Managing user-defined fields

SECURITY  Configuring UDFs requires Admin permissions to both Application-wide (Shared) Features, and Admin permissions to Service Desk (Tickets), Devices, Organizations & Contacts, Contracts & Unposting or Projects & Tasks, depending on the entity. Viewing the list of UDFs only requires one or the other. Refer to Admin security settings.

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Features & Settings > Application-wide (Shared) Features > User-Defined Fields

About user-defined fields

User-defined fields (UDFs) are custom fields for data that cannot be mapped to the standard Autotask field set. They are created in two ways:

  • Autotask administrators can set them up for various entities. This type of user-defined field can be created, edited, and deleted with few restrictions. Refer to Adding a User-Defined Field.
  • They are generated automatically when a remote monitoring extension is enabled. This type of user-defined field cannot be deleted. Refer to System UDFs for remote monitoring extensions.

You can create user-defined fields for the following Autotask entities:

  • Contact
  • Contract
  • Device
  • Opportunity
  • Organization (Organization and Site Configuration UDFs)
  • Product
  • Project
  • Sales Order
  • Services
  • Service Bundles
  • Subscription
  • Task
  • Ticket and Recurring Ticket

The number of active user-defined fields that you can set up for each entity is limited. On each tab, Autotask displays the maximum number and how many user-defined fields are currently active. When you come within five fields of the limit, a dialog box will let you know. Once you have reached the limit, you can create an additional field, but it can only be saved as inactive. To activate it, you must first inactivate another UDF for this entity.

The limits are as follows:

Entity Maximum Number
Contact 100
Contract 50
Device 500
Opportunity 200
Organization 200
Product 100
Project 200
Sales Order 100
Services 100
Service Bundles 100
Subscription 100
Site Configuration 500
Task 100
Ticket 300

In most respects, UDFs work just like Autotask system fields. You can use them as filter and search fields, display and filter them in LiveReports, and use them in workflow rules. Entity categories allow you to control which UDFs appear in each category. They are visible to all users with access to the parent entity. There are two exceptions:

The list of user-defined fields in LiveReports is cached, and is only updated after the customer Autotask instance has been inactive for 5 minutes. Depending on your number of users and their activity level, it may take some time before new UDFs are available in LiveReports.

Managing UDFs

User-defined fields for all entities are managed from > Admin > Features & Settings > Application-wide (Shared) Features > User-Defined Fields. Each tab represents one of the Autotask entity types that support UDFs. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.

A right-click menu includes the following options:

Menu option Description

Edit

For system UDFs for remote monitoring extensions, only the Required check box and the Sort Order field are editable.

Convert to Site Configuration / Convert to Organization

 Organization UDFs and site configuration UDFs are both associated with the Organization entity. Organization UDFs are intended for sales information, and Site Configuration UDFs, for technical information. One type can be converted into the other. Refer to Converting Organization UDFs to Site Configuration UDFs.

Inactivate

When you inactivate a user-defined field, the data is still available to search and report on. Its visibility on entities that use categories (ticket, task, opportunity, and device) will be controlled by the category. If you no longer want the UDF to appear on those entities, you will need to modify the categories it is associated with. If it appears on the entity category, it will be editable.

On other entities that do not use categories, the UDF will no longer appear. For example, an inactive organization UDF does not appear on the New Organization, Edit Organization, or Organization page.

The field remains visible if it was selected for display as a column in a table when the UDF was inactivated. It is still available for selection in column choosers on tables.

Inactive UDFs remain available for dashboard tab widgets (as a Report On, Also Report On, Group By, Filter, Table columns) and widget tables, notification and invoice templates, contact action templates, and contact groups.

Inactive UDFs are not available to select as conditions or updates in workflow rules. They are not available in the import templates for the organization/contact, device, or product importers. You will not be able to populate or update inactive UDFs via the importers.

Delete

User-defined fields created by someone in your company can be deleted.

IMPORTANT  When you delete a UDF, all of its associated data will be deleted, as well. You will get a warning dialog, but once you click OK, this deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

The following limitations apply:

  • The UDF is associated with a workflow rule. In this case, you must edit the workflow rule and disassociate the UDF so it can be deleted.
  • The UDF is associated with a widget. In this case, you must edit the widget and disassociate the UDF so it can be deleted.
  • User-defined fields that are generated automatically when a remote monitoring extension is enabled cannot be deleted. Refer to System UDFs for remote monitoring extensions.
  • If the UDF is assigned as an IsDisplayAlwaysFields for any webhook configurations, you will receive a warning dialog that the webhook will be inactivated if you proceed with the deletion.

NOTE  If a UDF list option is associated with an entity, form template, widget, or workflow rule, it cannot be deleted until it is disassociated from the entity.