The best way to start with Apexloop is with one specific process. Pick the area that already lives in spreadsheets, emails or chat today: CRM, projects, invoices, newsletters, requests, recruitment or internal approvals. The goal of the first setup is not to describe the whole company, but to create a reliable place where the team can see current data, responsibilities and next steps.
1. Create your workspace
Name the workspace so that people recognise it without explanation. For the first version, invite only the team that will actually work with this area. The admin should have at least these questions answered:
- Which process are we replacing or consolidating in Apexloop?
- Which databases will we need in the first version?
- Who can read, edit and approve sensitive fields?
- What output does the team need from the data: a view, a report, an email, a PDF or an automation?
2. Design your first databases
Every area in Apexloop is built on databases. A database can represent companies, contacts, projects, tasks, invoices, line items, campaigns, emails or anything else that has its own lifecycle.
Start with a small model:
| Need | Recommended column type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Amount, capacity, count | Number with unit or currency | Budget in USD, estimate in hours |
| Short description | Plain text | Company name, request subject |
| Longer content | Rich text or link to a document page | Brief, specification, meeting notes |
| Dates | Datetime | Meeting date, deadline, due date |
| Responsibility | Person | Assignee, approver, team |
| Attachments | Files attachment | Contract, image, imported email |
| Status | Select linked to a status database | New, In progress, Approved |
| Multiple links | Multiselect | Participants, tags, blocked tasks |
| Child records | View | Invoice line items, project tasks |
If you need a controlled list of values, create a separate database for it. Statuses, priorities, order types or segments are then not just a fixed list in the field settings — they are records that can be described, filtered, annotated and used in further views.
3. Connect records with relations
Relations keep context together. Select and multiselect columns link to records from a chosen database, a record column can link polymorphically to any record, and a view column shows filtered related rows.
Practical patterns:
- A company has contacts, projects, quotes, invoices and emails.
- A project has tasks, milestones, risks, files and reports.
- An invoice has line items via a view column and amounts calculated by formula.
- A task can have "blocks" and "blocked by" links using related property backlinks.
Use backlinks whenever a relationship should be visible from both sides. Typical cases: "subitem / parent item", "contact / company", "blocks / blocked by" or "project / customer".
4. Add formulas and rollups
Formulas can compute a number, text, date, boolean or person from the context of a single record. If a formula depends on another formula, Apexloop builds a cascade. A view column additionally gives formulas filtered children, so you can sum values from child records.
Examples:
- Sum of invoice line items from the line item view column.
- Project status based on open tasks and approaching deadline.
- Responsible person based on order type and region.
- Company margin rolled up through projects that themselves aggregate tasks and costs.
Leave computed fields to formulas. Values that should be changed by a person or automation, leave without a formula.
5. Set up views for roles
The same data can have several views. Finance often needs a datagrid, sales a kanban, management a chart and the team a calendar or timeline.
Start with these views:
- Datagrid for checking many columns at once.
- Kanban for status-based processes and drag-and-drop.
- Calendar or schedule for dates, capacities and meetings.
- Timeline for projects, roadmaps and dependencies.
- Chart for summary metrics.
- Detail with view subgrids for working in the context of a single record.
For each view, write down who it serves and what decision it should speed up. A view nobody uses for actual work should eventually be removed or merged.
6. Configure permissions and archiving
Permissions in Apexloop can be controlled down to column level. Enable them for sensitive values like prices, margins, personal data, internal notes or approval fields. A person column can hold one person, multiple people or groups.
An archived boolean is useful for records that should remain accessible but should no longer change. When archiving is enabled, other columns can be set to read-only.
7. Add pages, forms and communication
Use document pages for content that is longer than a grid cell: specifications, meeting notes, guides, templates, newsletters or internal hubs. A page can contain text, a database component with multiple views, a dashboard, media, QR codes, buttons and shortcuts to other pages or records.
Use forms for data collection. They can be internal, public or anonymous, and they create new rows in databases. The email page can manage messages without threads, map them to databases and save attachments to file columns. Keep chat with the pages and records where the conversation belongs to the work.
8. Automate repetitive steps
An automation always has one trigger: a manual button, a schedule, a webhook, a received message or a record change. Subsequent nodes can create or update records, look up data, iterate over lists, evaluate conditions, send messages and call HTTP or webhook integrations.
Good first candidates for automation:
- After a form is submitted, create a contact and assign a responsible person.
- A button on an invoice creates a PDF from a document template.
- When status changes, send an email or internal notification.
- On a schedule, find overdue records and alert the team.
9. Verify the first workflow
Before expanding the workspace, walk through one complete scenario from input to output:
- Create a new record manually or via form.
- Fill in relations and attachments.
- Check that formulas have computed values.
- Open the record in the views the team will use.
- Trigger the button or automation.
- Print the PDF, send the email or review the report.
When the scenario works, add more databases, views and automations incrementally. The best workspace grows from real work, not from a large model designed upfront.