Hi, been trying out Airtable for a few weeks and believe it may be a helpful project tracking/database tool for my firm.
I run a structural engineering firm in the San Francisco Bay Area with about 20 employees. We initiate about 150 projects per year of varying size. Each project has statuses, phases, timetables, milestones, budgets, unique attributes (e.g. address, type, location, material use, etc) , a client, multiple outside contacts (architect, contractor, soils engineer, etc), and often multiple assigned internal team members (collaborators in Airtable parlance).
I want to create a solution that 1) records each project, its attributes and contacts, 2) tracks projects status, phases, schedules and milestones, 3) provides a weekly workload planning dashboard for each staff member (based upon to-do project tasks), 4) provides staff timesheets, and 5) tracks project budgets.
I am looking for a consultant to 1) advise as to the appropriateness of Airtable as a tool, and 2) if Airtable is appropriate, assist in building the base. I would also be interested if the consultant was familiar with creating apps from Google Sheets using Appsheet, as that may be an alternative solution.
We currently use specialized software called Deltek Vision for project entry, timesheets, invoicing and financials, but this software is way to clunky for our staff to use as a meaningful project management and workload/task tool. Project management is accomplished primarily ad hoc, with Google Sheets, Calendars, Slack and email, and now because of Covid, Microsoft Teams.
We may need some ongoing support, so would appreciate if the consultant was fairly well established. If you have experience building Airtable bases for engineering/architecture or construction, that would be awesome.
Look forward to hearing from an expert.
-Kris
