Setting up base design for Construction Divisions

[Michael_Chait]

We are an architectural and general contracting firm who is trying to set up an CRM base design using the different ‘Divisions’ (Electrical, Site, Roofing, Doors, etc.) used in building and construction. There are about 31 or so of them that we use and we would like to organize our Airtable so that each subcontractor is below the correct header (a roofer under roofing). CSI Standards

What is the best way to set that up?

[Kamille_Parks · Accepted solution]

You could make one table called Divisions and another table called Subcontractors. Each record in the Divisions would represent one of the divisions, and the Subcontractors table would include a Link to Another Record field pointing to Divisions. That way you could link multiple subcontractors to the “roofing” division. If you turn on record grouping in the Subcontractors table you’ll be able to group subcontractors by their division.

[Michael_Chait]

Awesome, great idea! thanks

[Michael_Chait]

Have one more question: Is there a way to auto-populate a field when a condition is met? Example, division 050000 is Metals and I don’t want to have to worry about writing in the division name after 050000, so can I have the column next to the Division Number auto-populate the name associated with it?

[Kamille_Parks]

I’m assuming your primary field in the [Divisions] table is {Division Number}, and that you have a {Division Name} field in that same table.

If you want to have {Division Name} show up automatically in the [Subcontractors] table based on the {Division Number} it has been linked to, add a Lookup field to [Subcontractors] pointing at {Division Name}.

[Michael_Chait]

Gotcha, thank you. And one last question, certain subcontractors work in multiple divisions and we’d like to have them show up in those divisions when using the grouping view. How do we do that? Would that be something to do with the tags feature?

[Kamille_Parks]

Grouping will won’t put the same subcontractor in multiple division groups, it will put the subcontractor in a single combined group (“Division 1, Division 5, Division 9”). You could use filtered views as an alternative.

I’d say its worth a shot testing Multiselect Fields as opposed to linking. You’ll run into the same issue with grouping records, but filtering views would be a little easier.