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Repeating tasks per occurrence

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Elaine_Chan
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi, I am really new to Airtable. I wanted some help in thinking about setting up a base. If I have different tasks that need to be done for any movement of employees within a company, how should I set the base up? For example we would have different tasks for when a person is hired into the company vs departing the company versus transferring between departments. So I can create a table with a column for Action (Hire, Departure and Transfer) so I can differentiate between the tasks needed for each. However would I then copy the tasks to new records every time someone is hired so I can track who is assigned to complete the tasks and when a task is complete with a completion column?

So if I hired Jane Doe and John Doe, would I copy the steps for an employee hire twice into the same table and then assign the tasks out to someone to do and also mark as complete?

So I guess if I want a repeatable task list for every occurrence, how would I do that in Airtable. Thanks!

2 Replies 2

There may be some ways to use an integration service like Zapier or Integromat to automate some of the new task creation, but I’m not familiar enough with either of those systems to know for sure. In lieu of that, copying and pasting is actually pretty quick.

In my test, I began with an [Employees] table (which I won’t detail), then a [Master Task List] table, which I set up to group by the {Task Category} field. The {Name} field is a formula that concatenates the category and description for easy reference elsewhere:

Screen Shot 2019-05-21 at 8.09.27 PM.png

I then made a [Tasks] table:

Screen Shot 2019-05-21 at 8.12.24 PM.png

When an employee needs a set of tasks done, go to the [Master Task List] table and copy the primary field values for the relevant group. Come back to [Tasks] and paste them into the {Task} field, which will link them to those records. Then choose the employee in the {Employee} field, and drag-fill it to match the number of task records. As with the other table, the primary field here is a formula that makes it easy to see important details about the task at a glance.

Does that look like it would work for your needs?

Elaine_Chan
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Yes, thank you! Thanks especially for the suggestion on the Name field being a concatenation. I always struggle with that first field.