Custom Fields

You can customize many objects in the application by adding new data fields. Custom fields allows you to store additional information with an object, such as a text string, a date, a file attachment or any other value as needed for your business-specific requirements. You can manage custom fields for objects from the "Manage Custom Fields" link on the options menu on the page that lists the objects. For instance, to manage Employee custom fields you go to the Employees page, click the options menu (the small triangle to the top-right of the employee list) and choose "Manage Custom Fields". If you do not see this you may not have management permissions for this type of object - check your Permission Level in your employee profile to verify that you have the appropriate permissions.

Once created, custom field values can be set through the web interface for each object, or imported/exported. You can create reports that include the custom fields as well.

Note: If you create a report with a custom field, then later delete the custom field, the report will generate an error when run. This is because the database column is now missing. To correct this simply edit the report and remove the obsolete report column in order for the report to run correctly again.

Custom fields have the following properties:

General Properties

Field Name

The name of the custom field. This is the name that will appear on the properties form, as well as in import/export files. This field is required and can be up to 80 characters.

Type

The type of custom field, which can be one of the following:

Type	Description
Checkbox	A field representing a true/false choice.
Currency	A number representing a currency amount.
Date	A date value.
Date and Time	A date and time value.
Email Address	A text field for entering and displaying an email address.
Employee	An employee selection.
File Attachment	Allows uploading and downloading of a file. Maximum size is limited to 250MB.
Image	Allows uploading and displaying of an image. Maximum size is limited to 250MB.
List	A text field allowing the selection of one or more choices from a list of choices.
Number	A numeric value, allowing an arbitrary number of decimal places of precision.
Text	A text value.
Text Area	A text value that allows line breaks.
Time	A time of day value.
Web Link	A text field for entering and displaying a web address.

You can only specify the type when adding a new custom field. If you need to change the type of an existing custom field you need to delete the existing one and create a new one.

Position

The position determines where on the form the field will appear.

Start New Field Group

Checking this option will cause a horizontal line to appear immediately before this field. This is useful when grouping several related fields.

Description

A description of this field. This should be as brief as possible, but can be up to 255 characters.

Required

Checking this option will require a value for this field.

Default Value

Specifies the default value for the custom field.

Timesheet custom fields that are text (e.g. Text, Text Area, List, etc.) also allow you to default the value to an employee property by using the ${User.xyz} variable, where User refers to the employee object and xyz is the name of the employee property. For example ${User.lastName} would default the value to the employee's last name. If you had an employee custom field named "Pay Class" then you would use ${User.xPayClass}.

Checkbox Properties

Checkbox Text

Text or label that appears to the right of the checkbox. This should be as terse as possible, but can be up to 80 characters.

Currency Properties

Currency

The currency symbol.

Decimal Digits

The number of digits to display after the decimal point. This can be zero if displaying an integer value.

Minimum Value

The minimum value this field can have. Leave this blank if there is no minimum value.

Maximum Value

The maximum value this field can have. Leave this blank if there is no maximum value.

Image

Width

Specify this value if you want to scale the image to this width, in pixels.

Height

Specify this value if you want to scale the image to this height, in pixels.

List

List Style

The style of the list control, which can be either a drop-down menu or a list box.

List Box Height

The height of the list box, in rows.

Multiple Selection

Checking this option allows multiple selections. Note that multiple selections are stored in same field just like single selections, but with each selection being separated by a line break character.

List Choices

Enter your list choices here, with each choice starting on a new line.

Number

Decimal Digits

The number of digits to display after the decimal point. This can be zero if displaying an integer value.

Minimum Value

The minimum value this field can have. Leave this blank if there is no minimum value.

Maximum Value

The maximum value this field can have. Leave this blank if there is no maximum value.

Text

Maximum Characters

The maximum number of characters that can be entered in this field. This can be up to 255 characters.

Text Area

Maximum Characters

The maximum number of characters that can be entered in this field. This can be up to 4000 characters.

Rows

The height of the text area, in rows.