David Neira is an official Notion Ambassador and the founder of NotioStore, where he builds custom Notion operating systems for architecture, construction, and interior design firms. He run 40 Notion Setup Sessions per week and writes here about making Notion hold up under real client work.
You’re building a client database in Notion. You add a column for client name. Fine. Then you want to track their industry, you add a column for that. Then you want to track the date you started working with them, whether they’re active or not, who on your team owns the relationship, and how many projects you’re running for them. You add columns for all of it. Then you realise you want to calculate their total contract value automatically, or see all their linked projects without re-entering data you’ve already put somewhere else. And suddenly the blank text field you’ve been defaulting to isn’t doing what you need.
Notion gives you 20+ property types. Most people use four. The ones they’re missing are the ones that make the difference between a database that stores information and one that works for you.
This article covers every property type that matters for running a business in Notion, with a real example of when and why to use each one.
Text
The free-form fallback. Use it for notes, descriptions, addresses, and any information that doesn’t fit a structured type. Don’t use it for anything you’ll want to filter, sort, or aggregate, a status logged as text (“active”, “Active”, “ACTIVE”) is three different values to Notion’s filter system. If consistency matters, use Select instead.
Real example: a Notes field on a Client record for contextual information that doesn’t belong in any structured property. “Prefers morning calls. Referred by J. Okafor. Decision-maker is the CFO, not the primary contact.”
Number
Stores a numeric value. Can be formatted as a plain number, currency, percentage, or with custom units. Supports sum, average, min, max, and range aggregations in Table view footer.
Real example: Contract Value on a Projects database formatted as currency. Guest Count on a Bookings database. Lead Time (weeks) on a Specification Library. Any value you’ll want to roll up or calculate from belongs here, not in a text field.
Select
A single-choice dropdown from a predefined list of options, each with its own colour. The workhorse property for classification and status tracking.
Real example: Status on a Projects database (Active / On Hold / Complete). Industry on a Clients database (Architecture / Construction / Events / Retail / Technology). Priority on a Tasks database (High / Medium / Low). Anything where exactly one value applies and consistency across records matters.
Multi-Select
Like Select, but allows multiple options per record. Use when a record genuinely belongs to more than one category.
Real example: Services on a Clients database (Strategy / Design / Build / Support). Key Themes on a coaching Sessions database (Confidence / Clarity / Career / Performance). Tags on a Resource Library. Don’t use Multi-Select where only one value should apply, that’s what Select is for.
Status
A variant of Select with a built-in structure: options are grouped into Not Started, In Progress, and Done categories. Notion uses this grouping for progress tracking and filtering. Visually similar to Select but semantically richer for workflow stages.
Real example: Task Status (To Do / In Progress / Blocked / Done). Deliverable Status (Not Started / Drafting / In Review / Approved / Live). Use Status over Select when the property represents a workflow stage with a meaningful progression from start to completion.
Date
Stores a date, optionally with a time, and optionally as a date range with a start and end. Powers Calendar view and Timeline view. Supports date-based filters (within next 7 days, before today, this month).
Real example: Due Date on a Tasks database. Event Date on a Bookings database. Invoice Date on a Billing Milestones database. Expiry Date on a Permits database. Any time-sensitive property that you’ll want to filter, sort by, or display on a calendar belongs here.
Checkbox
A Boolean true/false toggle. Simple and underused.
Real example: Signed Contract? on a Clients database. Insurance Verified? on a Subcontractors database. Resource Sent? on a coaching Sessions database. Any yes/no condition that you’ll want to filter by, “show me all clients where Signed Contract is unchecked,” is better as a checkbox than a Select with Yes/No options.
Person
Links to a member of your Notion workspace. Can be single or multi-person. Supports filtering by the current user (“show me tasks assigned to me”).
Real example: Owner on a Projects database. Assigned To on a Tasks database. Lead Coordinator on a Bookings database. Account Manager on a Clients database. Any database where team members need to see their own records filtered is a candidate for a Person property.
Files & Media
Stores uploaded files or linked URLs. Appears as a preview or attachment icon on the record.
Real example: Signed Contract on a Clients database. Insurance Certificate on a Subcontractors database. Reference Image on a Specification Library record. Use it for documents that belong with the record, not in a separate folder that gets disconnected over time.
URL
Stores a single hyperlink. Displays as a clickable link.
Real example: Website on a Clients database. Portfolio Link on a Vendors database. Recording Link on a Meetings database. Property Listing URL on a real estate Listings database. Cleaner than pasting a raw URL into a text field because it renders as a labelled link and can be filtered.
Email / Phone
Stores a formatted email address or phone number, clickable on mobile.
Real example: Primary Contact Email and Phone on a Clients database. These are worth using over text fields because they’re device-actionable, tap to call, tap to email, which matters when your team is using Notion on a phone in the field.
Relation
Links records in one database to records in another. The structural property that makes Notion a relational system rather than a collection of spreadsheets. Can be one-way (records in Database A point to Database B) or two-way / bidirectional (the link appears in both databases).
Real example: On a Projects database, a relation to Clients links each project to the client it belongs to. Open the project, click the relation, and you’re on the client record. Open the client record (with bidirectional enabled), and you see all linked projects listed. On a Tasks database, a relation to Projects links each task to its parent project.
The build order matters: create the foundational databases first (Clients, Projects) before creating databases that relate to them (Tasks, Meetings, Invoices). A relation property requires the target database to already exist.
Rollup
Aggregates values from records in a related database. Requires a Relation property to exist first, the rollup looks through that relation and pulls a value from the linked records.
Real example: On a Clients database with a relation to Projects, a Rollup property set to count linked project records gives you “Active Projects: 4” on the client record without manual calculation. On a Projects database with a relation to Billing Milestones, a Rollup summing the Amount field of linked milestones gives the total contracted value. On a coaching Clients database, a Rollup counting linked Sessions gives sessions used, and a Formula subtracts it from the sessions agreed to give sessions remaining.
Rollup aggregation functions include: count, count values, count unique values, sum, average, min, max, range, show original, and more. Choose based on what the linked field contains and what question you’re answering.
Formula
Writes an expression using Notion’s formula language to calculate a value from other properties on the same record. The most powerful and most underused property type for business operations.
Notion’s formula language supports arithmetic, logical operators (if/else), date functions, string manipulation, and references to other properties on the same record. It does not reference properties from other databases directly. For cross-database calculations, use Rollup first, then Formula on the result.
Real examples, from simple to more complex:
Sessions Remaining (coaching): prop("Sessions Agreed") - prop("Sessions Used"), a simple subtraction between two number properties.
Days Until Deadline: dateBetween(prop("Due Date"), now(), "days"), gives the number of days between today and the due date. Negative values mean overdue.
Overdue flag: if(prop("Due Date") < now() and prop("Status") != "Complete", true, false), returns a checkbox value of true when a record is past its due date and not yet complete. Filter by this checkbox to surface overdue items instantly.
Full Name from First + Last: prop("First Name") + " " + prop("Last Name"), string concatenation. Useful when intake forms collect first and last name separately.
Fee Remaining: prop("Contract Value") - prop("Invoiced to Date"), shows outstanding balance on a project billing record.
Formulas update automatically whenever the properties they reference change. There’s no manual recalculation, the value is always current.
Created Time / Created By
System-generated properties that record when a record was created and by whom. Cannot be edited.
Real example: Created Time on a Leads database tells you exactly when an enquiry came in, without relying on anyone to log it manually. Created By on a Incidents database records which team member created the report. Use these for audit trails and timestamp tracking without adding manual data entry to your team’s process.
Last Edited Time / Last Edited By
System-generated properties that record the most recent edit to a record. Useful for tracking whether records are being maintained.
Real example: Last Edited Time on a Clients database, filtered to records not edited in the past 60 days, surfaces stale records that may need review. Last Edited By on a shared database tells you who made the most recent change without a separate activity log.
Unique ID
Auto-generates a sequential unique identifier for every record, formatted as a prefix and number (e.g., PROJ-001, CLIENT-042). Cannot be edited or duplicated. Useful for referencing records in external communications, invoices, or support tickets.
Real example: Job Number on a construction Jobs database (JOB-001, JOB-002). Invoice Reference on a Billing database. Ticket ID on a support requests database. Any workflow that references records in external communications benefits from a stable, human-readable ID.
Button
A clickable button on each record that triggers a Notion automation when clicked. Requires setting up an automation rule alongside it.
Real example: A “Create Follow-Up Task” button on a Meetings database that, when clicked, creates a new record in the Tasks database pre-filled with the meeting date and linked client. A “Mark as Sent” button on a Billing Milestones database that updates the Status to “Invoiced” and sets the Invoice Date to today. Buttons remove the friction from multi-step manual processes.
Verification
A property that allows a designated workspace member to formally verify a record as accurate or reviewed. Shows a verified/unverified state with the reviewer’s name.
Real example: Verified on an SOPs database, a principal or operations lead marks each SOP as verified after review. Verified on a Contractors database, an admin confirms that a subcontractor’s insurance and licence documents are current. Useful wherever you need an explicit human sign-off that a record’s contents are accurate.
If you’re new to Notion, or rebuilding your workspace from scratch, the best starting point is a single hub page for the area of your business with the most friction, usually projects, clients, or operations.
Build that hub first. Give it a clear structure: a heading, a couple of key databases embedded as views, and links to the subpages your team will use most. Get one part of your business running cleanly before expanding.
The page structure you build in month one won’t be perfect. It will evolve as you understand how your team actually navigates the workspace. That’s normal. Pages in Notion are easy to reorganise, rename, and restructure, you’re not locked into the first architecture you try.
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