Sharing an Airtable base via shared link (as opposed to making one a collaborator) provides read-only access to the base – which means one cannot view field configuration. However, unless the creator has expressly blocked it, one can make a copy of the base to one’s own Airtable area and have full creator rights over the copy.
When I share a base, I usually document formulas and data types in the field description, which can be read by someone with read-only access. Sometimes, though, that’s just not possible – like right now, when fully documenting what I’ve done would burn another hour or two. (Heck: Figuring out what I did would probably take an hour all by itself.)
I’ve smacked together a variation on your base, trying to see how much I could minimize the need for data entry. In the process I managed to write some really ugly code that surprisingly works. I can think of a dozen problems with this base as it stands, but there are a couple of moderately clever things it does you might be able to incorporate into your work. Be warned: It could do with a thorough polishing.
As it now stands, the base contains three tables: Musicians, Groups, and Concerts.
In the Musicians table, you enter the person’s name, whether he or she is an instrumentalist or a vocalist, and a link to the Groups with which s/he performs. (The latter can be made from Musicians to Groups or vice-versa, depending on your workflow.)
In the Groups table, you enter the name of the Group and link to the Group’s members. (Or, again, vice-versa.)
Finally, in the Concerts table, you enter the name and date of the concert, the group performing, and the per-concert wages paid to instrumentalists and vocalists. (These are entered on a per-concert basis to allow for longer or more challenging concerts to be more highly paid than others.)
…and, as best I can recall, the base takes care of the rest, calculating how much each musician is paid for each concert. It also keeps track of wages paid at the individual, group, and concert level, and it tallies both per-concert and total payments to individuals and groups; it also tracks payments made each month. I’m still dissatisfied with how slight its support is at the individual level – you won’t be using this to generate individual pay stubs, for instance – and I’d love to learn of ways to do it better.
I don’t think there are too many glaring mistakes still left – but that may speak more to my lack of sleep than to my technical chops. Field naming is horribly inconsistent, and formulas are essentially undocumented – which could be a problem, considering how ferociously I took a hammer to Airtable’s screw…
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask, and I’ll do my best to try and figure out just what it was I thought I was doing!
https://airtable.com/shr3tN4o3FVLmbln2
