Old thread but I wanted add to it since Im looking for better options as well.
The link to info on the link to record field is the route to go and I do like how this works for connecting employees/ personnel to companies and you can even connect people that work under other people an that is great. you dont need separate tables for different companies just a field where you categorize them the way you want and airtable offers a lot of ways to view, filter or synch them and that is all really great.
what happens next and getting that into other tables is what I have come to hate in Airtable because it should really be super easy.
Essentially Airtbale's user field should be a contact field. the user field is great internally but on team and above plans especially they should've a contact book .
Yes you can synch the table into another base but this is a process I think is so obnoxious to claim "database" function you stil have to go back to the main table to add people.
If your list is fairly small and has minor changes that a form can handle then it feel nice. but if you need to constantly be adding to that list from a base you ar working in and trying to bring people from your datasbe into it is a mess. It's just a a lot of BASE jumping and it becomes annoying quickly if you are trying to work fast. interface buttons and forms provide some workflow options but then if you work in the actual data tables you just start to feel stuck and its just not intuitive enough to not require heavier onboarding than "this is how you add people" should take.
2 way synch should be teh default function of synch. you cant add new records through it and having an d"open record" button to makes edits to one that isn't 2 way synch isnt that big of a deal, if anything now you are back in that base and can add new people to the list easier.
We are film production company and so far that alone has made it a non starter. if adding and moving around crew coming from both the database and new hires on a project is overly complicated and clumsy it's just not the right tool.
