Custom Fields

Use custom fields to capture and display information significant to your business. This article runs you through the basics of creating custom fields and how they can be used.

Projectworks allows you to create your own fields for projects, people, companies, timecodes, budgets and quotes. Information captured in custom fields can appear on lists screens, CSV downloads, and on the entity itself.

Let's get started!

Creating a custom field

The Projectworks administrator is able to create custom fields in Settings > System > Custom Fields by clicking the blue + button in the top right of the screen. The following fields can be entered:

  • Field Name

    • This is the name of the field as it appears to users.

  • Field is required

    • By ticking this option your custom field will need to be filled in in order for someone to complete the action that it shows up on.

    • NB: If you're creating a "Checkbox" field type this option is not applicable.

  • Field Type

    • Choose the field type that best matches the kind of information you wish to capture, e.g. choose ‘Number’ if you only want users to be able to enter an integer.

  • Select Dropdown

    • If the custom field is either a ‘Select’ or a ‘Multiselect’ the options in the field’s dropdown need to be entered.

    • These can be ordered alphabetically or manually, and you can specify a grouping for related options if this makes it easier for people to use. Grouping is not required, so just leave these fields blank if you want a straight list to pick from.

  • Entity

    • This is the entity the field will be against: projects, people, companies, budgets, timecodes or quotes.

    • Depending on which entity is selected there will be additional options, like status, or the specific area it should appear to users. This means for example you can have a “Probability” percentage custom field for projects with the status “Unsigned (opportunity)” but no other statuses.

  • Field Group

    • This is the title that sits above your custom fields. It's not mandatory to include a group name, and if you choose to keep it blank an "Additional Details" heading will be put in its place.

  • Field Order

    • By default custom fields are ordered alphabetically. You can specify a different order by entering a number (e.g. 1, 2, 3, and so on). If some of your custom fields do not have an order number they will appear at the top of the list, so for complete control it is advised that you enter an order number to all custom fields.

    • Ordering will apply to fields per group if you are grouping them.

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To create and edit custom fields, you will need the following permission enabled in your Access Level: Admin.System.CustomFields.View 

Allow custom fields to appear on list screens

It’s possible to allow some custom fields to appear on the list screens as filters, group, and column options. You may not want every custom field available like this, so this is an opt-in setting on the custom field itself. This option is available for custom fields on the following entities only:

  • Company
  • Project

  • Project Budget
  • User (Person)

  • Timecode

  • Quote

The Projectworks administrator can set a custom field to show on the compnay, project, invoice, time entries, timesheets, people and quotes list screens by doing the following:

  1. In Settings > Custom Fields click in the custom field you wish to use

  2. Scroll to the bottom section where the entity is specified (selected as either 'Company', ‘Project’, ‘Project Budget’, ‘User’, ‘Timecode’ or 'Quote') and tick “This field can show on list screens as a column / filter / group”.

  3. Select the screens you want the custom field to appear on

  4. Select "Save"

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IMPORTANT: All users who can access these screens will be able see this custom field and it’s values, so be mindful of fields containing sensitive information.


See below for how custom fields are used on list screens →

Adding a custom field MergeField

If you are wanting to add a custom field values to your quote PDF and word documents, custom field MergeFields can be added in the Quote Template for the following entities:

  1. Project;

  2. Company;

  3. Quote.

When you create or edit a custom field, just add a field name, and the MergeField will be created.

If you edit a field name in the Quote Template, the MergeField will be updated and the historical MergeField name will not be recognised in any of the existing Quote templates.

Read more about PDF templates →

Custom fields cannot be added to email templates.

Editing a custom field

To edit an existing custom field, simply click on the custom field or select the three horizontal dots and select “Edit Custom Field”:

  • If the custom field has not been used anywhere, you will be able to edit all fields

  • If the custom field has been used, you will be able to edit all of the fields except for the:

    • Field Type.

Custom fields can also be deactivated and deleted.

Deactivated custom fields can be re-activated as required.

Entering custom field information

Projects, companies, & people

Navigate to the project, company, or person to get to their workbench and go to the Settings tab, then Additional to edit custom fields.

Project:

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Company:

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Person:

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Custom fields can be restricted to only show on some projects, project budgets, timecodes or quotes e.g. A “Deposit received” checkbox may be restricted to signed billable projects. If the custom field has been set up to be shown on projects with specific states or billable (or non-billable) projects, then it won’t be shown if the project is in another status, or the project is non-billable (or billable).

To edit a project’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • Project Settings > Settings > Can view & Can maintain 

To edit a company’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • More Options > Client.Detail.View

  • More Options > Client.Detail.Edit

To edit a person’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • To edit Profile custom fields:

    • People > Profile > Can View & Can Edit

  • To edit Detail custom fields:

    • More Options > Person.Details.View

    • More Options > Person.Details.View.Self / All / Minions

    • More Options > Person.Details.Edit.Self / All / Minions

  • To edit Leave custom fields:

    • Global.IsHRAdmin

  • To edit Cost custom fields:

    • More Options > Person.Cost.View

    • More Options > Person.Cost.View.Self / All / Minions

    • More Options > Person.Cost.Edit.Self / All / Minions

People

For people, click on the person to get to their workbench and go to the Details tab, then click Edit Detail Fields to edit custom fields.

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To edit a person’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • More Options > Person.Details.View

  • More Options > Person.Details.View.All

  • More Options > Person.Details.Edit.All

Timecodes

For timecodes, click on the relevant project to get to it's workbench and go to the Timecodes tab, then click on the timecode to see and edit custom fields in the Settings tab and / or Config.

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To edit a timecode’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • Can go to Projects

  • Project Settings > Timecodes

    • Can view

    • Can maintain

    • Can edit config

Budgets

For budgets, click on the relevant project to get to it's workbench and go to the Settings tab, then Budget, then the More link on each budget line to see and edit their custom fields.

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To edit a budget’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • Can go to Projects

  • Project Settings > Settings

    • Can view

    • Can maintain

If a field is required it will also appear as a mandatory field when creating a new project, person, timecode, or company.

Quotes

Create or open an existing quote. If a quote custom field has been added, it will be shown on the quote modal when the quote is in a status that show’s the custom field.

Custom fields can be restricted to only show on quotes with certain status' e.g. a decline reason is likely to not be needed when a quote has been customer approved, so is set to show on “Customer Declined” quotes only. 

To create a quote or edit an existing quote, you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • Can maintain quotes

Viewing custom field information

There are a few ways a custom field can appear throughout Projectworks:

  • As a filter, group and column options on some list screens

  • In the CSV downloads from the list screens

  • As a filter when adding a resource to a project

  • On the entity itself

Custom fields that have been configured to show on list screens can be found by clicking on the Hide/show/group of specified list screens to show their columns.

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Custom field checkboxes, selects, and multiselects that been configured to show on list screens can also be found by clicking on the + Filters button on applicable screens. The list of filters to show on screen will be a mixture of standard system filters and these custom fields. Users have the flexibility to choose which filters they want to see, and there is an option to have a filter’s previous selection remembered - leave this box unticked if you want to the filter to be blank by default.

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These custom fields will also be available as a group option (select and checkbox field types only). These can be found by clicking on the Hide/show/group control.

All custom fields are present in the CSV downloads from list screens.

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If the custom field is for a person and has been enabled for the “Add resource to project (person search)” it will show as a filter if you click Filter by team, role, etc… in the add resource pop-up.

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Users who don’t have edit permissions for custom fields can view them on projects, companies, and people. Click on the project, company, or person to get to their workbench and go to the Details tab, to see custom field information. Fields that have not been entered will not show here.

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To view a project’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • Project Settings > Details > Can view

To view a company’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • More Options > Client.Detail.View

To view a person’s custom fields you will need the following permissions enabled in your Access Level:

  • To view Profile custom fields:

    • People > Profile > Can View

  • To view Detail custom fields:

    • More Options > Person.Details.View

    • More Options > Person.Details.View.Self / All / Minions

  • To view Leave custom fields:

    • Leave > Can view

  • To view Cost custom fields:

    • More Options > Person.Cost.View

    • More Options > Person.Cost.View.Self / All / Minions

Troubleshooting

I can’t see a custom field when creating a project, company or person

Only mandatory custom fields are displayed when creating a person, project or company.

Read more about entering custom field information → 

If a custom field has been deactivated, it will not be displayed.

I can’t see a custom field when editing a project

Some custom fields will be set to only be available on some types of projects.

If a custom field should be available for projects in alternate states or that are billable (or non-billable), contact your Projectworks administrator to edit the custom field.

Read more about editing a custom fields →

 If a custom field has been deactivated, it will not be displayed.

I can’t see a custom field when creating or editing a quote

Custom fields can be restricted to only show on quotes with certain status'

If a custom field should be available for quotes in alternate states, contact your Projectworks administrator to edit the custom field.

Read more about editing a custom fields →

If a custom field has been deactivated, it will not be displayed.