In ‘Edit field’ it is possible to enter a default value. That is a hardcoded value.
What I need is a way to establish a default value dynamically.
a) The easy way would be to be able to enter a calculation. That would make it possible to use other record fields, dates, user name, etc. to establish a default value.
b) In my case, that would not be enough. We have Events that consists of multiple Meetings. The user first creates an Event, and then creates related Meetings. The user has to enter the Meeting Date and the Employee twice: once in the Event, and copy it in every Meeting in the Event. When creating the Event, I would like it to default those fields from the Event record.
So, the calculation should be able to look in the parent record as well.
(The Meetings can take place without an Event as well, that’s why those fields are in the Meetings record ánd in the Event record.)
Thanks for this great idea. Sometimes an event is more than one day, with meetings In the course of those days. In that case they must be able to enter a day or two later than the event start date.
So hiding meeting date is no option. I could show a hint: “leave blank if the same as the event date” but a default value is more user friendly.
I don’t disagree. Default values for settings would be useful for some cases.
Out of curiosity, how would a user know if the event should be x or y days? If there a way to have a field that defines the the cadence, you could use that in the automation to set the date… Again, just thinking out loud here.
Hey, I think there’s a workable solution using action buttons on the parent record instead of dynamic defaults if possible.
The idea: on the Event record, add two buttons that create Meetings in different ways:
• ➕ New meeting (copy from Event) — creates a new Meeting with Meeting Date and Employee pre-filled from the Event
• ➕ Empty meeting — creates a blank Meeting linked to the Event
This gives users explicit control instead of hidden magic — they choose each time whether to inherit values or start fresh.
There are a few ways to implement this depending on your setup but one could be:
Button field + Tape workflow automation — Button click → automation creates a new Meeting record with the copied fields populated from the current Event.
Why I think this is actually better than dynamic defaults:
• Explicit over implicit — users see the choice, no surprises
• Auditable — you know which meetings were copied vs created empty
• Extensible — later you can add “New meeting from template X”, “New meeting with same location”, etc.
• No sync ambiguity — the field is a normal editable field on Meeting, populated once at creation. No question about when the copy should stop mirroring the parent.
The tradeoff is one extra click compared to true dynamic defaults, but I think that’s worth it for the clarity.
This is what can happen: there is a 3 day trade fair in Berlin, which the sales reps will attend. During these days they have several appointments/meetings. Those appointments are scheduled on day 1, 2 or 3.
For buttons just use single select field type and add as many buttons as you like. Of course you can use multiple select field also but then automation is a little different.
So just use single select field type, add button as “action” and use that button in automation to trigger whatever you need.
Feel free to ask more in case you got stuck… can’t add screenshots currently on mobile
