Process Forms: Custom Fields

Applicable Roles

• HR Admin
• HR Team
• Business Office
• Forms Administrator

Prerequisites

Forms: Definitions and Management Overview, Form Management: Process Form Set-up & Creation, Form Management: Claim Form Set-up & Creation, Creating and Editing Form Categories

Contents

Add a Custom Field

Additional Field Options

Field Display Options

Using Mass Edit in Field Display

Custom Field Type Definitions

Examples of Field Types / Display Options / Resulting Form View

Add a Custom Field

Navigate to: Process Forms / Form Management

Tip: Please reference prerequisite section above for instructions on creating process form(s) if you are starting a new form with custom fields. For instructions on Shared Fields, please see: Shared Custom Fields

1. Select the form by clicking the magnifying glass
2. Click the Custom Fields tab
3. Select New Field

4. In the Mail Merge Custom Field Management pop up, select your Custom Field Type first as this selection will then alter the appearance of the window and the remaining fields to be entered

   

   1. Reference the Custom Field Type section below for detailed information on selecting these field types. All field types will appear as fields to be selected in Template Builder when creating the form and are populated by the user when the form is selected
5. Enter the Field Name (Required): This entry must be unique for each Custom Field and should be as short as possible so that it is indicative of the field, but will not disrupt the formatting of the rest of the form/notification
6. Select the field's Display Order: This will be the order that the custom field will appear in on the form. It is important that fields go in the order they appear on the form

Enter the Custom Field Display Name (Required): This is the field appears to the completer of the form so it must be clear what the field is and what needs to be entered here (often the same as the Field Name) Enter the Custom Field Description: This is a description of what the custom field is referring to; when the "i" icon is clicked, it will provide more information about the field

Submitter's view of the Custom Field Display Name & Description fields

9. Depending on the Custom Field Type selected in Step 4 above, Additional Field Options will provide examples of more field options correlating to the selected field type
10. Configure the Field Display settings - reference this section below for further details on these settings and how they impact the form, routing and approval
11. Click Save to complete the Custom Field or Save and Add Another to continue to add more custom fields, and repeat steps above for all custom fields needed in the form 
    1. Click Cancel to back out of the Custom Field without saving it

Additional Field Options

Default Value: This is often used if you want whatever is added to the default value, to appear on the form, no matter who completes it

For example, inserting a budget code here will automatically show up in that space on the form, or if you want someone to put an X to indicate agreement to a statement, you could put that here; this step could be done just as easily by marking a field as editable required in the Field Display, but occasionally there are times when this process is needed

Mask Option (Available on Custom Field Type: "Text - Short"): Used for Input Masks when there is a need for a specific format of numbers or sequences that need to be entered in a specific way, such as Phone Numbers, Zip Codes, Birthdates or Social Security numbers

Custom List Items: Available when the Custom Field Type is one of the following:

• Checkbox List: Full Display
• Checkbox List: Selection Only
• Custom List/Drop-down
• Radio Buttons

Field Display

Configure the field for the form from the following submission and approval options: 

• Submit
• Approvals
• Display Controller Field
• Field Value(s)

Submit

Editable - If an approval level (or submit) shows as Editable, the person at that approval level can enter or change the value entered

Editable Required - same as above but they MUST enter a value for the field in order to submit or approve the form at their level

Hidden - If an approval level does not need to enter or change the information for the custom field on a form it should be hidden. It does NOT mean that they won't see what an approver or submitter before them entered (it will be visible on the form on the left side of the review screen), they just will not have the option to edit it on the right under Form Fields

Read Only - Cannot be changed and are used with Field Entry Separators so they break up the custom fields that submitters and approvers need to enter on the Form (Note: if an approver is not completing anything in that section, they don't need to see the separator or divider and it should be hidden)

Approvals 1-8

These drop-down selections are district dependent and are based on who is filling out fields and if they should be required; If an approval level does not need to view or fill out a form field, it should be hidden at their appropriate approval level

Display Controller Field

Allows for certain custom fields to only be visible based on a previous question on prior fields answer:

Field Value(s)

The answer (option in the dropdown) from the initial question that will make the current question appear when selected

If we wanted all people who own a red truck to tell us the manufacturer, the initial question would be "What color is your truck" where we would provide a dropdown of "Blue, Red, Green". When setting up the manufacturer field, we would set the "What color is your truck" question as the Display Controller Field and set "Red" to the Field Value. ONLY when an end user selects that their truck is red, would they be asked what the manufacturer is.

Field Display Management - Using the Mass Edit Feature

1. To edit multiple field display options at once, select the fields by checking the boxes to the left (to select all, click the black box with white checkmarks)
2. Click Mass Edit

In the Mail Merge Custom Field Management pop-up:

3. Confirm the number of selected records
4. Make changes to your field display options with the understanding that these selections will now affect every field you have selected

5. Click Save 

Reminder: Click Clear All to ensure fields are deselected, prior to continuing to add fields

Custom Field Type Definitions

Examples of Field Types / Display Options / Resulting Form View

Text - Long

Form Input View Note the "i" will display the field description when clicked

Text - Short (max 100 Characters)

Form Input View

Calculated Field

Please Note: The Field Displays for Calculation fields should be HIDDEN for ALL Approval levels

Clicking the Pencil Icon in Field Equation allows you to Edit the Calculation (see graphic below) Clicking the green + icon will allow for additional constants or custom fields to be added to in the field equation (Click the red X to delete)

Checkbox List - Full Display

Form Input View

Form Input View

Checkbox List - Selection Only

Form Input View

Tip: The above "Full List" and "Selection Only" Checkbox settings include Repeat Direction and Repeat Columns. Repeat Direction specifies how the fields are displayed on the form. If the Repeat Direction is horizontal, the values will display from left to right. When vertical, the fields render top to bottom. Repeat Columns will determine how many rows there are. Total values divided by Repeat Columns will determine how many rows are displayed

Checkbox Yes/No

Form Input View

Custom List/Drop-down

Enter a comma prior to the first item, to ensure the first option will be left blank to force a selection Use commas to separate all remaining options

Form Input View

Date - Short Display

Form Input View

Date - Long Display

Form Input View

Coming Soon: Date - Long Display no Day (ex. August 15, 2026)

Decimal (ex. 12345.6756)

*Precision Value is set here to indicate how many decimal places the field should have

Form Input View

Integer (ex. 1234)

Form Input View

Field Entry Separator

Please Note the following on Custom Field Type "Field Entry Separators" Field Display options:

Field separators are the orange headings on forms. These should ALWAYS be marked as Read-Only for any of the Submitter / Approver levels that need to see the heading on the right side under Form Fields when approving the form and hidden for all the rest. If a form is filled out by the employee from Available Forms and they enter information for Section 1, they should see the Section 1 Field Separator (Read Only). If no one other approvers enter information under Section 1 on the form, this field separator should be hidden for them.  

Form Input View

Formatted Text

Form Input View

File - Public

Form Input View

File - Requires Login

Form Input View

Radio Buttons

Tip: Radio button settings include Repeat Direction and Repeat Columns. Repeat Direction specifies how the fields are displayed on the form. If the Repeat Direction is horizontal, the values will display from left to right. When vertical, the fields render top to bottom. Repeat Columns will determine how many rows there are. Total values divided by Repeat Columns will determine how many rows are displayed.

Form Input View

Form Input View