Transcription
Hey everyone, it's Patrick with Unium.
Today, I'm going to make a quick video about when it might be time for you to switch over from Google Sheets to Airtable. I work with a lot of clients that use Google Sheets as a kind of tracking system, and whatnot. It's very common.
However, recently, I've been seeing a lot of opportunities where I really feel like switching over to a platform such as Airtable could really benefit small businesses by helping them scale their systems, organize their data, streamline their processes, and also automate as much as they can off that data.
So, I figured I'd make a quick video explaining some really key points that I think not a lot of people think about, or maybe they do. Either way, here we go.
I guess some of the main things that we need to take into consideration are the key definitions: front end versus back end. If you may be familiar with it, if not, the front end is like the user-facing interface where people interact with data and different elements of the data. The back end is where the actual data is stored, managed, and structured.
If you're not familiar with those terms, just bear with me. I think in a couple of minutes, it'll make more sense.
Now, some other concepts to keep in mind about the differences: what are the differences between Google Sheets and Airtable? Well, Google Sheets is obviously a spreadsheet, kind of like Excel, or just like Excel really. It's more of a grid-based tool that has a flat data structure and is used for managing simpler, smaller data sets, often for ad hoc tasks and ad hoc reporting.
Then you have a database, which is a more structured way to manage your data, where you have multiple tables, and those tables have specific relationships between them. Think of projects with multiple clients, or clients with multiple projects, or projects with multiple tasks, or projects with multiple vendors assigned.
That's kind of how a database works; it's more relational. Then you have something I don't know if this is the correct term, but I'd say it's more of a new term: a collaborative database. That's kind of where Airtable falls in. It's a mixture between a spreadsheet and a database.
There are a lot of great benefits to that. Honestly, I wasn't a fan when I first saw it, but then I worked with it a little bit, and now I use it for my CRM, my project management, and just about everything in terms of data organization and storage.
So, real quick, just to back up a little bit to show you an example of front end versus back end: I would say this is more of a front end for this basic CRM. This is some mock data that I'm using. It's very easy and user-friendly to see. You have a deal, and you can see the appointments, tasks, contacts, and companies associated with that deal.
Versus the back end, and this is Airtable. I can't remember if I said that. The back end has this data stored more similarly to something you might see with Google Sheets. This is just a table with all your deals, and then you have a table with all your contacts and a table with all your companies. It just makes it easier to aggregate up.
I know it's kind of hard to see right now, but I'll give you an example in just a minute. That's kind of how Airtable separates the front end versus the back end.
What I really like about it is that despite having it separated, it allows you to still update stuff from the front end. For example, I can say, "Okay, this is in progress." Well, now that's been won. I can still update it, and it'll update the back end. It flows two ways.
Why that's important is that it's crucial to have really good structured data on the back end to build automations off of. As a business automation developer, it's really hard to build strong, reliable automations off of bad data, inconsistent data, or data that just isn't housed well or isn't structured well.
That's why it's really important, and that's why I recommend it. A lot of times, having something in Google Sheets is holding people back from having a really good way to automate things. But it's kind of hard to see that until you get into the weeds of it.
Let's see, there was another example I was going to show you. So, this is kind of what it would look like. A spreadsheet is really just the front end and the back end combined. The front end is the back end. That may not be the best way to explain it, but on a simplistic level, it's the best way to explain it.
To give an example, let's take this simple screen right here. We have some aggregate fields: the number of deals, pending deals, in-progress deal amount, and the deal amount that's been won. Then we have a detail list right here.
Airtable does this really well because all the data is on the back end. There's no problem. If I update this, it updates the back end easily. But here, let's say if I were to try and do that on this screen.
Okay, so let's insert some rows, and then I would do deals and I would do pending and in progress. But see, the problem is, if I'm building an automation and I'm pulling from here, I need to reference these column headers to say when the closing date is within five days and send a notification.
Well, I now don't have that header way up here. I now have to do some logic to try and figure out where these aggregate fields end and where the data begins. That gets complicated and takes a lot more time, which ends up costing a lot more money to build an automation like that.
Still, it's a lot more susceptible to breaking. So then you think, "Okay, let's keep all the data easy right here. Let's leave it alone and create a separate tab to use as our front-end user interface."
We have a formula here referencing the other tab for our details, and then we have some aggregate fields right here. That works fine, but then what happens if you're working with multiple people? Sometimes people will get confused and won't know, "Am I supposed to put in a new deal on this tab, which is the back end, or am I supposed to put in a new deal on this tab?"
Let's say I put in a new deal on this tab, and I put in $1,000 and I put in progress. It sums it up, and everything looks good. But unless you're doing some sort of macro, which gets really complex, that's not going to show up here.
Of course, that'll get caught eventually, and you'll fix it, but that's just one example of something that could go wrong. So then you think, "Okay, let's protect this sheet."
Sorry, I know I'm kind of going through an example, but you're going to see all these different scenarios you have to take into account with something like Google Sheets versus Airtable, which is a lot better.
So, you have to strictly control who can edit this. Now, no one else can edit this, but then what will happen is they come in here, and they think, "Okay, I guess I can edit it." But they think, "I want to see how much we've lost."
You have this locked off, so they can't do anything in here. They go to the deals tab, and let's say they put something in right here. They do, "Okay, I'm going to do something lost."
Then they get what they want, and let's say they forget to delete this. Well, now the next time I have automation running, it's going to pull in three blank rows. That may not affect anything, but it's also going to pull in a new column without a name.
Now, that might not affect anything, but again, it's best to have well-structured, clean data regardless. Let's say I had an automation that looks at the last column to include that data in an email.
Well, the last column is notes. That's great, but let's say for some reason you do this, then it's going to pull in a bunch of blank notifications. You won't get the notes in there.
Now, I wouldn't do an automation like that, but there are all sorts of things. This is just a really small example. Let's say the automation forgets to take into account blank rows because there really shouldn't be any blank rows.
Then it'll send out blank notifications, or maybe it'll error out, and the automation will stop. You'll have to pay someone to go fix it. It's just a little bit more work, and there's really no way around that.
You have to have one of these editable and the others not. The only other thing you could do is protect this sheet too and then maybe create another tab with a form. That's how you add or edit new records.
So, it gets really interesting. I know there were some other issues that you'd run into. Let me see if I can think of any.
Yeah, another thing is if you didn't have this hidden, you can't from this tab easily change this to one. It would break the formula and all sorts of stuff. Airtable really just cleans all that up.
You have this interface, and whatever you do to edit here looks perfectly fine in the back end. If you want to add a new deal, you can add a new deal from here, in progress, that sort of thing.
So, yeah, I really think, and that's just one example. I'm trying to think of some more. I typed up some notes, and I ran out of time, so I'm just kind of going over what I can.
Let's see. Another thing with Airtable is that it has the data structure, which is great. It takes into account scenarios like I just showed, but also it's better at managing relationship fields and preventing having to reuse data.
If you're reusing the same contacts on multiple deals, this is kind of similar to a VLOOKUP. You just do linked record and you do deals. Now, this is already on there. Let me do deals too.
You can do this from the interface side too, but you can link to specific ones, which just makes it so much easier. Everything you can do in Airtable, you can do in Google Sheets. It's just a lot more time-consuming and a lot more vulnerable to being broken as you scale your operations.
As things become more complex, the more complex they become, then I think you'd want to be looking at Airtable instead of Google Sheets.
Another good thing, and this is just extra, is you can aggregate up data. You'll see here I have a separate tab for contacts, for companies, for deals, for tasks, appointments, all of that good stuff.
They all are linked together with these linked record tabs. Airtable just makes it really easy to aggregate that up. I have this list of deals, and I want to see this one. I can see all my appointments, tasks, contacts, and companies all in one view.
You can also do a list view, or you can do a Kanban view, and just all sorts of great stuff. There are some other cool features in here too. Even if you want to aggregate on companies versus deals, you can see all the deals for that particular company.
It's just a really good way to aggregate and view your items. Again, the Kanban board is great. I really like the calendar feature; I think that's really helpful for scheduling.
Linking records and having the user interface is great. Let me see what else there was I was going to go over. It's a lot harder to break formulas in Airtable than in Google Sheets.
I think that's about it. There's a lot more that it's hard to go over without getting into the details.
The last thing I'll mention is that the only pushback I ever really see with this is the pricing. To me, the pricing is well worth it. Right now, I work with myself and an assistant, so $20 per seat per month isn't that bad.
Even if you do monthly, I think it doesn't go up. Oh yeah, $24 a month. Not bad at all. Now, if you're working with a team of five or ten people, I know it's a larger decision.
If that's the case, there are other options where you can just buy one seat here, and your front-end user interface can use a tool like Softer to build the front-end user interface. You can have unlimited users with Softer.
That is, again, a good way to divvy up your front end and back end while maintaining that cost.
But yeah, definitely, I'd say if you're looking to scale your business, and if you're taking on more projects, and if your processes are becoming more complex and intricate, and you're wanting to build more automations, I think having well-structured data is key to doing all of those things.
In order to have well-structured data, I think it's very important to use a tool like Airtable to help separate your front end and your back end, but still have them connected in a way that is efficient and effective.
So, yeah, if you have any questions, just leave a comment or feel free to reach out. Take care!