We have a lot of cases where we include a table/list of data from related records in an email body but this unfortunately is not possible so we have to keep these automations running from inside Airtable.
Some scenarios include:
Emailing a user a daily summary of their outstanding tasks (this would also require time-based workflow triggers)
Emailing billing to raise an invoice with a list of items from a sales order
Emailing IT about a change request with a list of the deliverables
It would be really great to see how you’re currently solving this problem @EthosLuke - you said you’re using Airtable automations?
How does Airtable aggregate multiple row values/line items?
Not ideal but my solution is to use a formula field in the data source (Airtable) to create the email.
Limited to plain text, but if you use the formula field you can still create pretty custom emails. The only dilemma I’ve found is that on PC, the links tend to not work if they get too long.
Airtable allows you to insert linked records as rows in a table (or grid in their terminology) and then allows you to select which fields from the related record(s) to use as the columns.
I’m away on AL now but will post back here when I’m back next week with some screenshot of how it works.
That’s a good idea, I did debate doing this but figured it would get quite ugly compared to the stylised table that AT provides so opted to keep the automations in AT for now.
So using the example of a user submitting an IMACD request to IT, in their request they add deliverables (items & quantities) as related records to their request. Once the request is created an email gets sent to IT with the request details.
In AT when setting up the email you can select the deliverables linked record field from the request
which will then insert the names as comma separated values into the email
Then we have the more cumbersome method of using the “Find Records” action in the automation (ideally you’d be able to produce the same result by just clicking the linked record and then choosing to insert as a table and select the fields/columns):
Taking the example of emailing billing with a list of items to order, I have an automation where once an opportunity reaches the “Raise Invoice” stage it’ll send an email to the billing team to generate an invoice.
By using the “Find records” action to get all of the opportunity’s related sales items I can then insert these later into the email as either a “grid” (table) or list in the email.
Once you’ve selected if it should be a grid or a list you’re then provided with a list of the fields you’d like to use:
And in the email this will look like…
Grid:
List:
Hope this helps, let me know if anything isn’t clear
Thanks @EthosLuke that’s really helpful!
