What Is an App?

Article Number:040616

In kintone, you can add a business system tailored to a specific business, so that you can add as many apps as you need for your business. This business system is called an "App". For example, you can create various apps that suits to your business needs, such as time & attendance management, transportation expense reimbursement, and customer support.

Examples of Apps

The following shows some examples of apps.
In addition to the examples below, kintone provides a variety of sample apps.
Refer to "Adding a Sample App"

  • Daily Report app icon Daily Report app
    In this app, you can write what you did, what you need to report, or what you want to comment on your daily tasks.

  • Lead Management app icon Lead Management App
    In this app, you can enter data on probability of closing a deal, estimated price of items, and sales activity for each lead.

  • Inquiry Management app icon Inquiry Management app
    In this app, you can record inquiries from customers and how they are handled.

  • Transportation Reimbursement app icon Transportation Reimbursement app
    In this app, you can request reimbursement for your transportation fees for business meetings with your customers and so on.

Creating an App

You can create an app in multiple ways.

kintone provides a wide variety of input fields, so that you can easily create an app from scratch by dragging and dropping these fields.

In addition, if you have Excel and CSV files you are using in your business operation, you can use them to create a new app.

kintone Marketplace provides more than 100 sample apps, so you can select and add an app from the collection. Once you add an app, you can use its settings to make changes to the app as you like.

Even after you create and activate an app, you can change the app settings anytime and apply the changes to the app immediately.

Refer to "Creating and Deleting Apps"

Components of an App

A "Record" and a "Field"

kintone apps manage data in unit called a "Record". For example, in an Employee Directory app, we create and manage each employee’s information as a record.
On the other hand, a record consists of multiple items and each item is called a "Field". For example, in the Employee Directory app, each item, such as Name, Address, and E-mail, is treated as a field.

The records you added in an app are listed on the top screen of the app. This screen is called "View". When you want to view the details of each record one by one, you can switch to the "Record Details" screen.

Screen to Enter the Details of Each Record (Form)

A screen to enter the details of each record is called a "Form". Creating an app starts from creating this form.
On the Form Settings screen, various types of input fields are available. So, you can create an app by just dragging and dropping the fields you need onto the form.

Refer to "Configuring Forms"

View

When you open an app, a list of added records is displayed.
By default, all fields of all records are listed in the View. However, you can create a new view to filter records, select some fields that you want to display, or change the display format of the view you create.

Example:

  • In the Task Management app, list only the records that are assigned to you (the current logged in user)
  • In the Employee Directory app, list only records of employees who are still working for your company.

Refer to "Setting Views"

Frequently Used Features in Apps

In the following sections, we describe various use cases and some of the recommended features to use kintone more effectively.

Restrict Users Who Can View Data

  • Use Cases:

    • Allow only Sales Department members to edit data in the Customer Database app
    • Allow HR Department members to view data on all employees, but allow other employees to view only their own data in the Employee Directory app
  • Feature(s) to Use:
    Permissions

  • Screen Example

Retrieve or Copy Data from Another App (Integrating Apps)

  • Use Cases:

    • Retrieve specific employee information from another app and display it in the Employee Assessments app
    • Retrieve the lead history of a specific company from another app and display them in the Customer Management app
    • Copy data of a specific applicant from the Applicant Management app to the Interview Management app.
  • Feature(s) to Use:
    Lookup
    Related records
    App Action

  • Screen Example

Manage Request/Approval Process and Track Its Progress

  • Use Cases:

    • Create a workflow that allows users to submit or approve requests in the Business Trip Approval Request app
    • Manage the progress of assigned tasks using the To Do app in a team
  • Feature(s) to Use:
    Process Management

  • Screen Example

Send a Notification Automatically from an App

  • Use Cases:

    • Send a notification automatically to sales representatives when a new lead is added in the Lead Management app
    • Send a notification to approvers and tell them that there is a new approval request in the Transportation Reimbursement app
  • Feature(s) to Use:
    App Notification Settings

  • Screen Example

Performing Data Aggregation on App Data

  • Use Cases:

    • Calculate sales amount by month in the Sales Management app
    • Create a graph of product sales amount by product category and then by product name
  • Feature(s) to Use:
    Chart feature

  • Screen Example