this one is weird.  No forms in the workflow.  We typically have everything all nicely scheduled in a table.  Then we'll from time to time, need to re-schedule.  So I added a checkmark/thumbs up, for the person to check on.  Right now it doesn't signal anything immediately, it's just there for alerts and to track r/s events.  However, I don't want to lose the "old" start time/date and end time/date either, so that was the idea of a separate table from the Training Table.  

A (slightly more refined and maybe more coherent because more coffee?) possibility:

You have a checkbox that someone clicks when they need to reschedule the training. When they click that checkbox, 3 things happen:

  1. A record is created in the old table that copies over the start/end times/dates and links to the training
  2. The "active" training record is updated to set the start/end times/dates to blank
  3. The checkbox in that record is set back to unchecked again

You've got a record of the current training in the same table as before and a record of the previously scheduled one safely tucked away elsewhere. Bonus: you can see how many times a training as been rescheduled.