Client Background

Client: A Leading Telecom Billing Automation tech firm in Israel
Industry Type: Telecommunications / SaaS
Products & Services: Call tracking, SIP trunk management, VoIP billing
Organization Size: 500+

The Problem

The client used Airtable for managing SIP trunk call logs and billing but relied heavily on manual Excel calculations for:

• Pivot-style data summaries
• Currency conversions from USD to Israeli Shekel (ILS)
• Conditional formatting of cost columns

This manual process was time-consuming, error-prone, and not scalable. Additionally, the client needed a dynamic system to handle:

• Automatic row-wise pivot-style aggregation
• Real-time currency conversion
• Visual distinction of high-cost call columns via color coding

Our Solution

We built an automated billing intelligence layer on top of Airtable, transforming it from a passive database into a dynamic billing dashboard. Our solution included:

• Pivot Calculations: Implemented row-wise call charge rollups using Airtable’s calculated columns and formula fields.
• Currency Conversion: Integrated a live USD → ILS exchange rate fetcher via custom JavaScript block in Airtable, ensuring real-time rate application.
• Conditional Formatting: Programmatically handled column color styling based on call cost thresholds for easy billing insights.

All Excel-based logic was replaced with automated, in-platform processing, improving performance and accuracy.

Solution Architecture

  Frontend/UI: Airtable base with extended blocks and automation

  Calculation Logic:

• Airtable formula columns for pivots
• JavaScript scripting block for currency and complex calculations

  Currency Conversion: Live rate fetch via REST API inside Airtable script

  Presentation Layer: Airtable views with customized color coding

Deliverables

  Pivot-style summary table of SIP trunk calls with automated row-by-row cost aggregation

  JavaScript-enhanced currency conversion (USD to ILS)

  Airtable-integrated logic for conditional formatting of cost columns

  Elimination of Excel dependency for recurring calculations

Tech Stack

  Tools Used:

• Airtable, JavaScript Scripting Block, REST API

  Language/Techniques Used:

• JavaScript, Airtable formulas, Currency API integration

  Models Used:

• None (no ML/AI models were used)

  Skills Used:

• No-code automation, custom scripting, financial calculations, data formatting logic

  Databases Used:

• Airtable Base

  Web Cloud Servers Used:

• Airtable cloud environment

What are the technical Challenges Faced during Project Execution

  Lack of built-in pivot functionality in Airtable

  Restriction on styling columns directly via Airtable UI

  Absence of native currency conversion or external API call functionality in Airtable formulas

  Managing real-time updates without bloating the scripting block or breaching rate limits

How the Technical Challenges were Solved

  Used Airtable’s row-level formulas to mimic pivot-style aggregations

  Applied JavaScript scripting blocks to fetch live currency rates from a REST API and perform real-time conversions

  Leveraged Airtable’s view customization and logic-based coloring for visual styling

  Optimized scripting for light-weight execution and cache handling to avoid hitting API rate limits

Business Impact

  Eliminated 100% of manual Excel-based effort for weekly and monthly telecom billing

  Enabled real-time visibility into costs and currency impacts across operations

  Increased billing accuracy and speed of reporting

  Empowered non-technical staff to work with a no-code/low-code automated dashboard