Quickbase Terminology Overview

The purpose of this topic is to introduce common Quickbase terminology and provide links for you to learn more about Quickbase. Many of these links open online help topics that give you the necessary information to get your application up and running quickly. Explore the online help around the linked topics if you want to learn more.

What is Quickbase?

Quickbase is a web-based service. Quickbase is used to build database applications (often referred to as "apps") to solve your company’s business problems. The service is subscription-based; Quickbase charges you a monthly fee based on the number of users who can use your apps and which add-on packs you have selected.

Apps built in Quickbase make it easy to collect, store, and manage data related to your business processes. A Quickbase subscription allows you to build customizable apps (often without writing code!) to suit your organization’s needs. A subscription also gives you access to Quickbase Exchange to get a head start on developing your apps. The Exchange contains apps for:

• Customer relationship management

• Customer support

• Information technology management

• Project management

• Team management

And if you do need assistance to create specialized apps or train users on the apps you’ve created, we have an extensive list of partners and add-ons.

Quickbase Users and Accounts

When you sign up as a trial user, you create a Billing Account, which is linked to your email address. Within your account, you and your colleagues can create and use apps, up to the limit described in your plan. You become the Billing Account administrator for the account, and can create other administrators, if necessary. Billing Account administrators are also responsible for:

• Managing high-level permissions for app creation

• Maintaining billing information

• Monitoring usage to enforce usage limits

• Upgrading or downgrading the service plan as needed

• Removing users from the account

If you are granted access to a Quickbase app, and you are not already a Quickbase user, you must register and create a user account. Each user is in charge of his or her own user account. Users are entirely separate from Billing Accounts. Billing Account administrators have the right to “remove” users, but that only means that the user will not be able to access apps in that Billing Account. If you are removed from one Billing Account, you can still use other Quickbase apps in other Billing Accounts, if you’ve been granted access to those apps.

Users can access apps in any Billing Account that grants them access. Once a user has been granted access to an app, that user counts toward the number of users allowed by the service plan for the Billing Account containing the app. For more information on accounts, see the New Accounts - Welcome topic.

When you create an app, you become the App Manager for that app. The App Manager has administrative rights to control the app. App Managers (and other users who have been granted administrative permissions) can set user permissions and add and remove users from an app's access list. App Managers have complete control over their app.

Quickbase Apps

An app is made up of the following entities (and your data, of course):

• Tables are used to store your data. Tables contain records, which are made up of fields. Each field can hold a particular type of data.

• Relationships are used to link data in one table to data in another. In a relationship, two tables are linked because a record in one corresponds to multiple records in another. For example, a project could have multiple tasks, or a company could have multiple contacts.

• Forms are used to enter and validate data. Forms can display data in a specific way and restrict what data can be entered. If you have set up relationships, forms can show data from more than one table.

• Reports are used to display your data. You can create chart, table, summary, calendar, map, and timeline reports. Quickbase creates several reports by default. Reports are often shown on your app's Home page to give an overview of your data.

• Roles are a defined set of permissions that define what users are allowed to do or see within a particular app. Quickbase allows permissions to be specified at several levels for flexibility in defining how your users can interact with your apps.

• Users are people who are allowed access to Quickbase apps. Users in an app are assigned a role, which defines what they are allowed to do or see within that app.

• Emails are used to keep users informed about changes to data. Automated emails can notify users when records meeting certain criteria are altered (notifications), send a report periodically (subscriptions), and remind users of some event (reminders).

• Pages are usually Home pages (used to provide summary views of your data), or Rich Text pages used to document your app.

Note: Depending on your account's service plan, apps may not have access to some of the items listed above. For example, accounts on the Quickbase Essential plan are limited to one form per table and one home page per app, and roles cannot be customized.

Creating an app is an iterative process of creating and working with the entities listed above, together with entering or importing an initial set of data to test that all the pieces work correctly.