What a table is
A table is a CSV file in your project, with the column names in the first row. It is an ordinary file of the project. You can download it and open it in Excel or Numbers.
Tables work well for anything you keep track of. For example, contacts and deals, expenses, stock, invoices or a reading list.
Start a table
Ask your assistant in plain words. Say what each row is about and which columns you need:
Start a table of my expenses in my Pacpio project Household: date, what for, category and amount.
Your assistant can also give the columns rules. The amount must be a number. The category must be one from a short list. The date is today unless you say otherwise. Pacpio checks every new row against these rules. If a row breaks one, nothing is saved, and your assistant learns which row and column to fix.
Already have a spreadsheet? Attach it to the chat or paste its rows, and ask your assistant to save it:
Save this spreadsheet as a table in my Pacpio project Household.
Add and change rows
Tell your assistant what happened, the way you would tell a person:
Add today's lunch, 12 euro, to my expenses.
The lunch on October 27 was 15 euro, not 12.
Remove the taxi of October 3 from my expenses.
Your assistant changes only the rows you mean. It asks you first before it removes rows. You can also paste a list or a photo of a receipt into the chat and ask your assistant to add it.
Some changes belong together, like an invoice and the hours it bills. Your assistant saves them as one version. Either all of them are saved, or none of them.
Ask questions
Ask about your data in plain words:
How much did I spend on food in October?
Which customers haven't paid yet?
Who should I call back this week?
Your assistant doesn't read the whole table to answer. First, Pacpio gives it a short summary of the table: its columns and the kinds of values in them. Then your assistant asks only for the rows or totals it needs. This keeps the chat short, even when a table has thousands of rows.
Pacpio doesn't make up numbers. Every total is the answer to a question your assistant asked. Each answer also says how many rows it was counted from.
Save a question for later
Do you ask the same thing every week? Ask your assistant to save the question in the project:
Save this as a query I can run again: unpaid invoices by customer.
Your assistant saves it as a file that ends in .sql. Later, any of your assistants can run it again and get fresh numbers. A saved query can also take a value each time, such as a month or a customer.
Saved queries also give the numbers and lists on a project's Home.
See your tables on the web
Open the project and go to the Tables tab. The tab appears once the project has a table. On the left, you'll see every table with its number of rows, and your saved queries below them. On a phone, choose one from the list at the top.
A table shows as a grid, one page of rows at a time. Click a row to see all of it. Click a column name to see what the column holds and the rules your assistant follows for it. This is the same summary your assistant sees instead of reading every row.
A saved query shows its answer for the latest version. If it needs a value, such as a month, the page doesn't ask you for it. Instead, it gives you a request to copy into your chat.
The page is for looking. To change something, ask your assistant. Each table and query has a ready request you can copy.
History and undo
Each change to a table is a new version with a short note about what changed. In the History tab, you see exactly which rows were added, changed or removed. You can restore an earlier version like any other change. Learn more in Versions & History.
The rules of a table are kept with it. When your assistant renames, moves or copies a table, its rules go along.
Who can do what
- Viewers can see tables and ask questions about them.
- Editors and above can also add, change and remove rows.
- An assistant in view-only mode can ask questions, but can't change anything.
Limits
- A table can have up to 200,000 rows and 100 columns.
- Its file can be up to 5 MB.
- A bigger file stays in the project as a plain file. Your assistant can't ask questions about it.