How to Assign Multiple Inventory Items to a Project in Airtable

I’ll use a construction company as the example. When a new site needs drills, helmets, ladders, and toolkits, the team creates a Project Request and selects those items from the inventory list. An Airtable Interface lets them mark the items together, then one button creates a separate request-item record for each selection.

Create the three tables

Use three tables for this setup:

In Inventory, add an Item Name field and a checkbox called Select for Request.

In Project Requests, add fields such as Project Name, Requested By, and Request Date.

In Request Items, add these linked record fields:

• Project Request, linked to Project Requests
• Inventory Item, linked to Inventory

You can also add Quantity, Status, and Notes to Request Items. Those details belong on the request-item record because they can be different for every item in the same project request.

For example, one Project Request for the Riverside site might have three Request Items: one for drills, one for helmets, and one for ladders. Each item can have its own quantity and status without adding extra fields to the Project Requests table.

This is also called a junction-table setup. See how to create a junction table in Airtable for other examples.

Build the selection Interface

Create an Interface with a record picker for Project Requests and a grid based on Inventory.

The record picker lets the user choose the request they are working on. In the Inventory grid, show Item Name and Select for Request so the user can mark the items needed for that request.

Add a button labeled Add selected items. The button should use the Project Requests record picker as its source. That gives the automation the request record to which the selected inventory items should be connected.

Create the automation

In the base, create an automation with the When a button is clicked trigger. Leave it turned off while you connect it to the Interface button.

Return to the Interface, set the button action to Run automation, and select this automation. Then return to the automation to add its actions.

First, add Find records and search the Inventory table for records where Select for Request is checked.

Next, add a Repeating group. Use the records found in the previous step as the input list. The repeating group will run its actions once for each selected inventory item.

Inside the repeating group, add Create record and choose the Request Items table. For each new record:

• Set Inventory Item to the current item’s Airtable record ID.
• Set Project Request to the Airtable record ID from the button trigger.

If you add Quantity, Status, or another default field to Request Items, set those values in the same Create record action.

Finally, add Update record inside the repeating group. Use the current Inventory record’s Airtable record ID and clear Select for Request after its Request Item record is created.

Test the Find records step with a few selected items, then test the repeating group and Create record action. When the tests work, turn on the automation and publish the Interface.

This workflow assigns items to a request. It does not record stock coming in or going out. For that, see how to automate inventory tracking in Airtable.

If several people use the Interface

A shared checkbox works when one person is selecting items at a time. If several people use the Interface together, they can select each other’s items before the automation runs.

In that case, replace Select for Request with a User field called Selected By. The button-triggered automation can use the User who took action value to find only the inventory records selected by the person who clicked the button.

For a similar setup where each person keeps a separate selection, see how to let multiple users privately select and print records in Airtable Interfaces.

When you only need one linked list

You do not need a Request Items table if the Project Request only needs a list of linked Inventory records and no item-level quantity, status, or notes.

In that simpler setup, find the selected Inventory records and use one Update record action on the Project Request. Set its linked Inventory field to Make a new list of → Airtable record IDs from the Find records step.

Do not use a repeating group to update the same linked field one item at a time. Repeating groups replace the value in that field instead of reliably appending each loop’s value.

For a one-time assignment, you can also copy a linked record and paste it into several rows without an Interface or automation. See how to select multiple linked records in Airtable at once.