Build an Airtable Internal Request and Ordering Portal

The Problem: Internal Requests Are a Mess

Every organization has internal request workflows, hardware ordering, IT support tickets, office supply requests, facilities maintenance, travel approvals. These processes often live in Airtable because it is flexible enough to model any request type with custom fields, statuses, and approval stages.

But collecting requests from employees is the weak link:

• Email requests are unstructured, missing information, no tracking, lost in inboxes
• Slack or Teams messages get buried in channels. No audit trail, no status tracking.
• Google Forms work for collection but create a disconnect, employees submit but cannot see their request status. Data has to be synced to Airtable manually or via Zapier.
• Giving everyone Airtable access means $20/month per person. For a company of 100 employees, that is $2,000/month just so people can submit a laptop request.

What you need is a simple portal where employees log in, submit a request using your Airtable schema (so data goes directly into your base), and check the status of their existing requests, without seeing other people's requests or your internal operations.

How CollabPortals Works for Internal Requests

CollabPortals creates a portal connected to your Airtable operations base. Employees log in with their work email, get matched to their record, and can submit requests and view their history. The operations team works in Airtable as usual.

Example: Hardware Ordering Portal

An SAP consulting firm uses CollabPortals so employees can order hardware (laptops, monitors, peripherals) through a structured portal instead of email.

Table	Employee Access	Purpose
Hardware Requests	View, create, edit	Employees submit and track their hardware orders
Product Catalog	View only	Employees see available hardware options and specifications
Employees (Profile)	View, edit	Employees maintain their department, location, and contact info
Approvals	Hidden	Managers review and approve requests in Airtable
Budget Tracking	Hidden	Finance tracks spending per department
Vendor Orders	Hidden	Procurement manages supplier relationships

Employees see a clean interface: browse the catalog, submit a request, track its status. The operations team sees the full picture in Airtable: approvals, budgets, vendor orders.

Build an Internal Request Portal Step by Step

Here is how the live demo above is put together. It takes about an hour the first time, with no code involved.

1. 1

   Set up your Airtable base

   Start in Airtable with a table for each part of the process: a Requests table for what people submit, a Catalog of orderable items, a Deliveries schedule, a Documents library, and a Contacts table for your employees. Contacts is the hub. It holds each person's work email, and the Requests table links back to it, so every request is tied to the person who raised it. That link is what later lets the portal show each employee only their own requests.

   

2. 2

   Connect the base and pick the user table

   Point CollabPortals at that base, then choose Contacts as your user table and Email as the login field. Each employee signs in with their work email and is matched to their own record.

   

3. 3

   Let employees submit, hide the internal fields

   On the Requests table, turn on create and edit so people can raise and update a request, and leave delete off. Show the fields they fill in, like title, category and description, and hide the internal ones, approval status, assignee, budget and cost, which stay with your operations team.

   

4. 4

   Give each table the view that fits

   Pick how each table appears. Requests as a kanban grouped by status, so a card moves from Pending to Under Review to Approved as it is processed. The Catalog works as a gallery of orderable items, Deliveries as a calendar, Documents as a table.

   

5. 5

   Employees get a simple request portal

   The result is a clean, branded portal. Employees browse the catalog, submit a request, and watch it move across the board as it is reviewed and approved, all writing straight into your Airtable base.

   

6. 6

   They log in with their work email

   Share the link on your intranet or in onboarding. Each employee signs in with their work email and a one-time code, so there are no passwords to manage and no Airtable seats to buy.

   

Common Internal Request Portal Types

IT Service Request Portal

Employees submit IT support tickets that land directly in your Airtable IT operations base.

• Tickets table (create, edit), employees describe their issue, select a category, attach screenshots
• My Requests table (view only), employees see status of their open and resolved tickets
• Knowledge Base / FAQ table (view only), common solutions employees can check before submitting
• Internal triage fields hidden, priority, assigned technician, resolution notes, SLA tracking

Office Supply / Equipment Request Portal

Employees order supplies or equipment without emailing an office manager.

• Requests table (create, edit), item needed, quantity, urgency, justification
• Catalog table (view only), available items with descriptions
• Order Status table (view only), employees track whether their request is approved, ordered, or delivered
• Hidden fields for cost, supplier, and approval chain

Facilities / Maintenance Request Portal

Employees report issues or request facilities services.

• Requests table (create), location, description of issue, photo attachment field, urgency
• My Requests (view only), employees check status of their submitted requests
• Locations table (view only), building, floor, room reference data
• Hidden tables for work orders, vendor assignments, and cost tracking

Travel Request Portal

Employees submit travel requests for approval and booking.

• Travel Requests table (create, edit), destination, dates, purpose, estimated cost
• My Requests (view only), employees see approval status and booking confirmations
• Hidden tables for budget allocation, policy compliance checks, and booking details

Why a Portal Instead of a Form?

Forms are one-directional, employees submit data and never see it again. A portal is bidirectional:

Capability	Google Forms / Typeform	CollabPortals Portal
Structured data collection	Yes	Yes
Data goes to Airtable	Via Zapier/Make ($20+/month)	Directly (native connection)
Employee sees request status	No	Yes
Employee can edit a submitted request	No	Yes (if you allow it)
Employee sees only their own requests	N/A	Yes
Authentication	Optional	Email verification
Cost	Free to $50+/month + integration	$10/month

The portal approach means employees submit requests and come back to check status, all in one place, all backed by your Airtable base. For a deeper look at the portal-vs-form question, see CollabPortals vs Fillout.

Take It Further

The walkthrough above is the whole build. A few options are worth knowing once you are up and running:

• Required fields. Make category, description or justification required so every request comes in complete, with nothing to chase.
• Roles. If your Contacts table has a role field, give managers their own permissions, for example approving in a view that regular employees never see, while everyone else just submits and tracks.
• One portal, many request types. The same portal can carry IT tickets, hardware orders, facilities jobs and travel, each its own table with its own permissions.

After the first day of set-up, every request an employee raises lands straight in your Airtable base, where your operations team already works.

For the generic version that applies to any base, see the setup guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can employees only see their own requests?

Yes. Each employee is matched to their record in your Airtable Users table via email. They only see requests linked to them. An employee cannot see other people's hardware orders or IT tickets.

Can managers approve requests through the portal?

You could set up a separate portal with different permissions for managers, or keep approvals in Airtable where your operations team already works. Most teams find it simpler to approve in Airtable and let the portal reflect the updated status to employees.

Can I require certain fields when submitting a request?

Yes. CollabPortals supports required fields at the portal level. You can ensure employees always provide a category, description, and justification before submitting.

How is this different from Jira or ServiceNow?

If you already manage your operations in Airtable, CollabPortals adds a front-end for employees without switching to a different system. No migration, no new tool for your team to learn. Your Airtable base is the single source of truth.

Can I use this for multiple request types?

Yes. A single portal can include tables for IT requests, hardware orders, facilities maintenance, and travel, each with their own permissions. Or create separate portals for different departments.