The Beginner’s Guide to Using the Rollup Property in Notion

In this article, we'll show you how to use the rollup property in Notion. Rollups are one of the powerful features in Notion that can help you keep your data organized and easy to access. We'll walk you through the steps of setting up a rollup property, using it to create a summary of your data, and then give you some ideas for how to use the rollup property in different ways.

What is a rollup property?

A rollup is a database property type in Notion that can be used to summarize different pieces of information from another database.

How is a rollup property useful?

Rollup properties are useful for creating summaries and comparisons of data that would otherwise be difficult to perform manually. Summarizing data in related databases can be done quickly and easily with a rollup property.

For example, if you had a database of customers and wanted to see how many were from each state, or how much they spent in total, you could use a rollup property to quickly get those answers.

What is the difference between a relation and a rollup in Notion?

Relation properties are used to connect database items in two different databases. Rollup properties use relation properties to pull data or summarize data from related database items in a different database.

How to create a rollup property

Creating a relation property

In order to use a rollup property, there must first be a relation property to pull data through.

Create a relation property in one database by creating a new property, selecting "Relation", and then select the database you want to connect to this one.

[.article-cta]Read this relation property guide for more in-depth instructions on creating relation properties.[.article-cta]

Creating the rollup property

After you've created a relation property and have added some relations to it, create a new property for your rollup.

Select the relation property you want your new rollup property based on.

Select the relation database's property that you want to rollup.

Select the type of calculation you want your rollup to display.

Rollup property calculations

There are a number of ways you can use your rollup property:

• Show original – shows all values of the relation's property you selected.
• Show unique values – shows only the unique values of the relation's property you selected (removes duplicates)
• Count all – shows the number of items in the relation property.
• Count values – shows the number of non-empty values for the relation's property you selected.
• Count unique values – shows the number of unique, non-empty values for the relation property you selected. (removes duplicates)
• Count empty – shows the number of empty values for the relation's property you selected.
• Count not empty – shows the number of non-empty values for the relation's property you selected.
• Percent empty – shows the percent of empty values for the relation's property you selected.
• Percent not empty – shows the percent of non-empty values for the relation's property you selected.

If the property you are rolling up is a number, you'll have more calculation options like Average, Sum, Median, Min, Max, and Range.

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How you can use rollup properties to organize your story

StoryFlint's Storyteller OS template uses rollups to give users the overall completion of their novel by rolling up the number of related chapters that are completed.

Also StoryFlint's Storyteller OS uses rollups in its Knowledge Base library database to rollup the area of knowledge a library item fits into based on the tags its related to. Then users can filter a database view of the Library database to only show library items of a particular area.

Other use cases for rollup properties

Calculate the progress of projects

Let's say you have two databases – one for all your different projects and one for all the different tasks related to your projects.

If each task in the tasks database is related to a project in the projects database via a relation, you can use a rollup property in the projects database that rolls up the number of tasks assigned that are completed.

Calculate expenses by category

Let's say you have two databases – one for all your different expenses and one for the categories of expenses.

If each expense in the expenses database is related to a category in the categories database via a relation, you can use a rollup property in the categories database that rolls up the total amount spent per category.

Calculate customer data by location

Using rollups, you can quickly get answers to questions like how many customers are from each state or how much they spent in total. Create a database of customers and a relation property connecting them to their states. Then create a rollup property that counts how many customers are in each state or adds up their total spending. That way, you'll always have an up-to-date overview of your customer data.

Conclusion

Rollup properties are a great way to quickly view summarized data from different databases. They can help you organize and analyze your data in a meaningful way, saving you time and making better decisions.

By following the steps outlined in this article, you should now have a better understanding of how to create rollup properties and use them for powerful insights.