Car Maintenance database

[Jim_Bean]

New user with a few questions.

I’m trying to create a Car Maintenance Log database and ran into a small problem. I’m looking to manually input my mileage into a table and reference it from another table. I have tried several varations of formulas and can’t get what I’m looking for.

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

What Tables do you have? Seems like you need the latest record: Find last entry

[Jim_Bean]

Would only need to pull data from this cell that will be frequently updated.

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

You pretend to have a global variable, that does not exist in Airtable. To only way I know to reference that cell is as you are doing, and I’d prefer to just go to that table to check the value. But I think there is a more interesting way.

I have a similar base with this tables:

• Vehicles (car and motorcicle)
• Workshops
• Tasks (as your Car Log, I think), with maintenance and repairs

In your Car Log you can track the Mileage of every Task, but I think you need a Vehicles table (even if you only have one), to link every Task with the car. Then you could add a Last Mileage field to the Vehicles table, and get the latest Mileage. Of course, you will have a historical mileage data.

I’m thinking you could also have the Vehicle in a SingleSelect field in the Tasks table, and you could Order By date and check the newest.

[Jim_Bean]

Thanks! I will give this a go and see how it works. Would you have screenshots of your tracker? Just want to have an idea of what someone else is doing and compare notes. Thanks in advance!

[W_Vann_Hall]

Actually, your first instinct — using a linked record as a way to fake a global variable — is a good one. (By which I mean I’ve done it, too. :winking_face: ) However, you don’t want to use the mileage value as the primary field of the linked record, as that would require you to re-link every record in your main table whenever you update your current mileage. (Your ‘not a number’ — 'NaN' — issue is minor type mismatch that’s easy to fix.)

If you want to continue along this path, here’s the best way:

1. You appear to have the proper tables defined: your main table ([Car Log]) and a table to hold your current mileage ([Car Mileage]).

2. Your [Car Mileage] table should have three fields defined:

   1. The primary field, by default called {Name}.
   2. A number field called {Mileage}. Set it to your current mileage (86,500 for now).
   3. The complementary link-record field from [Car Mileage] back to [Car Log], created automatically. 'Link to multiple records' should be enabled.

3. There should be only a single record (row) in [Car Mileage]. What you call it is unimportant, as it will ordinarily remain hidden. Typically, I call it something simple like '.' (the period character).

4. Each record in [Car Log] must be linked to the single row in [Car Mileage] — much as you have now.

5. In [Car Log], instead of using the linked-record field itself, use a lookup field, configured to access the [Car Mileage] table and look up the {Mileage} field.

6. Your {How Long} formula should be

   {Service Due}-VALUE({Current Mileage}&'')

To reduce clutter, you can hide {LinkToMileage}.

Whenever you wish to update current mileage, change it in your [Car Mileage] table. (That is, don’t create a new record; instead, change the value in the row with {Name} of '.'.)

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

It’s a work in progress :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

I’ve changed the Vehicle field to a Linked Record field, and in the new table I have added a Rollup for the last mileage:

[Jim_Bean]

Thank you @Elias_Gomez_Sainz and @W_Vann_Hall.

Almost have this completed! Still have a few questions.

@W_Vann_Hall:
I followed your directions and want to make sure I did it right. I also wanted to see if I could simply auto populate the data versus having to select it manually.

I followed the directions and modified it a bit. Column 1 and 2 are self explanatory. Column 3 links to my “upcoming maintenance” table.

Column 3 links to “upcoming maintenance” table and appears as Cars. Then I followed the lookup suggestion which appears as “Current Mileage.” This is manually done and I was wondering if this could be auto populated?

The formula worked perfect and calculates how many miles until the service. I maintain 2 vehicles and have a few questions for @Elias_Gomez_Sainz regarding his setup.

[Jim_Bean]

@Elias_Gomez_Sainz

I’m debating the best way to build the database. I’m very intrested in the way you split your car/moto categories. I was debating keeping everything together and using “tags” to keep track of things. How would I split my car information like you have done for car/bike?

So far I have:
This would track the current mileage of my vehicles and act as a major source of data for upcoming maintenance. This might open a can of worms with pulling data to the upcoming maintenance mileage tracking.

From there my log would be maintained by date and a “tag” used to identify what car had the work done to.

Then I would track upcoming work needed for each vehicle and how many miles left to the service. Just need to figure out how to link the data and create a formula that identify which vehcile is being reported.