Guide · Tables and records
Tables and records
Keep what you want apart from the case in tables, like orders, appointments or vehicles. Create a table, pick its fields, fill it from your Intake Bots or a file, and download it when you need it.
A table holds records of one kind: a carpentry shop's orders, a clinic's appointments or a mechanic's vehicles. Each row is a record. Your tables live inside the FlowApp, under “Records”.
1. Create the table
Open your FlowApp, go to “Records” and tap “Create table”. “New table” asks you a few questions:
- “Name (one record)” is what you call one, like Appointment. “Name for the list” is the plural, Appointments.
- “What identifies each record?” is the field that names each row, like Plate at a workshop or Course name at a school.
- For “Does each record belong to a person?”, pick “Yes, to a contact” when each record is someone's, like a patient's appointments. The record then shows on that contact's profile, and “Their role (optional)” says who the person is, like Owner. If it belongs to nobody, pick “No”.
- “Does it live inside another table?” shows up once you have a table. With “Yes, inside” you pick the parent table: say, the parts of each vehicle. Every vehicle then shows its parts as a table on its page. With “No, it's its own table” the table stands alone.
A summary at the bottom tells you what you're about to create. Tap “Create”.
How many tables you can have depends on your plan: see Pricing. To see all your tables and how they relate, tap “How tables connect”.
2. Add the fields
Next to the table's name, the gear icon opens “Table settings”. Under “Fields”, tap “Add field”, write the “Label”, pick the “Type” and tap “Create field”.
These are the field types:
- “Text” and “Long text”, for words and paragraphs.
- “Email”, “Phone” and “URL”.
- “Number” and “Date”.
- “Checkbox”, for a yes or a no.
- “Dropdown” to pick one option and “Multi select” to pick several.
- “File” and “Location”, which come in from an Intake Bot.
There are no formula fields. If you need a calculated amount, work it out in the Intake Bot with an estimate.
3. Fill it from an Intake Bot
Open the Intake Bot, go to “Settings” and then “Records”. Under “Destinations”, turn on “Save submissions as records” and decide what gets saved:
- “Copy every answer” saves each of the bot's answers to a table.
- “Suggest with AI” proposes which tables to fill and with which answers. It uses credits.
Each destination tells you how it saves. With a key, like a vehicle's plate, a new submission updates the record that already exists instead of creating another one. If it has none, pick one in “Choose the key” and tap “Confirm”. The preview shows what your latest submissions would create. When it looks right, tap “Apply”.
Destinations only change the next submissions. Under each table's name you see which bots fill it, and tapping that opens their destinations.
Add and edit records by hand
Tap “Add” to create a record by hand. In the table, tap a cell to change it right there. If the table is empty, you can also tap “Choose an Intake Bot” to have a bot fill it.
Views: table or board
Above the records, “All” shows everything. To save a way of looking at them, tap “Add view”, give it a name and under “How should it look?” pick:
- “Table”: rows and columns.
- “Board”: cards in columns. Under “Group by” you pick a “Dropdown” field, like an order's status. Drag a card to another column to change that value.
Each view keeps its filters (“Filter”), its order (“Sort”) and the fields it shows (“Fields”). Your whole team sees the same views.
The record's page
Tap a record's name to open its page. “Edit” changes its values and “Export as PDF” downloads it. The menu holds “Duplicate” and “Delete”.
“History” shows where it came from: “Created by a submission” or “Updated by a submission”, with “View submission” to read the answers. If the record has tables inside it, each one shows on its page, and “Cases” lists the cases linked to it.
Offer a table as options in a bot
An Intake Bot can search a table so the person picks from it, like a clinic's locations or a vehicle's model. In the bot, open a question with options. Under “Option source” pick “Look up from records”, then the “Table” and the “Display field”, which is what the person sees on each option. The person types and picks from your records.
With “Row filter” you offer only some rows, or build a cascade: first the province, then the city.
Import and download
To bring records in from a file, open the table and tap “Import”. Upload a CSV, Excel (.xlsx) or TSV file, match each column to a field (“Auto-map” has a go for you) or create a new field with “+ Create field”. Check the preview, which flags the rows with errors, and confirm.
To get them out, tap “Download”. Pick Excel, CSV or JSON and the columns you want, and download the file.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a table the same as a Process Board?
- No. Cases live on the Process Board and move through phases. A table keeps what you want on hand separately, like an order or a vehicle. A case can create or update records, and each record's page shows its cases.
- Can I calculate amounts with a formula?
- Tables have no formula fields. Work out the amount in the Intake Bot with an estimate and turn on “Save to Record” on that step. The result lands in the table as one more column.
- How many tables can I have?
- It depends on your plan. The pricing page has the numbers.
- If I change a bot's destinations, do my existing records change?
- No. Destinations only change the next submissions. What was already saved stays as it was.