Databases
Build your own tables for the things OrganizeOS does not model, link records to members and contacts, and set date reminders that notify people or create actions.
On this page
Databases lets you build your own tables for the things the rest of OrganizeOS does not model. Equipment loans, grant deadlines, bylaws review dates, meeting minutes, vehicle logs, stipend records -- anything your organization tracks in a spreadsheet today because there was nowhere better to put it.
Open Databases in the Operations section of your workspace sidebar. Every table you build is visible to your team and to nobody outside your organization.
The thing a database does that a spreadsheet cannot is link a row to a real person: to a member of your organization, to a contact in your CRM, or to a row in another one of your tables. That is what makes a reminder able to notify the right person automatically.
Creating a database
Owners and admins see New database on the Databases page. Give it a name and choose Create database, and you land in the new, empty table.
Inside a table, the header carries + Column, + Row, and a Database options menu holding Reminders, Edit database and Delete database. Edit database changes the name and description. Delete database removes every column, row and link in it and cannot be undone, so it asks you to confirm.
Choosing column types
+ Column asks for a name, a type, and whether the field is required. There are eleven types:
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Text | Short single-line values -- a name, a serial number, a room |
| Long text | Notes, descriptions, minutes |
| Number | Quantities, amounts, counts |
| Date | Any date. Reminders can only watch a date column |
| Select | One value from a fixed set you define |
| Multi-select | Several values from a fixed set |
| Checkbox | A yes-or-no flag |
| URL | A link, rendered clickable in the grid |
| An email address | |
| Phone | A phone number |
| Relation | A link to a member, a contact, or a row in another table |
Select and Multi-select open a choices editor where you set each option's value, its label, and optionally a colour. Choices show in the grid as coloured badges.
Relation asks what it links to: Another table (then which one), Member, or Contact.
Adding and editing records
+ Row opens a panel on the right with one input per column; required fields are marked. A relation field gives you a search box -- type to find the member, contact or row you want, and each link you add shows as a chip you can remove. Save row writes the record and its links together.
Editing works the same way: the pencil on a row reopens that panel. All editing happens in this panel rather than in the grid itself, so clicking a cell does not put it into edit mode.
The trash icon on a row deletes it immediately, with no confirmation. Deleting a column or a whole table does ask first; deleting a single row does not.
Working in the grid
The grid shows one column per field with a sticky header. You can drag a column's edge to resize it, and the widths you set are remembered in your browser for that table -- they are yours, not the table's, so a teammate's widths are unaffected.
New rows are added at the end, and rows stay in the order they were created.
A linked row from another table is labelled by its first text value. It is worth putting a name-like column first in any table you expect to link to, so the chips read usefully rather than as a bare identifier.
Changing columns later
Each column header has a menu with Edit, Move left, Move right and Delete, all available to owners and admins.
Editing a column's type converts every existing value in it. Anything that cannot be converted to the new type is cleared, and the result tells you how many cells that was. Converting a column to or from Relation drops that column's links entirely. Check what a column holds before you change its type -- the conversion is not reversible by switching the type back.
Deleting a column removes its value from every row.
Reminders
Reminders are what make a database more than a list. They are set up by owners and admins from Database options, then Reminders.
A reminder needs a date column to watch, so if your table has none, add one first.
New reminder asks for:
- Name -- what this reminder is, for your own reference.
- Date column -- which date it watches.
- Days before -- how much notice. Use 0 for the day itself, or a negative number for a reminder that fires after the date.
- Notify the member linked in -- a member relation column, so the reminder goes to whoever that row is about. Choose no relation column if it should always go to the same people.
- Always notify (fallback) -- specific members who get the reminder when the relation column is empty, or who are the only recipients if you are not using a relation column at all.
- When this fires -- tick Notify people, Create an action, or both. Creating an action reveals an action type and title, where you can use placeholders for the reminder's name, the row, and the date.
Saved reminders are listed with a switch to turn each one on or off, plus edit and delete, and a plain-English summary of what it does.
Once a day, OrganizeOS checks every active reminder and looks for rows whose date, minus the lead days, is today. Recipients are resolved from the relation column first, falling back to your fallback list, and are always filtered to people who are still active in your organization. They get an in-app notification and an email, and an action is created and assigned to them if you asked for one. A given row fires a given reminder once for a given date, so nobody gets notified twice.
Who can do what
Anyone on your team can view every table and add, edit and delete rows and links. Only owners and admins can create, rename or delete a table, add, edit, reorder or delete columns, or set up reminders.
Non-admins see the table and + Row, but not + Column or the database options menu.
Good to know
Databases is deliberately narrower than a general-purpose spreadsheet tool. Worth knowing before you plan around it:
- There is no filtering, sorting, grouping, or saved views. The grid shows every row in one list.
- There is no import or export. Records are entered one at a time through the row panel.
- Editing happens in the row panel, not by clicking a cell.
- Rows cannot be reordered manually; only columns can be moved.
- Nothing else in OrganizeOS writes into these tables. There are no forms feeding them and no sync with your CRM. Reminders are the only automation.
- Databases is a web tool. It is not in the mobile app.
Why this matters
Every organization ends up tracking a handful of things that no purpose-built tool covers, and those things almost always end up in a spreadsheet that one person owns and nobody else remembers to check. Moving them here gets you two things a spreadsheet cannot: the records point at real members and contacts rather than at typed-in names that drift out of date, and a date in a column can actually reach somebody. A grant deadline in a spreadsheet is a deadline you have to remember to look at. The same deadline here emails the person responsible two weeks out and puts an assigned action on their list.