Creating a record

Forms, required fields, where dropdown choices come from, and how a document gets its number.

A list that accepts new records carries a primary button on its toolbar. What opens is a form: fields with labels, the required ones marked, hints where a rule is not obvious from the label.

• A field with a default starts at it on a new record, so you see what a blank would be saved as (a new training course starts at Self paced, 1 hour) and can change it before saving. An edit is never given a default.
• Spaces before and after a record’s code and name are removed on save, and a code another record already has, in any letter case, is refused naming the field and value: “A training course with code QA-TC-02 already exists. Use a different code.”
• The confirmation names the record: its document number, or otherwise what it is and its code (“Training Course QA-TC-06 created.”).

Lines that fill themselves

On a requisition, a purchase order, a quotation or a sales order, choosing the item on a line fills its unit and a price to start from: the item’s stocking unit, and for buying its standard cost (or list price where it has none), for selling its list price. Both stay editable. Change the item and they follow it — unless you typed your own value, which is kept.

Where the choices in a dropdown come from

The distinction is worth knowing when a value you need is missing. A missing configuration value is a five-minute administrator task. A missing lookup value means the record it points at has not been created yet.

Every dropdown offers only values the record can actually hold. A choice that would be refused on save is not offered in the first place, so picking from the list is always safe.

Searching a long dropdown

A dropdown with more than eight choices can be searched — on forms, on custom fields, and in the column chooser of the filter bar.

• Start typing and the list narrows to the choices containing what you typed.
• The up and down arrows move through what is left; Enter takes the highlighted choice; Escape closes the list without changing anything.
• The × in the box clears the choice.

Fields that appear only when they apply

Some fields mean something only after another answer, and are shown only then. What you do not need to fill is not on the form.

When a value is in the wrong form

A value that cannot go in a field is named, with the field and what the field takes — for example "Application: "APL-000015" is not valid here — it takes a choice from the list" — and the field is marked on the form, so you know which box to correct.

• An email field takes an address: "Email is not a valid email address. Enter one such as name@company.com".
• A phone or mobile field takes a phone number only: digits, +, spaces, the characters - ( ) . / and an extension.
• A field that points at another record, such as Application on a new offer, is a pick list: choose the record rather than typing its number.

Line grids inside a form

Documents made of a header and lines carry the grid in the creation form. Add rows, pick the account or item per row, and the running total updates as you type. A journal will refuse to save unless its debits equal its credits — the check is in the posting service, not in the screen, so it holds however the journal arrived.

What a field will take

Every number and date on every form and line grid is checked against one set of rules, in the browser as you type and again on the server when you save, so the rule holds however the record arrives — the console, an import, ASK or the published API. A field that breaks a rule turns red with the rule written under it, and the form will not save until it is put right.

Figures that are signed by nature — journal amounts, balances, variances, stock adjustments, revaluations, temperatures — keep their sign. The database also holds the most important of these rules itself, so a value that got past the screen would still be refused, with the same plain sentence rather than a constraint name.

Choices narrowed by what you chose above

A dropdown that depends on another field offers only what belongs to it. Choose a Location on a requisition and Deliver to warehouse lists only the warehouses at that location; choose a warehouse and the bin lists only its bins. Choose the warehouse first and the location is filled in for you. Change the location and a warehouse that is not there is cleared, so a record can never hold a combination the organisation does not have.

• The organisation chain: company → business unit → location → warehouse → bin, on requisitions, purchase orders, quotations, sales orders, deliveries, goods movement, cycle counts and the warehouse screens.
• Cost and profit centres, locations and warehouses come from the record’s own company and business unit. A cost centre that belongs to another unit — the hospital’s on a university document — is refused, naming both. A blocked or closed cost centre is refused too.
• A contact from the chosen customer; a supplier site, purchase order or contract from the chosen supplier; an encounter or care plan from the chosen patient; a job order from the chosen client; a work package from the chosen project; a routing or bill of materials from the chosen item.
• On a line grid, a line’s warehouse or bin is narrowed by the document above it.
• Where nothing matches the choice above, the field says so rather than showing an empty list with no explanation.

The server applies the same test on every save, whichever screen, import or integration the record came through, and refuses a combination that crosses companies or business units.

Limits that depend on other records

Some rules cannot be judged from the form alone, because they depend on what has already happened. They are checked when you save, post or approve, and a refusal says what the limit is and by how much it was missed.

The document number

Whether you type the number or the platform allocates it is configuration, per document type, per company:

• System generated — the platform numbers it and refuses a number you supply.
• Manually entered — the number becomes a required field on the form.
• Either — the number you enter wins; otherwise one is generated.

Master data ships as manual entry (item, supplier, customer, employee, patient, asset, GL account) and transaction data as system generated. Either can be changed. Numbers are unique per company, not globally — every company’s first purchase order is PO-000001.

The form follows the company’s own setting. Where the range is system generated, the number field is not asked for: it is shown read-only, says Assigned on save, and is filled when you save. Where it is manually entered, the field is required. Where it is either, the field is optional and a blank one is numbered. A company that has no range yet for a document is given one the first time it numbers that document, copied from its parent company (or another company) with its counter at 1.

Which unit the record lands in

A new record defaults to the business unit selected in the top bar, and the unit is editable on the record. If you work in one unit most of the time, set it as your default in your preferences and stop answering the question.