Common mistakes

The most frequent footguns when building a new table. The Checklist tab catches several of these for you.

1. Marking everything Required

It feels safer, but in practice users abandon long forms. Only mark a field Required if the record genuinely doesn't make sense without it.

A good test: "If this is empty, can I still do something useful with the record?" If yes, leave it optional.

2. Marking a name field Unique

Two staff members called Ahmad bin Ali will collide and the second one can never be added.

Use Unique only for identifier fields — IC numbers, staff codes, emails. Names are not identifiers.

3. Using Text for a status / category

You'll end up with Submitted, submitted, SUBMITTED, and submited (typo) all in the same column.

Use Dropdown for any value that has a fixed short list of choices. The user picks; the spelling stays consistent.

4. Using Number for money

Number fields don't display thousand separators or two decimal places. RM 12,500.50 will look like 12500.5.

Use Money instead. It formats automatically and stops decimal-place errors at save time.

5. Forgetting Required on the status field

A leave application with status = NULL won't appear on a "Pending" list. The query filters by status, and NULL doesn't match anything.

Mark Status Required and set a Default (e.g. draft). Two ticks, no more invisible records.

6. Renaming a field after data exists

Changing a field's column name (the snake_case one, not the label) after records exist will break references in forms, lists, and any generated code that already mentions the old name.

You can change the label any time (it's just display).

If you must rename the column, expect to update related forms and lists to point at the new name.

7. Picking the wrong type and changing it later

Changing a field's type after data exists can lose data — Long Text to Number will turn paragraphs into nothing.

Pick the type carefully the first time. If you really must change it later, export the data first.

When in doubt

Open the Checklist tab in this drawer. It catches most of the above and tells you exactly which field needs attention.