Any complex bases you'd like to show off?

Welcome to the Airtable community!

It’s always nice when Airtable employees give us a peak into what’s happening behind the scenes.

Do you want people to simply share their bases with you, or will you be conducting interviews where the creators can explain why they are proud of their bases?

I have several bases that I’ve enjoyed crafting that use a few combinations of features that I’m proud of. The finished bases belong to clients and are not mine to share, but I have sample bases that show off the different individual components that I mix and match when creating a base.

I find that the most important parts of what makes a good base are

1. clean relational database design that reflects the actual data
2. views that support the desired workflows
3. user training
4. integrations / code / automations

I find that part of the beauty of Airtable is its ability to have a base evolve. With a careful hand, a good database can become great as additional uses emerge. Unfortunately, it is also very easy for a good database to become unwieldly when people try to add features without fully understanding relational database design or Airtable’s features.

Hi! Thank you for the welcome.

I hadn’t thought about conducting interviews, simply because I didn’t want to take up too much time. That being said, if people are willing, I’d love to grab 1/2 hour with them to walk me through their base. Would you be willing to both share your base and set up time with me?

I love what you said about the aspects of a good base, and your warning about the pitfalls of database design (an expertise I sorely lack).

Just published this base to Universe. It showcases Airtable’s sync feature to provide a calendar of recurring events in all the bases you need it in. Calendar Server

For my Kombucha brewery, I’ve built a base in which we track clients, orders and also create invoices straight out of the base. I’m very proud of it and happy to showcase how I built the base and found creative ways of doing things (how to include multiple line items in one order, how to show € numbers correctly, how to do some basic analysis of how we’re doing as a business, etc.).

Best,
Rupert