Managing Custom Fields

Custom fields are managed in Form Builder, found under Admin Settings. This page is for administrators — managing fields generally requires organization administrator access, with two narrow exceptions: users who can manage work task instruction sets can manage instruction-set fields, and users with full utilities access can manage utility provider bill-entry fields.

The Forms list

Form Builder lists your organization's Forms — one per place custom fields can live (a module's request details, its responses, equipment items, and so on). Open a form to see its fields, drag them into the order they should appear, and preview the result. Fields that have been deleted aren't gone: they're on the Inactive Fields tab, where they can be reinstated along with the data they held.

Adding or editing a field

A field's settings include:

• Name and Tooltip — the label users see, and optional help text.
• Type — one of the field types. Type-specific settings appear as relevant: Allow multiple lines for Text, Disallow negative values for Number, Send notification on date for Date, and for Drop down list the list of Options plus Allow other option, Allow multiple selections, and default values.
• Required — blocks saving the record until the field is filled in.
• Permitted user types — limits read and write access to the selected user types; everyone else won't see the field at all.
• Equipment types (equipment fields only) — limits visibility of the field to the selected equipment types.
• Reset approvals — if your organization uses approvals, changing this field can send the record back through approval.
• Visibility controls — Show in reporting (if your organization has custom-fields reporting enabled), Hide from filters, and Hide from notifications.
• Grid Settings — Show values (adds a grid column), Can search values, and Show column total for numeric fields.

The field editor has a Details tab for the settings above and a Conditions tab for formula fields — showing, hiding, or calculating the field based on other fields.

Deleting, reinstating, and copying

Deleting a field is soft: it moves to the Inactive Fields tab and its historical values are preserved, so reinstating it brings everything back. Fields can also be copied — including to another form — which beats rebuilding a long drop-down list by hand.

A worked example

The maintenance director wants resolutions to capture a root cause. In Form Builder she opens the work request resolution form and adds a "Root cause" Drop down list field with five options plus Allow other option, marks it Required, and turns on Show values. From then on, no request can be resolved without picking a root cause, and the grid can group resolved requests by it.