Managing Custom Fields and Picklists

Learning Team

Overview

Practifi Administrators can create custom fields in your Practifi organization to capture information specific to your firm's needs. For example, custom fields can be added to the Additional Infomation section within the Specifics tab on Entity records.

Before creating a custom field, we recommend contacting your CSM to ensure a field does not already exist within the product to capture the information you would like added. This article will outline creating a custom field, placing the field within your Practifi instance and editing field properties.

Field Creation - Non-Picklist
Field Creation - Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select)
Adding the Field to the Practifi Page
Editing Fields
Troubleshooting

Field Creation - Non-Picklist

The following steps can be used to build custom fields in your Practifi organization that are not the data type of Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select). To create Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select) fields, please proceed to the next section within this article.

Select the gear icon and select Setup from the drop-down menu.
In Setup, select the Object Manager tab next to the Home button.
Locate the object you want 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 create a field capturing a client's business phone number, you would select the data type of Phone from the Data Type options.
In the Field Label field, enter how you would like the field name displayed in Practifi. For example, "Business Phone."
Click into the Field Name field. This value will auto-populate based on the information input in the Field Label field. To avoid errors due to duplicate field names, we recommend adding a prefix to the field name, such as "local" or your firm's name or initials.
In the Description field, enter a short description of the field's purpose, 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 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 it.
Click Next. Select the checkbox 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 on 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.
Proceed to the Adding the Field to the Practifi Page section of this article to ensure the field is available within your Practifi organization.

Field Creation - Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select)

The following steps can be used to create a custom field with the data type of Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select). For guidance on creating custom fields that do not have this data type, please consult the previous section in this article.

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 want 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 of Picklist or Picklist (Multi-Select) and click Next to proceed.
Enter how you would like the field name displayed in Practifi in the Field Label field. For example, "Preferred Coffee".
Click into the Field Name field. This value will auto-populate based on the information input in the Field Label field. To avoid errors due to duplicate field names, we recommend adding a prefix to the field name, such as "local" or your firm's name or initials.
Under Values, select the radio button to the left of Enter values, with each value separated by a new line.
Within the Values box, enter each picklist value separated by a new line.
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.
If you would like the first picklist option to be the default selection automatically, select the checkbox to the left of Use first value as default value. This checkbox is not required for field creation.
Proceed to the Adding the Field to the Practifi Page section of this article to ensure the field is available within your Practifi organization.

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 be displayed 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 contact your CSM.

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon 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 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 field set. Fields can only be added once to the field set.
Click Save at the top left of the palette to finalize the field's inclusion. The field will now appear in the Additional Information section of the record in your Practifi organization.

Editing Fields

Custom fields created within your organization will support the editing of all attributes. Non-custom fields 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 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 want 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 displayed 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

Please note: Please consult the Modifying Preferred Address, Phone or Email Picklists section if you edit values within our Preferred Email, Preferred Address, Preferred Phone or any other custom picklist field that references other fields in your organization through triggers.

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon 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 on which the field you want to edit is in 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 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 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 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 on 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 used 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.

Modifying Preferred Address, Phone or Email Picklists

Triggers use certain picklists in Practifi to pull information into various locations within records. For example, the Preferred Phone picklist in Practifi establishes which phone number displays on the Key Entity record header for ease of access. When modifying certain picklists that use other fields' information through a trigger, you must ensure that the picklist option's API name matches the corresponding field's API name.

For example, if you are adding a picklist option called "Business Phone" to the Preferred Phone picklist, there must be a field called Business Phone within your organization and the "Business Phone" picklist option's label on the Preferred Phone field will be the API name of the Business Phone field. This applies to Preferred Address, Preferred Phone, Preferred Email or any picklist field referencing another field's value in your organization through a trigger.

To ensure the picklist option is appropriately set, use the following steps:

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon 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 that the field you want to edit is located on in 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 picklist field you would like to add a new value to and select its Label — for example, Preferred Phone.
Scroll to the Values section and select the New button to add a new picklist value to the field.
Within the Values box, enter the new picklist value. For example, "Business Phone".
Select the checkbox to the left of Record Type Name and then select Save to create the picklist value.
Scroll to the Values section on the field again and select the Edit button beside the newly added option.
Change the API Name to match the API Name of the corresponding field. To find the API of the corresponding field:
1. Locate the object that the field you want to edit is located on in the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column. It is recommended to perform these steps in a new browser tab to prevent loss of progress.
2. Select the Fields & Relationships tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all fields available on this object.
3. Locate the corresponding field for the picklist value and copy the value within the Field Name column. This is the field's API name.
4. Paste this value in the API name of the picklist option.
Select Save to finalize this change.

Deactivating Picklist Values

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon 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 that the field is on within 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 want to deactivate.
In the pop-up dialog box in your browser, confirm you would like this value deactivated and select OK. The value will now be displayed 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 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 that the field is on within 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 want to delete.
In the pop-up dialog box in your browser, confirm you would like this value deleted and select OK.
Select if you want to replace the deleted value with another picklist option or a blank value.
- Please note: Existing records will no longer display a value if replaced with a blank 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 selected during the replacement stage of the picklist deletion process.

Troubleshooting

When creating a new picklist value, the new value must be added to the record type to display within the picklist's drop-down menu. If you've created a new picklist value and it is not displaying within the picklist's drop-down menu in your organization, perform the following steps to add the picklist value to the record type:

If not already in the Object Manager, select the gear icon 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 that the field is on within the Object Manager list and select its name in the Label column.
Select the Record Types tab on the left-hand side to open a list of all record types available on this object.
Locate the record type on which you want this value visible and select its Record Type Label.
Navigate to the field the picklist value is on within the Picklist Available for Editing table and select the Edit button beside the field name.
Select the picklist value within the Available Values list and use the Add arrow to move it to the Selected Values list. Repeat this step if necessary to add multiple values for selection.
Click Save to finalize the changes.