Managing Custom Fields

Custom Fields offer practices the flexibility to maintain additional information within FYI, depending on their practice needs. Custom Fields can be added to:

• Clients
• Jobs (including using Custom User Roles to assign jobs)
• Time and Disbursements (Elite plan only)
• Employees (Elite plan only)
• Invoices (Elite plan only)

Custom Fields are not linked, for example, selecting a Custom Field value on a Client will not update the Job Custom Fields.

Understanding Custom Fields

There are two parts to a Custom Field:

• Custom Field Definition - controls the name and the type, for example a checkbox, or a drop-down. 
• Custom Field Value - the contents of the Custom Field, for example a date, or an individual option selected from a drop-down. 

Displaying the Custom Field Definitions

1. Log in to FYI as an FYI Admin.
   
   
2. From FYI, click Settings in the top right-hand corner.
   
   
3. Select Practice settings from the drop-down, then select General.
   
   
4. Click on the Custom Fields tab.

A list of the Custom Field definitions displays. Custom Fields are displayed alphabetically by default, but can be reordered as required. Refer to Reordering Custom Fields below.

If you have enabled Custom Field Grouping, an additional column will be displayed with the assigned group. Refer to Grouping Custom Fields.

Managing Custom Fields

Adding a new Custom Field Definition

Custom Fields may be created within FYI, or synchronised from your integrated practice management system, for example, Xero Practice Manager.

To create a Custom Field in FYI:

1. From the Custom Fields list, click Add.
   
   
2. Enter the Custom Field Name.
   
   
3. Checkmark where the Custom Field is Applied to.
   
   
4. Select a Group from the drop-down. This field will only be displayed if you have enabled Custom Field Grouping.
   
   For practices where FYI as Primary for Client Maintenance is enabled, Groups are not relevant to "User" type Custom Fields. These Custom Fields are displayed on the Client Summary and Job Summary tabs, and not in groups on the Custom Fields tab.
   
   
5. Select the Type. This determines how the value can be entered or selected when a user is updating the Custom Field. Refer to Custom Field Types for more details.
   
   When the Type is selected as "Drop-down", you also need to enter the options that will be available for that Custom Field as in the following example.
   
6. Click Save.
   
   
7. The new Custom Field will be added to the bottom of the list. To change the order of the Custom Fields refer to Reordering Custom Fields.

Changing a Custom Field Definition

Click on a Custom Field in the list. You can make changes to the Name or to what it Applies to.

You cannot change the Type. If a Custom Field has been set up with the incorrect Type it would need to be removed and added as a new Custom Field. You can include the Custom Field column in the Clients and Jobs list to check if it has already been used for a Client of Job.

You can add or delete Options for a Drop-down type Custom Field. If you delete an option in a Drop-down type Custom Field, this will not remove it from any Clients or Jobs it has already been selected in but it will not be available to be selected in any others.

Reordering Custom Fields

The display order of Custom Fields can be adjusted in the Custom Field drawer, available once the Custom Field has been created. This allows practices to reorder the Custom Fields to their preference.

Click on the Custom Field to display the Custom Field Drawer. The arrows are displayed in the top left corner.

Click the Up arrow to move the Custom Field higher, and the Down arrow to move it lower. 

To display the numerical order, add the Order column to the Custom Fields list in the same way as when adding columns to Documents, Jobs or Tasks Lists. Refer to Adding, Removing and Moving Columns in the Documents Lists

The updated order of Custom Fields will be displayed in:

• Clients - Summary and Custom Fields tabs.
• Jobs - Summary and Custom Fields tabs.
• Employees - Custom Fields.
• Setting a Custom Field, for example when creating an Invoice, Time, or a Job.

Grouping Custom Fields

Custom Fields in the Clients, Jobs, and Employees Custom Field tabs can be grouped together, to reduce the size of the list and allow users to easily find the required Custom Fields. For example, when grouping Custom Fields by Business Division.

Refer to Grouping Custom Fields.

Deleting a Custom Field Definition

Custom Fields created in FYI can be deleted if no longer required.

Note: Practices where FYI is the Primary Source for Client Data will be able to delete Custom Fields with any source, for example, fields created in Xero Practice Manager and synchronised to FYI. 

Select the Custom Field in the list, click Delete and confirm.

• If the Custom Field has been used, it will be removed from any relevant Clients or Jobs. The update will be synced to Xero Practice Manager.
  
  
• If the Custom Field is used in any Automation Processes, a notification will display confirming the custom field cannot be deleted. The custom field will need to be removed from the Automation Process before it can be deleted.
  
  
• Once deleted, the Custom Field Definition cannot be restored.

Custom Field Types

Type	Details	Example
Checkbox	Creates a True/False toggle.
Date	Used to track the calendar date of an event. The date can be either manually entered or selected from the displayed calendar. Note that the date will be displayed in the following format: 1 Dec 2023.
Decimal	A number with decimals.
Email	Used to enter an email address.
Drop-down	Creates a list to select a value from.
Number	A whole number (no decimal).
Text	A free text field for capturing relevant information. Text will become a clickable link if a URL is entered into the field in a supported format. Refer to Creating Web Links below.
URL	Website address
User	Displays a list of active Internal Users to select from.

Practice Management Integrations

Xero Practice Manager

For practices integrated with Xero Practice Manager, where FYI is not enabled as FYI as Primary for Client Maintenance:

• If you prefer that changes to Client and Job Custom Fields are only made in Xero Practice Manager, ensure that no users are given the Edit Custom Fields permission. 
  
  
• If you have any third-party apps updating Custom Fields within Xero Practice Manager, these are not synced to FYI automatically, and they would need to be manually updated. Refer to Sync from PM in Client Custom Fields and Job Custom Fields.
  
  
• The automatic sync of Custom Fields can be disabled by setting the Sync Custom Fields From XPM option to "Off". Refer to Resetting your connection between FYI and Xero Practice Manager.

GreatSoft and Third-Party apps

• Client and Job UDFs in GreatSoft are synced to FYI as a Custom Field definition. These are displayed in the Practice Settings Custom Fields.
  
  
• Maintaining or adding Custom Fields in FYI will not synchronise with GreatSoft.
  
  
• If you have any third-party apps updating Custom Fields within Xero Practice Manager, these are not synced to FYI automatically and they would need to be manually updated (refer to Sync from PM in Client Custom Fields and Job Custom Fields).

Synchronising Custom Fields

Automated Synchronisation

When integrated with either Xero Practice Manager, GreatSoft, or a practice management system via Practice Sync, the frequency of the automated synchronisation of Custom Fields will depend on your chosen integration.

Refer to the articles in the Apps and Integrations sections for details on your specific integration.

Note: Practices integrated with Xero Practice Manager with FYI as Primary for Client Maintenance enabled will have a different synchronisation frequency from the standard Xero Practice Manager integration. Refer to Synchronising with Xero Practice Manager where FYI is enabled for Primary Source of Client Data.

For practices on the Elite plan, Employee Custom Fields do not synchronise with XPM.

Manual Synchronisation

A manual synchronisation with Xero Practice Manager of Job Custom Fields can be prompted from:

• The Xero Practice Manager app via Automation - Apps (FYI Admins only).
• From the Job List.

At least one standard Job field must be modified to synchronise Job Custom Fields during a manual sync.

Sync from PM

When integrated with Xero Practice Manager, you can use the Sync from PM button at the bottom of the Job and Clients "Custom Fields" tab to sync the values for the Custom Field. Refer to Client Custom Fields and Job Custom Fields. 

The Sync from PM only syncs the values for the Custom Field for that Job i.e. the options selected for each field. The Manual or Automatic sync method must be used to synchronise the Custom Field definitions.

For practices on the Elite plan where FYI has been enabled as the Primary Source for Client Data, the Sync from PM button is not available. Custom Field values are synchronised from one-way from FYI to XPM only.