Maintaining your Quickbase application is a lot like maintaining a house. There are big projects where it would make sense for you to hire outside help, but there are a lot of little things you can DIY a lot easier than you would think. I wouldn’t want to install an HVAC system, just the same as most of our clients probably wouldn’t want to write a SOAP web service for their mission critical Project Management system. However, changing air filters, or checking key Quickbase metrics is something we can all do with a little guidance.
Here’s a list of pro-tips we use frequently to help our clients manage their apps.
Reports getting a bit long?
If it’s not necessary to keep the data, you can easily purge records from any list report.
For any of these reports you can purge using the “More” menu.
You’ll get a pop up similar to this:
Click delete, and the records will be purged after a few seconds.
Further Categorize your data
If reports are returning too many results, you might want to look at updating the filters that are applied.
The ‘Dynamic Filters’ on the left side are a great way to quickly slice and dice your data. You can enable this option and choose the columns to appear in the ‘Customize this Report’ screen.
Another good option is to create new fields as additional filters. Maybe it’s been awhile since the table was designed; your business certainly doesn’t stay constant, nor should your data. Take a look and see if it makes sense to add some additional fields.
Adding a field can be as easy as right-clicking on the form next to a field, and selecting the “Add a field after this one…” link.
Compliance – What’s going on in the app?
Just like doing maintenance checks on your appliances, you can do some easy checks on the usage of your application.
Who’s actively using the system
Run a Summary report on Last Modified By.
Leave Summarize to the default value, which is # of [name of table], in this example ‘Projects.’ By Rows, select ‘Last Modified By’ for the Group by field. If you want to subdivide the data further, click the “Group by columns” option and select ‘Date Modified.” You’ll get something like this:
Although this won’t give you the whole history for activity in a table, it does give you a quick sense of who has used the application.
Another good metric is “Last Visited” in the user list.
Ready for more tips?
This is just a small taste of what can be easily done with just a few clicks. If you’re interested in finding more ideas and tips, Quickbase has some great resources:
Quickbase Online Help
Quickbase Community
If there’s something you’re not sure you can handle yourself, why not get some training from us so we can get you started.click the button below