Right now I am working in the process of designing an inventory management system for my business and I could really use some guidance from the community here at SeaTable. I want to ensure that I set up the database structure in the most efficient and scalable way possible.
Specifically, I’m looking for advice on how to organize the tables, fields, and relationships to effectively track inventory levels, product details, suppliers, and sales data. I also need to incorporate features such as barcode scanning and notifications for low stock levels.
If anyone has experience with similar projects or expertise in database design, I would greatly appreciate any insights or recommendations you can provide.
Unfortunately, I’m don’t know enough (or even anything ) about inventory management system to give you a turnkey solution, so here are just few advice, I hope it can help.
Global considerations first :
Did you check this article about inventory from Seatable ?
As both products are pretty similar, you might find some inspiration for the global database structure in the Airtable community, as this inventory template or maybe this video
In my very humble opinion, one of the first things to do is to draw a database schema (see this article for example) : this will help you formalize your thoughts and the global structure of your database. It’s also really less impacting if you want to modify the global structure : you just need a rubber !
Yon don’t need to do anything fancy : just draw rectangles for tables, each one containing a list of the fields, with arrows between the rectangles to display the links between the tables.
Another solution (not my favourite, but it can definitely help in some cases) is to ask a chatbot such as ChatGPT to help you structure your base.
I don’t know what is your general knowledge about databases, but I sometime work with complete beginners, to whom I explain that it’s better to have one table for each data type : I generally find that a database is easier to read/understand when it contains a large number of tables with just a few fields in each, rather than a small number of tables each containing a very (too) large number of fields (but once again, it’s only my humble opinion and my personal preference).
Not sure this can be really useful, but who knows ?!
Thanks @bennhatton for his advise. But linking a video how to build an “airtable inventory system”? Of cause, Airtable might often be a good source of advice.
Just another hint: in the near future, we will publish a new plugin which shows the table structure of your SeaTable base. This will is make much easier to explain the structure of a base. Be patient.
) about inventory management system to give you a turnkey solution, so here are just few advice, I hope it can help.
Of cause, Airtable might often be a good source of advice.
