Creating and Editing Fields

Learning Team

Overview

Custom fields can be created in your Practifi organization to capture information specific to your firm's needs. Before creating a custom field, we recommend reaching out to your CSM to ensure a field does not already exist within the product to capture your information. This article will outline the process to create a custom field, place the field within your Practifi instance and edit field properties.

Field Creation
Adding the Field to the Practifi Page
Editing Fields

Field Creation

Select the gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner and select Setup from the drop-down menu.
In Setup, select the Object Manager tab located to the right of the Home button on the upper left-hand side of the screen.
Locate the object you would like the field to display on the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column. For example, creating a new field to display on the Client record would be on the Entity object with the API name of Account.
- The Quick Find search on the Object Manager list can quickly locate a Salesforce object by its label name.
Select the Fields & Relationships tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all fields available on this object.
On the right-hand side of the Fields & Relationships table will be multiple buttons, including a New button. Select this button to create a new field.
Select the data type that best suits the input format for the custom field and then click Next to continue in the field creation process. For example, to capture the wedding anniversary of your client, the data type of "Date" will be used for the new field.
Enter how you would like the field name to display in Practifi in the Field Label field.
To create a Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select), complete the following steps to set picklist values. If not creating a Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select), please proceed to step nine.
1. Under Values, select the radio button to the left of Enter values...
2. Within the value box, enter each picklist value separated by a new line.
3. If desired, select the checkbox beside Display values alphabetically, not in the order entered. The field will auto-display the drop-down menu alphabetically regardless of how the values appear on this screen. This checkbox is not mandatory for field creation.
4. If you would like the first picklist option to automatically be the default selection, select the checkbox to the left of Use first value as default value. This checkbox is not required for field creation.
Click into the Field Name field. This value will auto-populate based on the information input in Field Label.
Enter a short description of the field's purpose in the Description field, if desired. A description is not required and will only display on the Salesforce backend.
If you would like to guide users in Practifi on using this field, enter information in the Help Text field. This text displays when a user hovers over the Info icon next to the field. Help text is not required for field creation.
Select Next to continue in the creation process.
Set the field-level security for the new field by selecting the Visible and, if necessary, the Read-Only checkboxes next to the Profiles you want to have access to this field.
- Field-level security determines who can see this field within your organization. Having the Visible checkbox checked beside the profile name means that the profile can view and edit the field. Select the Read-Only checkbox to limit a user's edit access to the field. Enabling both the Read-Only and Visible checkboxes means a user can view the field and its value but cannot edit the value.
Click Next. Select the checkbox located to the left of the Page Layout Name to add to the page layout. To add to all page layouts, select the checkbox to the left of Add Field to check all page layouts within the list.
- Adding the field to page layouts specifies which page layouts within your Practifi instance will have this field available to display. Enabling the checkbox located to the left-hand side of the Page Layout Name means this field can later be selected to display on this page layout.
Once you have selected the page layouts necessary for this field, select Save to finalize this field's creation. Save & New may be selected to create multiple fields, as it will create the current field while beginning the field creation steps over.

Adding the Field to the Practifi Page

Custom fields in your Practifi instance are added to the Additional Information field set on specific objects where this field set has been made available. The fields will then display in an Additional Information section on the following pages:

Contact - On the Specifics tab.
Deal - On the Basics tab, below the Deal Value field section.
Financial Product - On the Specifics tab.
Policy - On the Basics tab, below the Premiums field section.
Policy Coverage - On the Basics tab, below the Coverage Details field section.
Service - On the Basics tab, below the Key Dates field section.

Customized page layouts and Lightning record pages will not receive the layout changes automatically. To add them, refer to the standard page layout or Lightning record page as needed to understand the layout, then replicate it using Salesforce's drag-and-drop builder tools. If you have additional questions about adding fields to other Practifi objects, please reach out to your CSM.

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner and select Setup from the drop-down menu. Then select the Object Manager tab located to the right of the Home button on the upper left-hand side of the screen.
Locate the object from the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column.
Navigate to the Field Sets tab on the left-hand side.
Select the Practifi – Additional Information field set to enter the editing mode.
Drag the newly created field located in the palette at the top of the page to the In the Field Set box to include this field. If the field displays greyed out in the palette, it is already included in the fieldset. Fields can only be added once to the fieldset.
Click Save at the top left of the palette to finalize this inclusion of the field. The field will now display in the Additional Information section of the record on the Practifi frontend.

Editing Fields

Custom fields created within your organization will support editing of all attributes. Non-custom fields that exist as part of the Practifi package product are managed and will not support editing their label, name, data type and other select attributes. However, managed picklist fields will allow you to modify the picklist values.

Changing the Field Name

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner and select Setup from the drop-down menu. Then select the Object Manager tab located to the right of the Home button on the upper left-hand side of the screen.
Locate the object you would like the field to display on the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column.
Select the Fields & Relationships tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all fields available on this object.
On the Fields & Relationships list, locate the custom field you would like to change the field name of and select the Field Label. The Quick Find search can locate the specific field quickly by searching for the field label value.
On the field details page, select the Edit button.
In the Field Label field, change the field's name to how you would like it to display on the Practifi front end.
- Please note: While the Field Label information can be edited after initial creation, it should be done sparingly if your firm uses merge templates. Likewise, it is best practice not to modify the Field Name information after initial creation, as integrations and scheduled rollups may call on this information.
Once the change is made, select the Save button to finalize this adjustment.

Editing Picklist values

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner and select Setup from the drop-down menu. Then select the Object Manager tab located to the right of the Home button on the upper left-hand side of the screen.
Locate the object you would like the field to display on the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column.
Select the Fields & Relationships tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all fields available on this object.
On the Fields & Relationships list, locate the custom field you would like to change the field name of and select the Field Label. The Quick Find search can locate the specific field quickly by searching for the field label value.
Scroll down to the Values section on the field details page.
In this section, a few buttons are located at the top of the list to perform several edit functions. The buttons available are as follows:
- New: Select this button to create a new picklist value.
  - Please note: When creating a new picklist value, the new value must be added to the record type in order to display within the picklist's drop-down menu. After entering your new picklist value, ensure that record types have been selected by checking the boxes beside the record type's name before selecting Save to finalize the value's addition.
- Reorder: This button allows the rearranging of the existing values.
- Replace: Replace an existing value. You can replace an existing value with a new value, other values or a blank value. If you replace an existing value with a blank value, existing records in your organization will not display a value in this field anymore.
- Printable View: See all of your values at once in a pop-up menu. This display is helpful when creating a picklist with extensive options.
- Chart Colors: Customize the appearance of values on charts and reports.
If looking to modify a specific picklist value, select the Edit button in the Action column located to the left-hand side of the value. After selecting edit, the following options will be available for change:
- Label: This is what appears in the drop-down menu for the picklist.
- API Name: This identifies the value for use in formulas and programming references. Once set, this value should not change to prevent any breaks in referencing.
- Default: Set the value as the default for the picklist.
- Chart color: This setting determines how this value appears in reports and dashboards. If not selected, the color is assigned dynamically.

Deactivating Picklist Values

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner and select Setup from the drop-down menu. Then select the Object Manager tab located to the right of the Home button on the upper left-hand side of the screen.
Locate the object you would like the field to display on the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column.
Select the Fields & Relationships tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all fields available on this object.
On the Fields & Relationships list, locate the custom field you would like to change the field name of and select the Field Label. The Quick Find search can locate the specific field quickly by searching for the field label value.
Scroll down to the Values section on the field details page.
Select the Deactivate option in the Actions column to the left of the value you would like to deactivate.
In the pop-up dialog box in your browser to confirm you would like this value deactivated, select OK. The value will now display within the Inactive Values list.
To reactivate a deactivated value, select the Activate option in the Action column to the left of the value within the Inactivate Values list.

Deleting Picklist Values

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon located in the upper right-hand corner and select Setup from the drop-down menu. Then select the Object Manager tab located to the right of the Home button on the upper left-hand side of the screen.
Locate the object you would like the field to display on the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column.
Select the Fields & Relationships tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all fields available on this object.
On the Fields & Relationships list, locate the custom field you would like to change the field name of and select the Field Label. The Quick Find search can locate the specific field quickly by searching for the field label value.
Scroll down to the Values section on the field details page.
Select the Del option in the Actions column to the left of the value you would like to delete.
In the pop-up dialog box in your browser to confirm you would like this value deleted, select OK.
Select if you would like to replace the deleted value with another picklist option or a blank value.
- Please note: If replacing with a blank value, existing records will no longer display a value. To keep the value on existing records, use Deactivate instead of Del. New picklist values will not be created to replace the deleted value from the deletion process. The new value must first be created to be able to be selected during the replacement stage of the picklist deletion process.