u/BlazedAndConfused

I have a Projects table that links to another Risks table to associate risks to existing projects. The issue is, people can fill out the risk table and enter the Project Linked Record and If it doesn’t exist (or they just hit enter) it forces a new Project record to be created. I do not want this. Projects shouldn’t be created here. Only referenced to be included.

Google says if the Projects table uses a formula as primary field and not text then it won’t allow a new creation but that’s a lie (tested it) and it still allows it. Google also said to use a View for the linked record which also doesn’t work. Sure it reduces the visible records but people can still create projects here.

The only think I can think of is using a text field instead and an automation that checks against existing project names and if so, adds the appropriate linked record and if not throws a status flag but that’s ridiculously overkill.

Why is this not a simple toggle switch in linked records in 2026?! Just disable NEW record created if toggled.

So I have a base set up to manage projects. Some of these projects require external approvals from people who do not have AirTable licenses. Since non licensed people cannot edit interfaces (read only) I thought about creating a second form with its own table just for approvers. In the “Projects” table, we list these approvers under a “User” field as an email address.

Here’s the hard part. I want only the projects that person is listed as an approved to see the projects he’s assigned to him in the form.

Example: Mike is a PM and his Project ABC assigns Tom (not a licensed user) as the approver using his email in a user field of said project. Mike lets Tom know he’s an approver and to review the data in an interface he can read and then use a form to specify if that ABC Project is approved. Tom logs into the form and only sees his project he is listed on and none of the other projects not assigned to him as an approver.

So far I tried using a linked record in the “Approvals” table that powers the form to filter on a view but it won’t let me say “Where Approved User is Currently User”. Not sure why but “current user” isn’t an option.

Extra info: this is an enterprise license so we have a lot of employees who have access to AirTable as viewers using company credentials but they are not paid licenses users.

Any ideas are appreciated!

Edit: Since this seems to be a difficult concept to comprehend, let me extrapolate. Our instance of AirTable is domain governed so users are forced to authenticate before accessing any form, interface, base, etc. Just because they can authenticate doesn’t mean they are a paid license. They are just a viewer and cannot edit an interface. Employees have to request a paid seat to actually build or edit. This way we can force user data to be known for all employees when they open an AirTable form and it’ll be captured under the “created by” field in the base as either a user or their email address…