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How to add the Sum Column from Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 in a TABLE 4?

Topic Labels: Formulas
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Michael_Leidens
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi,
Thank you in advance for advise.
I have 3 department in my company.
I am creating 1 table per department. Table 1 = Product A Table 2 = Product B etc…

I want to have a quick overview on all Sum from each table.
I created a Table 4.
I want that a cell displays the SUM of column A in Table 1 ; How to do it?
Thanks

7 Replies 7

Hello @Michael_Leidensdorf,

You’ve setup your base wrong.

You are not supposed to have a different table for each department.

All of your departments need to be in the exact same table.

Then you can do what you want to do by using grouping.

Hi @Michael_Leidensdorf and welcome to the community!

@ScottWorld is right, but a bit terse. :winking_face: There’s no right or wrong way to set up your base; there are only ways that meet your business requirements.

With all data in a single table you can use Views and Filters to separate the product lists logically (instead of physically). This will undoubtedly provide you with some really great agility in managing your data.

Lol, this is true! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Michael_Leidens
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I don’t ask you How I had to setup the table. I asked how to get sum from different table in 1 summary table.

We can’t have all data in same Table. Different people. Different client. Different way of calculatin margin etc…

In Excell for exemple, you can make formula like : =sum Table1(A1;A9)+Table2(A1;A9)
is something like this exist in Airtable?

This is why it’s really important to share the business requirements with the question. I’ll circle back with some thoughts as soon as I have some time.

Yes.

If you go the route of multiple tables (similar to multiple tabs in a spreadsheet context) I’m pretty sure you want to start by learning about Roll-Ups.

But… how are you able to use Excel given the requirement that different clients and people need to be segregated from a universal view of the data?

Let’s now circle back to the known requirements.

  • Product data are managed and viewed by different clients.
  • Client (a) should not be able to see Client (b)'s product data.
  • Formulaic properties of Client (a) are generally not the same as for Client (b).

If these are the key requirements, there is a way to do this in Airtable with a single table using views and filters and security settings.

Certainly, without deeper insight into the nature of the solution and the scale of users and data, it’s unreasonable to assume this approach is best. However, in almost every case where Airtable users attempt to carry the schema baggage of an Excel sheet into a database-like tool such as Airtable, they achieve vast data management benefits by embracing a data model that leans into a unified database architecture while delivering on requirements through logical views and filters.

I recommend you at least explore the idea of a single “products” table where Grouping gives you the sums you want (literally an instant’s worth of effort) and where Views and access settings keep users and their data separated.