The Team Portal That Stopped the Seat Bill From Growing

The situation

The organization ran its schools, teachers, students, and daily operations out of Airtable. That worked well until the internal team grew past 25 people. Airtable charges by seat, so every new team member raised the bill, and it became one of the largest software costs. The team needed something cheaper to run, without moving their data or changing how they already worked.

What we built

A custom internal portal built on Softr that reads and writes the existing Airtable data. Team members use it to manage schools, message each other, organize meetings, and keep track of student information, all in one place, with an interface designed for people who are not technical.

After the move, we added workflow automations with n8n. Each staff member can connect their own Google account, and the portal then pulls in filtered emails, meetings, and scheduling details and shows them on that person's own dashboard.

How it works

SEE IT IN MOTIONPause

AirtableYour data stays

SRSoftrThe team portal

GOGoogle accountsEmail, meetings

n8nFetches updates

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Step 1 of 4The Airtable base stays exactly where it is, so no data is moved or rebuilt.

An illustration of the steps below. Example flow only, no client data.

1. 01The Airtable base stays exactly where it is, so no data is moved or rebuilt.
2. 02A Softr portal reads from the same base and gives each team member the screens they need.
3. 03Staff connect their Google accounts securely from inside the portal.
4. 04n8n workflows fetch filtered emails and meetings and show them on each person's dashboard.

The challenges we solved

• The team could not afford a disruption, so the new portal had to work on top of the existing database and workflows instead of replacing them.
• The people using it are school staff, not engineers, so every screen had to be simple enough to use without training.
• Connecting personal Google accounts meant each person could only see the email and calendar data meant for them.

The result

The team now runs on one portal that costs far less to operate. The client reports software costs down by nearly 70%, staff work in a simpler interface, and each person starts the day with the right emails and meetings already on their dashboard.