Custom Fields for Relationships

What are they and what are they for?

In AdmCloud, every Relationship is the record of a third party you do business with; that same record can act as a Customer, Vendor, Prospect or Employee, depending on which roles are turned on for it. A Relationships Custom Field is an extra field that you define, which automatically appears on that record's form, alongside the standard fields (trade name, tax ID, address, etc.).

This feature is useful when you need to store data specific to your business about your Customers, Vendors, Prospects or Employees that is not part of AdmCloud's standard catalog — for example, an internal reference code, a control date, or a classification of your own — and you want that data to show up only where it makes sense (only on Customers, only on Vendors, and so on). It's also the way developers building a plugin or a custom integration store extra information on this catalog.

How to use it

1. Open the screen. Go to Relationships Custom Fields from the Customization menu.
2. Create the field. Enter the Field Name, the Label users will see, and the Data Type. Save: the system creates the field and it is immediately available on Relationship records.
3. Decide where it shows up. Choose which record types the field should appear on: Prospects, Customers, Vendors and/or Employees. You can show it only where it makes sense for your business.
4. Fill in the value on each record. When creating or editing a Customer, Vendor, Prospect or Employee, complete the new field along with the other data, and save as usual.
5. Review or edit the field's definition. From this screen's list you can open any field to review its configuration or edit the data that can still be changed (see "What you can't change" below).

Key fields

Validations when saving

• Field Name is required, with no spaces and no special characters.
• Field Name must be unique: you cannot reuse the same name on two Relationships custom fields.
• Label is required.
• Owner is required.
• If the field is "Protected", only the Owner can save changes to its structure.
• The Default Value must be valid for the chosen Data Type (for example, you cannot enter text in a numeric field or an invalid date in a date field).
• Custom Record is required when the Data Type is "Custom Record", and cannot be set if you chose a different data type.
• Custom List is required when the Data Type is "Custom List".

What you can't change after creating it

To protect the information already captured on your Customers, Vendors, Prospects and Employees, once you save the field for the first time the form locks editing of these three items:

• The Field Name.
• The Data Type.
• The associated Custom List.

If you need to change any of these, create a new field with the correct configuration instead. You can still edit the Label, the Owner, whether it's Required, its Default Value, and which roles (Prospects, Customers, Vendors, Employees) it shows on.

Deleting a custom field

Deleting a custom field also deletes the values captured on every Relationship that had it filled in; this action cannot be undone. The system also blocks deletion if the field is being used by a plugin, and lists which plugins depend on it so you can review them first.

Transferring the field to another company

If your company is part of a group of companies in AdmCloud, the field's Owner can transfer (copy) its definition — along with its associated Custom List, if any — to another company in the group, without having to recreate it manually. This option only appears on the field's Details screen for the user who created it, and is not available in companies still in their evaluation period.

Availability, plan and permissions

• This feature requires the Enterprise plan. If your plan does not include it, the option won't appear in the menu and the screens will show a "not available in your edition" message.
• Access is controlled by the "Customization" permission on the user group, with separate levels for view, add, edit and delete.
• A field marked as "Protected" can only be viewed and edited by its Owner (ForTech users are not subject to this restriction).

Changing the field without editing the record

Normally, changing the value of a custom field means opening the record for editing, changing the data and saving. The Allow changing it in consult mode checkbox offers a shortcut: the field is also shown enabled on the consult screen, just like Status and Group on Service Requests.

It is useful for follow-up data that changes over time and is not part of the record's main content: the status of a task, who reviewed it, an internal classification, and so on.

What happens when you turn it on

• On the consult screen the field is no longer greyed out and is drawn with its normal control (dropdown, search box, checkbox, text box...), depending on its Data Type.
• When you pick or type the new value and leave the field, the change is saved on its own: there is no Save button and the page is not reloaded. AdmCloud shows a confirmation notice.
• If the save fails, the field goes back to its previous value and the error message is shown.
• The change is recorded in the record's log, like any other modification.

Who can use it

• Only users with edit permission on this screen. Everyone else still sees the field as read-only.
• Only on the data types captured with a list or a selector. It is not available for Rich Text or File, because those fields need their own capture flow; if you pick one of those types, the checkbox disappears from the form.

Tips and common pitfalls