EXport Airtable Records in a Custom PDF Report

[BenInDallas]

We are experimenting with Airtable as a project management tool for our Graphic Design Firm. Working well so far, until we get to expense tracking. It’s easy enough to create a table to track individual expenses and link them to any open job in our “jobs” table, but when it comes to billing, we need a single document that captures ALL the expenses related to a job and presents them together in a report much like the attached “Cost Sheet”, which we currently produce manually for each job in Excel.

Here’s what we need. I’d like to automate the Cost Sheet data entry process so that, at a push of a button, any member of my team can generate a pdf with this same info, and with data pulled from Airtable records. All the user would have to do is select a “job” and all expense records linked to that job would be gathered up and processed. Each expense record would be listed as a row in the table (like the highlighted rows shown in the example). In addition, header info (like that shown in rows 1-3) would need to be pulled from the records, and simple calculations (like those shown at the bottom of the sheet) would need to be performed.

Is this possible? Is there another tool that already does this?

[Hannah_Henry]

Hello,
I’m interested in seeing what reportbin offers for my project.
Seeking to build an inventory page that would contain a grid of several records (each record containing a product image, product name, and unique id) as well as a header and footer.

Please let me know if you are able to assist.

[Sam_Wood]

Hi Hannah, yes it looks like something ReportBin can help you with. Shoot me a message via the contact form https://airtable.com/shrKJ2SnkrMNUTj26 and I’ll walk you through the process :slightly_smiling_face:

[PageMonk]

I am working on a solution for this at https://www.pagemonk.com/ . Please DM me if you would like me to build you a pdf (for free). It’s under development and I’ll be adding more features this week.
Also, here’s an intro video

[Mark_Miller]

@Sam_Wood does this offer still stand? I would be ecstatic! I’m trying to find a way to create a printable budget sheet for clients based on a table view. Thank you!

[Bryan_Atwood]

It’s sad that after two and a half years and $170M raised by Airtable that you cannot easily export multiple records into custom designed excel or PDF layouts (for invoicing/billing, or sharing with other firms that don’t use Airtable). The Page Designer block is a good start, but not sufficient. Sadly we’ll have to stick with error-prone excel for our accounting needs.

I am really loving Airtable, so hopefully this type of feature or block gets added!

[Shakir_Akbari]

Agreed, there is not a matured reporting module in airtable. I’d love to see this addressed.

I cant display more than one record using page designer, this is a significant limitation

[Wes_Webber]

A quick workaround is a linked grouping - in my business case I call them applications - that touch related tables. You can then choose which linked records display via table in the page designer, which in my case solves the need. You could just call the table Print Record with an auto counter for reference and it will get the job done.

Wes Webber
(517) 325-3301

[ScottWorld]

Just following up on this thread in November 2023.

Unfortunately, Airtable's Page Designer is still extremely limited. For example, it can't effectively print documents that are more than one page long. And quite possibly its biggest limitation is that it can't be automated in any way.

However, there are lots of great ways to automatically generate PDF reports out of Airtable, but they require using external tools.

So the best way to automatically create PDF reports & PDF files with Airtable is to turn to an external document creation app.

Here are a few options:

1. One of the most popular PDF creation tools for Airtable is DocuMint. This can be automated natively or by using Make’s DocuMint automations.

2. Another popular tool is Docs Automator, which integrates with Google Docs.

3. However, you can choose ANY document creation app that you would like, and automate the PDF creation process by using Make. You can use good old fashioned Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or even newer apps like Formstack Documents, PDF Monkey, DataBox, Tableau, or more.

Make supports over 1,600 apps natively, and it also supports all other apps that have a REST API by using its HTTP module.

 There is a small learning curve with Make, which is why I created this basic navigation video to help. I also provide the links to a few other Make training resources there as well.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld