QuickBase’s 5 Best Kept Secrets

Eric Segal – President of Data Collaborative

Steve Wishengrad – Principal of Data Collaborative

#EMPOWER2015

Eric Segal

Eric started providing QuickBase solutions in 1998, when each application could only have one table. Since then, he has

provided hundreds of QuickBase solutions to organizations around the world. He was the first person to link QuickBase

and QuickBooks and published the first QuickBase newsletter. In 2006 He and Steve founded the Data Collaborative,

where they provide ongoing QuickBase support to over 90 clients every month.

Steve Wishengrad

Steve Wishengrad works easily with technical and non-technical customers alike to solve their data management

challenges. His computer savvy and liberal arts background allow him to quickly learn a company's business needs and

develop clean, technical solutions that improve operations. Steve has been working as a consultant, volunteer, board

member and database developer for nonprofit and for-profit organizations since 1984. His specialties include:

QuickBooks to QuickBase integration, web portal design, and managing large complex projects.

Bios

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① We’ve done more QuickBase development, with more

customers, integrating with more applications, than

anyone in the world.

② We believe in keeping it simple.

③ Please visit us at our kiosk.

The Data Collaborative

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What are the tricks?

QuickBase Magicians

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1. Tricky, self-maintaining relationships

2. Customizing summary fields for each user

3. Merging data from QuickBase into business documents

4. Tricky reports – non related and non tabular

5. Easy ways to get your data perfect

Agenda

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QuickBase allows you to define relationships between two tables.

One table is the parent or master table,

the other is the child or detail table.

Have you ever wanted to report on child data from the parent?

With this trick, now you can!

Trick 1 – Tricky relationships

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The Child becomes the parent in two examples:

In both cases, data from

the child is shown on the

parent form.

Tricky relationships

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First, create

a summary field

in the standard

Customer -> Contact

relationship:

Setting up the trick:

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Make the child table,

in this case “Contacts”

the parent in the new

relationship.

Creating the relationship:

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Now carefully select the summary field as the reference.

This is the

critical

step!

Creating the relationship:

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This relationship will maintain itself because of the summary

field. (You may need to clear the proxy field)

Creating the relationship:

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Now you can keep your contacts and invoices in a separate

table and include them in a Customer report.

Benefitting from the relationship:

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Q: How do you create

a summary field that

allows each user to filter

the by their own date range?

A: Use a “My Settings” style summary field.

Customizing summary fields for each user

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The Setup - “My Settings”:

Create a table to hold

“settings” for each user.

When you add new users

to the application add a row for that user in the settings table.

Customizing summary fields for each user

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Change the key field

in the table to be the

QuickBase “User”

type field.

The Setup (continued)

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In every table that needs user

specific reporting, add a

Formula - User field with the

formula function of “User()”

The Setup (continued)

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Create a relationship with the settings table as the parent that

uses the formula field as the reference field.

Bring the settings

fields into the

table as

lookup fields.

The Setup (continued)

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Provide values for the fields in your settings table – change

them when you need to change the values of your summary

fields. These values

will only affect your

reports!

The Punch line

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Create a summary field that uses the settings.

As you change

the values in

your summary

record this field

will change.

The Punch line (continued)

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The “Total Invoice in My Period” summary field is filtered

on the values

in your settings

record.

The Punch line (finale)

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In QuickBase, if you want to

create a report, you can use

one of the built-in report

formats, but what if you want

to create a stylish invoice?

Merging data from QuickBase into business forms

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10 easy steps:

1. Download the QuickBase “Exact Forms” template

http://www.quickbase.com/user-assistance/Default.html#creating_exact_forms.html

2. Design your word document (hint save your document in a

regular word document)

3. Paste your word document into the “Exact Forms” template

Merging data from QuickBase into business forms

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Click on the ADD-INS tab and choose “Save to QuickBase”

Step 4 - Save your template to QuickBase

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Sign in to QuickBase and

select the table in your app.

Steps 5 & 6 - Save your template to QuickBase

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Give your exact form a name

And press Save.

Congratulations! Your form

is in QuickBase!

Step 7 - Save your template to QuickBase

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Add the field to the form

Step 8 - Save your template to QuickBase

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Run the report

and enjoy

the output!

Steps 9 & 10 - Save your template to QuickBase

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Your users are spending

lots of time in forms – give

them data they need

right on the form.

Trick 4 – Tricky reports

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Create a report link

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Set up the report link

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Set the target

2

1

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Abracadabra…

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Increased wow factor…

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Wow!

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① My performance vs others

② Sales from reps in different channels

③ Embed other people’s calendars on your form

④ Embed project timelines on a project form for resource

planning

You can compare anything with anything else

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Spreadsheet data is flat – that’s bad because in real life

• One company can have many employees

• Each contact can have many activities

Turning spreadsheet data into QuickBase

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Extracting companies

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The Trick

Right

Click

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QuickBase does the work

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Name the new table

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That’s it!

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Pulling Activities from Contacts

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Set up an Activities table

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Connect it to Contacts

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Now the magic…

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Make sure you include the Record ID

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Import into Activities

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And we are done!

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1. Self-maintaining relationships

2. Customizing summary fields for each user

3. Merging data from QuickBase into business documents

4. Tricky reports – non related and non tabular

5. Easy ways to get your data perfect

The Five Best Kept Secrets:

#EMPOWER2015

Please Contact Us at: www.datacollaborative.com

Eric Segal, eric@datacollaborative.com

781-777-1119 x321

Steve Wishengrad, steve@datacollaborative.com

781-777-1119 x322

Questions?