How to Create an Automated Resource Management Report with Airtable
Managing a team or leading a big project is really hard when you don’t know what everyone is focused on. Before you delegate tasks or allocate resources to an initiative, you need to have a handle on your team’s workload and priorities. When the average knowledge worker uses nine different SaaS apps each day, actually finding this information can be a huge challenge in and of itself. You can create a simple, automated resource management report for Airtable with Unito to pull all of your team’s tasks into a single view automatically.
What is a team resources report?
A resource management report offers a rapid look at how each team member spends their time and effort. With this type of report, you should be able to quickly judge who has a lot on their plate, where their focus lies, how things are progressing, and when tasks will be completed. On a broader level, it should allow you to answer questions like “Who can I assign work to?” and “Who needs help?”
Why use Airtable and Unito?
Anytime you need quick answers to a complex question, Airtable is a great place to start. This flexible database tool allows you to capture and organize information to perfectly suit your desired use case. In that sense, it’s a perfect choice for a team resources report. Especially when paired with Unito.
Unito is a no-code integration tool that allows you to build two-way connections between all the tools you use in your business. In just a few clicks, you can build flows that automatically update records across all your Airtable bases. That means that, with Unito’s help, you can capture all the work your team is doing across multiple tools from a single Airtable view, offering that snapshot of resources this report needs.
In Unito’s Report on Reporting, 37% of respondents said they spent at least three hours a week on reporting. With the right tools, you can cut that time down to minutes.
How to build a resource management report in Airtable
To build a resource management report in Airtable, you need to identify the fields which will allow you to properly gauge your team’s priorities and workload.
Start with Unito’s resource management report template. You’ll notice the template includes the following fields:
- Task name: Use a single-line text field to capture the name of each task synced to this base.
- Assignee: Depending on your team size, you may want to use a single-line text field or single select dropdown to capture the assignee for each task. Considering you’re trying to judge the team’s resources, this is really the most important field.
- Description: Use a long text field to capture task descriptions for that additional context.
- Due date: Use a date field to capture the due date of tasks, so you can who’s running behind and who’s crushing their deadlines.
- Status: Use a single select dropdown to capture task status. Create dropdown options for to-do, in progress, and done, or add additional status options to meet your internal workflow.
- Last modified time: This field identifies how recently the task has been modified, so you know you’re working with up-to-date information. It’s also essential to make Airtable work with Unito.
The final, important step in establishing your report is to group the data by assignee. This will group each person’s tasks, providing that high-level view of a person’s workload you’re craving.
The end result — populated with a few example tasks — should look something like this:
How to populate a resource management report with Unito
With your team resource report set up in Airtable, it’s time to build the Unito flows that will automatically update it as your team works. Here’s how it’s done.
Start by connecting Airtable to Unito.
Next, pick the team resource report base. Then, select your secondary source of team tasks. This could be another Airtable base, an Asana project, a Jira project, or equivalents in dozens of other tools. You’ll need to connect this tool to Unito and then select the relevant project. In this example, we’re using an Asana project.
Choose a flow direction
By default, Unito will create new records in Airtable to match tasks in your Asana project, and vice-versa. You also have the option of creating a one-way flow, meaning that new records in Airtable won’t become Asana tasks.
Filter out unrelated work
From there, you can build custom rules to decide how much information gets synced to your report. If, for example, you don’t want to sync all Asana tasks into Airtable, you can create rules to that effect. You’re in complete control whether your flow captures tasks relating to specific initiatives, tags, or team members.
Customize field mappings
Essentially, you can decide where each Asana field lands inside your Airtable base. Unito automatically maps similar fields (task title to task name, description to description, etc.). But again, you can manually map things however you want.
Make sure your fields are mapped for two-way updates. By mapping each field two-ways, you can edit within your report and see those changes appear on each end. This gives you the ability to reassign work, edit due dates, and more.
After mapping your fields, you’re done! You can launch your flows and watch as tasks flow into your team resources report automatically. You can then consolidate tasks from multiple sources by creating additional flows with your Airtable resource report as the endpoint.
Essential Unito features for this use case
Real-time updates
A report is only useful if the data contained within it is accurate. That’s why manually updating reports is such a taxing process. You’re constantly copying and pasting information to keep up with task progress. Unito updates your Airtable resource report automatically in real-time, so you’ll see a true reflection of your team’s workload.
Custom fields
Airtable is a customizable platform stuffed full of custom fields. With Unito, you can sync these fields back and forth with flows that adapt to your projects. You can then add more impact with unlimited custom field support that comes with Unito’s Company and Enterprise plans.
Advanced mappings
Customizing your field mappings to ensure data lands in the right part of your report is pretty important. The more complex the report, the more you’ll get out of custom field mappings.
A resources snapshot at your fingertips
Resource reporting doesn’t have to be the most painful part of your week. With a single Unito flow, you can automate a report that gives you all the information you need in real-time. Integrating Airtable with Unito enables a single source of truth, whether you’re delegating, unblock a project, or supporting your team.