Tables

A table is a list your team keeps in one place, like bookings, products, deals or orders. Each row is a record and each column is a field. Views show the same records in different ways: a grid, a board, a calendar and more. Your assistants, your agents and Ask Invent, your organization chat, can read and update your tables too.

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Create a table

You can also tell Ask Invent what you track, like “create a table for our bookings, with a board by status”, and it builds the table, its fields and its views.

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Fields

Pick a type for each field: The type list also has fields that fill in by themselves and can’t be edited:

• ID: numbers your records in the order they were added. Give it a prefix, like LEAD, and records read LEAD-1, LEAD-2 and so on. A table has one ID field.
• Creation date, Updated date, Created by and Updated by: when a record was added or last changed, and by whom.

Click a field’s name to rename it, change its type, sort by it, hide it or delete it. Mark as display field picks the field that names each record. To make a field required, open Edit property and turn off Optional. A table holds up to 100 fields.

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Views

A view is a saved way to look at a table. Click + next to the view tabs to add one: Each view keeps its own Filter, sorting and visible fields, and your whole team sees the same views. To rename a view, change its settings, copy its link or delete it, right-click its tab or click the options button at the right of the tabs. A table can have up to 50 views and always keeps at least one.

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Records

• Add: click New in a Table, List, Board, Gallery or Timeline view. On a Calendar, click + on a day.
• Edit: click a cell and type. You can copy and paste cells, also from a spreadsheet.
• Open: hover a row and click Open, or click a card. The record opens next to the view with all its fields and comments. Open in full page gives it its own page.
• Comment: write under Comments in an open record, with files if you need them. Type @ to mention a teammate, and it lands in their Mentions. Mention Invent or one of your agents and it answers in the same thread.
• Link: a Record field links each record to records in another table, like orders to products. Turn on Allow multiple records to link more than one. When a linked record is deleted sets what happens to the link: Prevent the deletion, Clear the link or Delete this row too.
• Remove: Move to Trash is in every record’s menu, or select several rows to move them at once. To bring one back, click Trash at the right of the view tabs and restore it. Delete forever and Empty trash delete records for good.

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Import and export

Both are in the table’s options, at the top right. To import:

1. Click Import and pick a .csv, .xlsx, .xls, .numbers or .ods file, up to 5,000 rows and 10 MB. Download a sample file gives you an empty one with your table’s columns.
2. Pick the field each column goes to. Columns named like a field are matched for you, and Do not import skips a column.
3. Click Import and confirm. Every row becomes a new record, and records already in the table never change. An import can’t be undone in one step, so check the matches first.

At the end you see which rows were skipped, and why. Fix those rows and import just them again. In a field that holds several values, like a Multi-select, separate the values with a semicolon. Export downloads a CSV file with up to 10,000 records, without the ones in the Trash.

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Tables and AI

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Ask Invent and agents

In Ask Invent, ask in your own words, like “add these three orders”, “how many deals did we win this month?” or “move LEAD-12 to Contacted”. It only changes what your role lets you change. It always asks before it deletes a table or a field, and the records it removes go to the Trash. Your agents can use your tables on every run too, like adding a lead or updating a deal.

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Assistants

Your assistants can use your tables while they talk to customers, like checking a product’s stock or saving a booking. On the assistant’s Actions tab, click Add Action, pick Tables and add Search Records, Create Record, Update Record or Delete Record, then pick the table. Delete Record moves the record to the Trash. See Actions.

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Routines on record changes

A routine can start when a record changes. On an agent’s Routines tab, click Add trigger and pick a Tables event under From your apps:

• On New Record: a record is added to the table you pick.
• On Record Updated: a record in that table changes. Leave Field on Any, or pick one field. For a Select, Checkbox or User field, Changes to narrows it to one value, like a Status that changes to Won.

Later changes to the same record continue in that record’s run, so the agent sees what happened before. Records added by an import never start a routine. Changes an agent makes never start that agent’s own routines. Private routines can use these events too. To set one up from chat, ask in Ask Invent, like “when a deal changes to Won, start my sales agent”.

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Who can see and edit

Every system role can see tables and their records. What else a member can do depends on their role: A custom role sets Tables, Table records and Table views one by one. See Custom roles.

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Plan limits

Archived tables count toward your table limit, so delete the ones you no longer need to make room. Records in the Trash count until you delete them forever. See Pricing and plans.

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FAQ