Auto-match data across tables?

[Ramsey_Stonebur]

I have a form for a Contacts table that collects specific data. I have another table for Leads that I need to pull this data into. I already have it linked and that works fine. The problem lies when the form is submitted. I would like a way to auto-match this data. For example, the Contacts Table contains an “email address” field. The Leads table is set up to pull the Contact info from the new record into different sort options. As it stands right now, I have to go in and manually link the contact info. I thought that by adding an email address field into the Leads table I could somehow auto-match it. Any ideas? Thank you.

[Justin_Barrett]

Airtable doesn’t do any sort of auto-matching between tables, even when there’s a field linking the two together. You could probably pull it off with either Zapier or Integromat, though. You would set your zap/scenario to trigger when a new record is created by your form, then use what’s in that record to create the link you need to the [Leads] table. If you haven’t used either Zapier or Integromat before, let us know and we can walk you through it.

[Ramsey_Stonebur]

Thanks Justin.

Yeah I figured as much. I do have Zapier and have used it somewhat to do some basic automated stuff. I tried making this work but couldn’t get the right trigger combo to get it to work. I would appreciate some step by step help! Thanks,

Ramsey

[Justin_Barrett]

Sorry for the delayed reply. Things are quite busy on this end, and I won’t be able to get to this for a while. If someone else can jump in and assist, that would be much appreciated.

[Ramsey_Stonebur]

Bumping this because now that Airtable has built-in automation, I am wondering if I can accomplish this without the need of an outside app. I just about have it figured out, except I am stuck on the action step - it’s triggered when my “contact info” field is empty (because the form submission doesn’t have that), but does include the email address. I want to search the Contacts Table for a matching email address, and then update the Leads table with the link to the field. Any ideas?

[Justin_Barrett · Accepted solution]

@Ramsey_Stoneburner This is definitely doable. In fact, I tested it the other day while writing another response:

Automate Link to another record Automations

Automations can create links. All you need is the record ID of the target record for that to work. You didn’t describe your use case in much detail, but you might try creating an automation that triggers when a new record is created (or when a form is submitted, whichever makes the most sense). Add a “Find records” action to look for a matching record in the other table based on your desired criteria (e.g. email), then add a conditional branch that only runs when you have at least one result fr…

[Ramsey_Stonebur]

@Justin_Barrett

Automate Link to another record

In that conditional branch, update the original record to link to the record found from “Find records”. I just tested this process and it works well.

I think this is the step I am stuck at. I have the first step, find record, and the conditional logic to pull the matching record. But then updating the original record keeps throwing errors as I’m not sure which field to use.

Example, I don’t know if I should link using List or Grid and really what options to select here.

[Justin_Barrett]

When looking at the list of options from the “Find records” action, scroll past List and Grid. Under “Make a new list of” you’ll see “Airtable record ID.” Insert that into the linked record field and it will link to the found record(s).

[Ramsey_Stonebur]

That did it! Took a minute, I had to set “Record ID” to the “Airtable record ID” first, but then followed your instructions for the linking process. Thank you so much this is pretty amazing!!