Help

Automation to update a field based on a barcode scanned.

194 1
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Pandrews
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

We utilize Airtable to keep record of barcoded assets located at 10 different locations. When we do a physical inventory we have to manually search the item by barcode number and use the checkbox field to check that it has been inventoried. 

 

I'm looking for a way to set an automation to simply scan a barcode the item being inventoried and using automation Airtable will find the record and update the checkbox field.

1 Reply 1
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

There are probably many different ways to accomplish this, but in my personal opinion, the easiest & quickest & most inexpensive way to handle all of this would be to use a combination of:

(1) Fillout's advanced forms for Airtable and (2) Make's automations & integrations.

Fillout is an advanced form app for Airtable which offers over 100 advanced form features for Airtable.

In your case, one of the best features of Fillout is that after a form is submitted, you can set it to AUTOMATICALLY & IMMEDIATELY REDIRECT to the EXACT SAME FORM with your cursor already blinking right in the field for barcode scanning.

What this means is that you can quickly scan multiple pieces of equipment in a row with no delays at all.

Check out the 1st screenshot below for how simple your form can be in Fillout. This is just a simple number field in Fillout.

Note that the most important thing is that you will need to configure your barcode scanner to send the "Return" key after scanning a barcode.

So, you would just go to Fillout on your desktop or mobile device, and SCAN SCAN SCAN! 😀

Then, in Make, you would setup an automation that automatically runs whenever a form is submitted in Fillout. Make would then search for the scanned barcode number in Airtable, and then mark it off as inventoried in Airtable.

Check out the 2nd screenshot below for how the automation could be setup in Make.

If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread.

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 2.47.03 PM.png

Screenshot 2024-04-02 at 4.43.19 PM.png