Understanding lists

The power of lists

Lists give you the power to organize records in whatever way works best for you. By adding records to a list, you can include additional data for each one. This data can be tailored to a specific workflow or business process, like customer onboarding or managing sales pipelines, without altering the original records themselves.

This flexibility is what makes lists so powerful. You can work with the same records in multiple contexts, customizing them for the needs of different projects or teams. All the while, the underlying records remain untouched, serving as a consistent single source of truth that keeps everyone aligned.

List-specific data

Let’s look at this Strategic Accounts list as an example, which Basepoint has built to manage the most important companies in their sales pipeline. They can view the records in their list in either a table format or kanban format. In this case, we’ll focus on the table format.

In this list, there is an attribute called Estimated contract value with corresponding data. This attribute and data exists only within the list. It's not part of the Company object.

For example, Linear shows an Estimated contract value of $40,000. When accessing the Linear record directly, this attribute and data point appear as related information in the right sidebar under Lists, referencing the list name. However, this data isn't embedded in the core record itself, which is found in the "Record Details" section.

This feature makes lists incredibly valuable, as it allows teams to analyze, organize, and track customers in ways that suit their specific needs without disrupting each other's workflows or data. Team members can add extra data points without modifying the core record data.

Types of list views

Attio offers two list views to suit your workflow: table and kanban.

The table view presents your list data in a familiar spreadsheet-like format:

The kanban view allows you to visualize your records as cards on a board, organized into columns that represent stages in your workflow:

These columns are based on your list's Status attribute, which allows you to define the steps or stages in a business process. You can customize these status values to match the stages of your workflow (e.g., for a sales pipeline these stages may be "Prospecting," "Meeting," "Proposal," etc.).

As records progress through your workflow, you can update their status, moving the corresponding cards to the appropriate column. For this example list, our list columns are based on the following Status attribute stages:

How to create a list

Creating a new list in Attio is a straightforward process that only takes a few clicks. In this guide, we'll walk through creating a sample list together so you can see exactly how it works. Here’s how to do it:

In the left sidebar, click the + next to Lists in the lists section.

You’ll now see options to start a list with a template or start from scratch. For this example, select Start from Scratch .

Now, choose the object that will form the basis of your list and give it a name.

Attio lists are designed to work with a single object type, which helps keep your data organized and focused.

In this case, we'll choose the Company object and name our list Strategic Accounts. Once you've made your selection and entered the name, click Create list to finish setting it up.

You’ll now have the option to start your list with a table or kanban view. In this case, we’re going to explore both.

Since we know this list will have a pipeline component to it, we’ll select Kanban for now.

Setting up your kanban view

Since a kanban view visualizes the progression of records, we are prompted to create a Status attribute before moving forward. That way our view knows which stages to track.

Let’s make the title of our view Pipeline, and then click the dropdown under Status attribute and select + New Status Attribute. Let’s name our new Status attribute Status.

You’ll now see a blank canvas for your kanban view with a column that says No stage.

Adding stages to your pipeline

Click the + next to the No stage column and type Prospecting as a new stage name. Click the arrow on the left and choose any color your want, and hit enter.

Next click the + outside of the columns (the second +) and create Qualification, Meeting, Proposal, Negotiation, Pause, Won, Lost.

List attributes

Now that our kanban board is ready, the next step is defining what list-specific data we want to track in our list. In Attio, this information is stored in list attributes.

Before we create custom attributes for our strategic accounts process, let's see what attributes are available out-of-the-box via our Company object.

Exploring the table view

We could do this in our kanban view by clicking View settings > Add card. However, in this case, let’s first explore attributes using a table view instead, as it is similar to a spreadsheet and will feel more intuitive:

1. Click the Pipeline dropdown at the top left of your list (under your list title) and select Create new view.

2. Choose Table as the view type, name it All accounts, and click Create view.

In the table view, each attribute is displayed as a column. By default, there is a single column called Company. This column is always present because it identifies what type of data is being tracked in this list. Since we're working with a list based on the Company object, Company is the key attribute that each row represents.

Adding object attributes

From here, we can add columns for any other information we want to track, like deal size, close date, next steps, and so on. Capturing the right data will help us manage our strategic accounts effectively as they move through the pipeline.

For example purposes, let’s add a record to our list. Click Add Company and find a company in your records, or hit just e. In this case, I’ve added Linear. We won’t set a status for now.

Now let’s take a look and add some object attributes that we think would help us in our workflow to close deals. Click the outside (second) + next to the Company attribute and a drop down will appear with a list of every object attribute available.

You can add attributes by either exploring through each category or typing in the name of the attribute you’re looking for. For example, let’s add Description, City, Estimated ARR, Last Email Interaction > When, Employee range and Strongest Connection.

Renaming attributes

Now you’ll notice that the attribute headers look a little messy. This is because Attio shows the paths of your attributes. So in the case of Company > Primary Location > City, this is telling us that for each record, we’ll be showing the data point for the City attribute of the Company object.

It’s nice to know the logic behind the structure, but it’s not really necessary to show the full path of the attribute each time. We can rename our attributes easily by clicking the attribute header and choosing Edit column label. Let’s call this attribute just City and click Save label.

If we ever want to remember the path of this attribute, we can hover over the attribute and it will show the original path.

If we want to clear the label, we can click on the attribute header again, choose Edit column label and select Clear label.

Let’s now rename the remaining object attributes: Company > Description will become Description, Company > Estimated ARR will become Estimated ARR, Company > Last Email Interaction will become Last Email Interaction, and Company > Strongest Connection will become Strongest Connection.

Enriched attributes

You’ll also notice that all of these attributes have purple icons next to the header, and the cells are a light purple. This means they are enriched attributes. This means Attio is automatically pulling this data from 100s of public sources, so you don’t have to. To learn more about enriched data, read here.

Adding list attributes

Now let’s create some attributes specific to our list. Again, you use lists in Attio to manage any type of workflow. In this case, we’ve built this strategic accounts list to manage our process of tracking, monitoring and closing our most important deals.

Let’s add and create a few attributes that will help us with that process. First, it’s important to note we already have one list attribute already built: Status. Let’s go ahead and add that in.

Let’s also move it closer to the main attribute column — right next to Estimated ARR. We can do that by dragging the attribute column over. From there, let’s select Prospecting as the stage.

Now if we switch back to our Pipeline view, you’ll see that your record is now in the Prospecting column. We’ll dive into this later. For now, let’s go back to our All accounts table view and create some new attributes.

Example: Account owner

In most cases, every sales opportunity has an internal owner. Let’s add an attribute for that. There are two ways to do this: we can either scroll all the way right and hit the + > Create new attribute, or we can click View settings > Add new column > Create new attribute on the top right. Let’s do it this way.

We’ll want the attribute type to be User, as we’ll be assigning each account an owner who is part of the workspace. We can call the attribute Owner. You can enter a description if you’d like, and if you want each record to have a default owner, you can. In this case, we’ll leave it blank and click Create attribute.

A new column will be created at the right. Let’s add yourself or a teammate as an owner, and then drag our new Owner column to in between Status and Last email.

Example: Estimated contract value

We’ll want to have a rough estimate of how much income these accounts will generate if we close deals – so let’s add an attribute for Estimated contract value. This time, let’s scroll all the way right and click + > Create new attribute.

We’ll make the attribute type Currency, and give it a name of Estimated contract value. Our currency will be the US Dollar, and the Display will be Symbol (meaning we’ll see the currency). Go ahead and click Create attribute. Let’s move this attribute to in between Status and Owner.

Let’s make the value for Estimated contract value $40,000.

Example: Close confidence

Let's add a Rating attribute, which we’ll use to give an estimate of our Close confidence:

Example: Projected close date

Let’s also add a Projected close date attribute:

And there we have it – a basic template for a sales pipeline.

Running calculations

Now there are a lot of other useful things you can do with lists in Attio. For example, we can use lists to run calculations.

Let’s add a few more records by clicking the + next to the Company column or e. In this case, I’ve added Retool, OpenAI and Webflow. I’ll set their Status to Meeting , Qualification and Prospecting, and set the Owner to myself and a few other teammates. We’ll make the Estimated contract value $25,000 , $12,000 and $22,000.

At the bottom of every column in table views you’ll see Add calculation. Here you can perform a variety of instant calculations on numeric values that makes sense for your workflow.

For example, we can click Average to get the average Estimated contract value, Sum to get a quick total, Min or Max to get the lowest and highest values.

Running sorts and filters

Just like when you access your object pages, you’re able to filter and sort your records as you see fit. For example, in this list, we can quickly filter by Status, Estimated contract value, Owner, or any attribute or data point.

Exploring the kanban view

Let’s now switch over to kanbans. Click the All accounts dropdown at the top left of your list and select Pipeline again.

Adding card rows

The first thing you’ll immediately notice is that our kanban cards look a little bare.

That’s because we need to configure our cards to show the attributes we care about in our workflow. We can do this by clicking View settings > Add card row and choosing our attributes.

Let’s add Estimated contract value, Close confidence, Projected close date, Employee range, Estimated ARR and Owner.

You can also remove rows the same way by clicking the x next to a visible attribute.

Tracking time in stages

One of the key advantages of kanban views is that they provide a visual representation of your workflow, making it easy to spot bottlenecks that might not be immediately apparent in a table view.

Attio takes advantage of this with our Track time in stage feature. Click on a stage name and select Track time in stage and specify the amount days, months or years:

By setting a target time (the maximum a record should be in a stage), you can instantly see which records are getting stuck in your business process. Stagnant cards visually stand out with a red timer in the corner.

Hiding or deleting columns

In Attio, it’s easy to hide or delete columns in a kanban. Simply click on a stage name and click Hide stage or Delete stage.

If you’d like to hide the No stage column. Click View settings > Visible columns and unmark No status.

Bulk stage updates

You can easily move multiple cards between stages at once. Simply click the checkbox in the top right corner of each card you want to move (or select one card, hold shift, and select another to grab all cards in between), then drag and drop them to the next stage:

Learn more

For a deeper dive into all the things you can do with lists and views, see the Lists and Views pages of our Reference section.

Up next

Next, learn about Attio’s communication intelligence features.