The BEST Way to Use Airtable for Project Management

If you’re looking for an efficient way to manage your projects, you should definitely check out Airtable. Airtable is a cloud-based platform that makes project management easy and fun. With Airtable, you can create custom tables with specific fields to track all of the information related to your project. You can also easily collaborate with team members and share your table with others. Best of all, Airtable is free for small teams!

In this blog post, we’ll cover key features and benefits of Airtable for project management. We also provide tips on getting the most out of this powerful tool. 

Introducing Airtable as a project management tool

Managing a project can be challenging. You need to stay on top of deadlines, ensure that everyone is on the same page, and track progress along the way. 

Spreadsheet apps like Excel and Google Sheet can help organize your project data, track progress, and spot potential problems. However, you may want more features and functionality than your spreadsheet offers. For example, you may wish to view your project in Kanban boards, upload attachments to your records, and want more robust collaboration features. 

Airtable can be a great choice in this case. It’s a cloud-based platform that combines the best features of spreadsheets and databases. With Airtable, you can enter data as quickly as in a spreadsheet but store and manage data as you would in a database.

The platform also offers a variety of features that make it easy for team members to work on a project together. Sharing data and collaborating with others is also easy. In addition, Airtable as a project management tool offers a variety of templates and integrations that you can use to further customize your experience.

Key features of Airtable for project management

Airtable is a powerful project management tool that offers a set of features to help you manage projects effectively. Here are some of its key features:

Airtable project management template

Whether you’re looking to put together a project plan, track your progress, or manage team communications, Airtable has a template that can help you get started quickly and efficiently. Besides, all of these templates are fully customizable. You can tailor them to fit your specific needs.

There are a variety of templates to choose from, each designed for a specific type of project. Airtable includes a description of what each template can be used for, and tips on how to get started using the template. This can be very helpful in figuring out which template you should use for your specific project.

As of this writing, there are 20+ templates available in the Project Management category. Airtable regularly updates existing templates and adds new ones based on user feedback. So, it may be a good idea to check back with the template gallery and see what’s new.

Different Views 

Views are different ways of looking at the data in a table. You can create different views for each table in your base. Each of these views has its own settings for hiding, sorting, and filtering records, so you can customize how your data is presented. 

Views in Airtable:

• Grid views provide a traditional table-based approach.
• Calendar views allow you to look at your records on a calendar.
• Kanban views are perfect for tracking your project progress.
• Gantt views allow you to visualize a schedule of certain activities over time.
• Gallery views represent your records as cards and highlight attachments such as images and documents.
• Timeline views allow you to visualize records on a customizable horizontal scrolling timeline.
• Form views let you collect information from anyone and save it automatically to an Airtable base.

Tip: Use Airtable Form views to create polls, quizzes, and even to get customer information. The forms can be embedded on your website, or you can share them using a link.

Storage

Airtable allows you to store attachments in various formats, including images, videos, PDFs, Excel files, and other document formats. The storage capacities range from 2 GB to 1,000 GB, depending on your plan. 

To see how much Attachment space you have used, visit your Account setting page and click your workspace name. Scroll down until you find the Usage section.

Task management

Airtable’s task management feature helps you keep track of all your to-dos in one place. You can create tasks, assign them to specific team members, and set deadlines and priorities. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and that tasks are completed on time.

In addition, you can use the comment function to leave notes for team members and the attachment function to add files or images. With Airtable’s task management feature, you can easily keep track of all the details of your projects.

Collaborative workspace

An Airtable workspace is a collection of bases shared among a group of people working together. To collaborate with someone, you can invite them to your workspace and give them access to all of the bases or a specific base. 

You can then set their permissions appropriately. You may want to set some collaborators to have read-only access while others can comment and edit records. This flexibility ensures that everyone has the access they need to work effectively while still keeping the workspace organized and neatly arranged.

Integration

Airtable offers a variety of integrations to help you automate your workflow. You can connect Airtable with your favorite apps and services, and information will be seamlessly transferred back and forth between Airtable and the other app. 

Integration in Airtable:

• Airtable has built-in support for many popular apps, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Twitter, Gmail, Google Sheets, and Twilio. Salesforce and Jira Server/ Data Center integrations are available for Enterprise plan users.
• Airtable’s REST API allows developers to access data stored in Airtable databases and integrate Airtable into their own applications.
• Many third-party integration tools make it easy to connect Airtable with over 1,000 different websites and apps. Some popular options are Zapier, Workato, Integromat, Tray.io, and Coupler.io. For example, with Coupler.io, you can automatically export Airtable to Excel, Airtable to BigQuery, or Google Sheets on the schedule you want, without any coding required. 

Tip: Use Coupler.io to pull data from Airtable and other different sources (such as Jira, Mailchimp, and Xero) into a single spreadsheet or save it to BigQuery. You can then use it to create reports and dashboards that show the current state of your data. You can also connect powerful reporting tools like Google Data Studio, Tableau, and Power BI to get a better understanding of your data.

What are the key benefits of using Airtable for project management?

Here are some of the key benefits that make Airtable so appealing as a project management tool:

Easy to use

If you’re familiar with spreadsheet apps like Excel and Google Sheets, then you’ll love Airtable. Airtable is a combination of a spreadsheet and a database. With it, you can manage large amounts of data using a spreadsheet-like user interface which is super easy to use. 

You can store data in tables and fields like a spreadsheet. But unlike spreadsheets, Airtable lets you easily add, delete, and move data around without having to worry about formulas or cell references. You can also create relationships between tables easily, which can be extremely helpful when managing complex information.

Customizable

One of the most appealing things about Airtable as a project management tool is that it offers a wide range of features that can be customized to suit your specific needs:

• You can create different views and customize them, allowing you to quickly see the data that is most relevant to you.
• You can customize a field’s data type in a variety of formats. For example, you can choose from text, number, currency, or date. There are also unusual options such as duration, rating, barcode, and even button. 
• Airtable integrates with a variety of other tools so you can easily move data between Airtable and other apps. 
• Airtable’s Automations lets you create custom workflows using triggers and actions. This will save you time by automating repeated tasks, increasing communication between people, and reducing the chances of mistakes being made.
• Airtable’s Extensions let you add mini-apps onto your base to increase its functionality.

The bottom line is that Airtable gives you the ability to build a project management system that is exactly right for you and your team. This flexibility makes Airtable an excellent choice for managing any type of project.

Easy to share your project data

One of the key benefits of using Airtable for project management is that it’s easy to share your project data. This is important for several reasons:

• It allows team members to access information from anywhere, at any time.
• It makes tracking progress easy and identifies areas where further work is needed.
• It ensures that everyone is working with the same data set, which can help to avoid confusion and duplication of effort. 

In addition, you can use third-party integration tools like Coupler.io to export Airtable to Google Sheets. By doing this, you can, for example, build custom dashboards to share insights with your teams or even just for a backup purpose.

Many collaboration features

Airtable as a project management tool is packed with features that make collaboration easy. Based on their permissions, collaborators may be able to, for example:

• Add comments to any record, which is perfect for team discussion.
• Use @mention in comments to get specific team members’ attention.
• Assign tasks to specific users and also create custom views to help different team members see the information that’s most relevant to them.
• If working on a team that uses Slack, they can set up Airtable-Slack integration. This way, their team will be able to receive updates in a specified Slack channel whenever changes are made to an Airtable base.
• And so on.

Overall, these collaboration features make Airtable an extremely powerful tool for managing projects big and small.

How to use Airtable for project management

Airtable is one of the most popular project management software packages, and in this section, we provide a guide on how to use it. 

How to get started

Before creating your database (base) in Airtable, it’s a good idea to take some time to visualize the structure of your data. That way, you’ll know what information you need to include and how you want it organized. You can simply sketch out the tables with all of the fields you want to include.

Then, go to Airtable.com and sign up for a new account (by default, you’ll get a 14-day trial Pro plan). Some popups will appear, allowing you to set up a new base and invite team members. You can skip the steps and just go to your workspace. 

To add a base, just click the Add a base or Start from scratch button to start a base with an empty table. You also have options to start from a template or by uploading a CSV file.

Tip: If you already have data in another app, like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you can just upload them to create tables in Airtable. This way is faster and more efficient. All you have to do is export your data as a CSV file and then import it into Airtable. You can also import files from various online sources, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

How to create and customize views

To add a new view in Airtable, select a table and click Views to open the left sidebar. Then, click the + icon next to the view type you want to create. You can choose from Grid, Gantt, Kanban, or other types of views.

Once you’ve selected a view type, you’ll be able to give your view a name and customize its settings. For example, in the Kanban view, you can create swimlanes to organize your tasks, while in the grid view, you can choose which fields to hide:

How to sort, group, and filter your project data

Airtable views provide an easy way to quickly analyze your project data. You can sort, group, and filter your data to get the insights you need. To do these, click the Sort, Group, and Filter buttons at the view bar:

Here’s an example view that is grouped, filtered, and sorted:

Sorting allows you to rearrange your data in an ascending or descending order. For example, you could sort your projects by the due date to see which ones are due first.

Grouping allows you to combine similar items into categories. For example, you could group projects by the project lead. This will enable you to see all the projects associated with each lead.

Filtering allows you to hide certain items from your view. For example, you could filter projects by their budget to focus on the ones with a high budget first.

Using these tools, you can get the information you need to manage your projects effectively. And don’t be afraid to experiment with them.

How to add team members to collaborate

One way to add collaborators to your base is by clicking on the Share button on the top right side of the page. 

On the share dialog that appears, make sure you are on the Email invite tab. Type in the email address of the person or people you wish to invite to collaborate on your base. You can choose what level of permission they have.

Optionally, you can give them access to all the bases in your workspace. To do this, check the “Invite to all other bases in [workspace name] workspace” checkbox.

How to share your project data with external users

Suppose you want to share your data with people who don’t have an Airtable account. In that case, you can create a read-only share link that allows anyone with the link to view a single view or an entire base.

• To share a view, click the Share view button in the view bar. This will bring up an option to create a shareable link.

• To share a base, click the Share button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Then, on the base share dialog that appears, make sure you are on the Share publicly tab. This will show a toggle option to either enable or disable a public shared base link.

Airtable pricing: How much does Airtable cost?

Airtable offers a free tier for small teams and different paid plans for bigger teams. Here’s an overview of the various plans: 

• Free: Always free to use, rather than being a free trial period.
  • The Free plan is a great option for individuals or very small teams.
  • The maximum number of users is 5.
  • It provides all of the most common views for users: grid, calendar, form, kanban, and gallery views.
  • You can create up to 1,200 records per base. 
  • You can set up an unlimited number of bases with up to 2 GB of attachment space per base.
  • You can add 1 extension per base.
• Plus: $12 per month per user (or $10 per month per user if paid annually).
  • Unlimited number of users.
  • You can create up to 5,000 records per base. 
  • Each base has 5 GB of attachment space. 
  • You can add up to 3 extensions per base.
• Pro: $24 per month per user (or $20 per month per user if paid annually).
  • Unlimited number of users.
  • The Pro plan includes Gantt and Timeline views.
  • You can create 50,000 records per base. 
  • Each base has 20 GB of attachment space. 
  • You can add up to 10 extensions per base.
• Enterprise: You need to contact the Airtable sales team to get a price quote.
  • The Enterprise plan works best for large organizations. It offers more advanced customization, enhanced security features, and priority customer support. 
  • You can create 100,000 records per base.
  • Each base has 1 TB of attachment space.
  • Unlimited extensions per base.

Is Airtable the best free project management tool?

As explained previously, Airtable offers a free plan that includes unlimited bases, up to 5 users, 1200 records per base, and 2GB of storage per base. This free plan also allows you to use one extension per base. Its variety of features, including project templates, Kanban boards, and collaborative workspace, make it a very good option for those looking for a free project management tool.

Is Airtable the best free project management tool? 

Well, if you are an individual user or small business looking to get started with project management without spending money, Airtable is definitely worth checking out! This tool is a great option for those who typically manage projects with spreadsheets such as Excel or Google Sheets. But overall, its easy-to-use interface helps anyone jump into projects smoothly. 

However, Airtable may not be the best option for everyone. It’s important to ensure that it’s the right tool for your needs before using it. Make sure to do your research and compare Airtable to other similar tools such as Trello, Asana, and monday.com.

Airtable for project management — wrapping up

Airtable is an excellent and flexible project management tool with many collaboration features. You can use it to track any project from start to finish, as well as keep all your data in one place. With Airtable, you can create and customize views, sort, and group your data, and also collaborate and share your data with others.

Hopefully, this guide has helped you get started using Airtable for project management! 

If you’re looking for an automated way to export your Airtable data, be sure to check Coupler.io. By the way, this tool also offers a free forever plan like Airtable.

Thanks for reading!