New Configuration - Custom Field Management

New Configuration - Custom Field Management

The Custom Field Management section of AdviceOS allows you to create customised fields within certain areas of AdviceOS that may be relevant or specific to your Practice or Dealergroup. This is generally information that you want to capture about your clients, tasks, SOAs or users, but that aren’t readily available within the standard fields that Midwinter offers.

There are three key areas on the main page of Custom Field Management, and we will go into detail of the functionality for each area below. These include:

  1. Dropdown options to navigate between the different areas of AdviceOS you can create custom fields, and at the Licensee or Practice level.
  2. The ability to edit any existing custom fields
  3. The ability to create new sections and new custom fields within these sections


Types of Custom Fields

There are 4 types of custom field that can be created, and these will directly impact the area of AdviceOS that the custom field will be available. These can then be created at the Licensee level or Practice level, depending on who you want to have access to the fields (ie fields created at the Licensee level will be available to all users in the Licensee, while Practice level will be available only to those in your Practice).

The four types are:

  1. Client
  2. Task
  3. SOA
  4. User
Info
When creating custom fields, you can determine whether these are mandatory fields that the user must complete before navigating away from the page. This may be useful it helping to control work processes within your business.

Custom Fields – Client

Any custom fields that are created under the ‘Client’ type will then be available in the following location of AdviceOS:

  1. Client > Fact Find > Custom Fields

These custom fields will allow a user to track relevant information about their client in Fact Find, and if desired use minicodes to include these fields into any Fact Find report. 

A few examples of this may include the following:
  1. Keeping track of a clients hobbies, how they like their tea or coffee, or any other interesting information that may assist with a personal rapport prior to a meeting.
    1. These are examples of custom fields that you likely would not include in the reverse fact find, but are useful to have readily available in AdviceOS
  2. Notes from the last meeting, advice that is considered into the future, last fact find date, or other relevant information specific to your Practice or Licensee. 
    1. These could be included as a minicode in the reverse fact find if required.


Custom Fields – Task

Any custom fields that are created under the ‘Task’ type will then be available in the following location of AdviceOS:

  1. Settings > Task and Workflow Configuration > Task templates

These custom fields can directly impact task templates. A user can add them within a task template so that their staff can update or action these fields within tasks for a client.

This may be useful when creating tasks that require specific steps, actions or information to be noted down within the task that cannot be captured in other fields. A few examples may be:
  1. Did you get the clients AML and Identification during the sign up meeting
  2. Did you book in the review meeting for next year
  3. When calling the clients investment products using the TPA, did you collect information on X, Y, Z




Custom Fields – SOA

Any custom fields that are created under the ‘SOA’ type will then be available in the following location of AdviceOS:

  1. Modelling > Planbuilder > Build Advice > Advice information

These custom fields can be used as a checklist for your advisers when producing advice documents for clients, specifically around the scope of advice and any relevant information regarding the advice documents.

For these fields to be visible, you need to ensure that the appropriate 'Scope' has been selected based on the custom fields that have been created.



Custom Fields - User

Any custom fields that are created under the ‘User’ type will then be available in the following location of AdviceOS:

Licensee management > User administration > Custom user information

These custom fields can be used to capture specific information about users within your Licensee or Practice.

Some examples of this could include areas of advice topics that the User can provide advice on, their qualifications, any relevant training that has been completed, or internal courses or induction procedures.


Creating a new Custom Field

The below information will go into details of creating a new custom field.

Owner

The owner of the custom field can be set at the Licensee or Practice level, depending on who you want to have access to these fields. Prior to being able to add the custom field, you must select the Owner level.

Manage Sections

Prior to creating the custom field, ensure you have created the relevant sections that you want these fields to be displayed in.
For example, under the "Client" type custom field, you may have a number of questions related specifically to Estate Planning. You can create a Section called 'Estate Planning' and all of the custom fields added under that Section will be visible.


Add Custom Field

To add a new custom field, ensure you have selected the appropriate owner, created the relevant section and then press + Add Custom Field.

Determining the Type of Custom Field

You will then be presented with a number of different types of Custom Fields, which will determine the type of information you are capturing. These include:
  1. Short Text
    1. A short text box allowing the user to input any text
  2. Long Text
    1. A longer text box allowing the user to input any text
  3. Number
    1. A text box restricted to only numbers
  4. Currency
    1. A text box referring to currency
  5. Choice
    1. A dropdown with specific choices available
  6. Date
    1. A calendar allowing the user to select any date
  7. Checkbox
    1. A single tick box
  8. Selection
    1. A selection of a number of tick box options
Below you can see a screenshot with each of the different types.


Creating your Custom Field

Once you have selected the type of custom field you wish, you will be presented with a new dialog. Dependent on the type, the dialog may look slightly different, however the general concept is the same. This dialog allows you to:
  1. Add in a name for your custom field
  2. Rrite a description for additional relevant information about the custom field
  3. Choose which Section the custom field will be assigned to
  4. Determine whether there should be a default value in the field initially, otherwise left blank
  5. Determine the position of the field within the specified selection (ie the above screenshot the 'date' custom field is in position 6)
  6. Set whether a value is mandatory for this field
Notes
Setting it to be mandatory means the user will not be able to navigate away from the page without completing this field




Inserting Custom Field's into Templates

Once you have created a custom field, you may also want to be able to report on the inputs of the field. For example, you may add additional information into Client Fact Find custom fields and want these to appear within the reverse fact find report that is generated out of AdviceOS.

To do this, you need to use the Code for that minicode. This is displayed in the last column of the custom field page.
This then needs to be added into the relevant document using the below minicodes:
  1. Primary: <[Client.Custom.NAMEOFCODE]>
  2. Spouse: <[Spouse.Custom.NAMEOFCODE]>
  3. Group: <[Group.Custom.NAMEOFCODE]>   
So, for example, if you wanted to include the Short Text answer for your client, you would include the following minicode in the relevant section of the document: <[Client.Custom.ShortText]>
Notes
The above minicode provides the answer that has been given in the field. If you want more details (ie the initial question that leads to this answer) you will need to add these in the template as hardcoded text.


    • Related Articles

    • New Configuration - Client Folders

      Overview This area of AdviceOS allows you to add and name new folders and sub folders for document storage within Client Records. This ensures that each client has the same folder structure for easy access to documents and consistent management. At ...

    • New Configuration - Email Template Management

      Creating email templates This section allows you to create and edit notifications and email templates. Navigate to Settings / New Configuration / Email Template Management to start creating your own templates. 1) Choose the owner of the template You ...

    • New Configuration - FSG and Privacy Policy

      FSG management and version control is typically controlled at the licensee or practice level. This configuration functionality allows permission to users to track and control the version being used by a practice and ultimately the versions provided ...

    • Task and Workflow Configuration - Task Templates

      This section of AdviceOS allows you to create templates for any tasks you want your office to have available. Once a task template has been designed and saved here, it will be accessible for your staff to use for any clients as required. These tasks ...

    • New Configuration - User Email Signatures

      Accessing Email Signature Page Hover of the main menu (1), hover over settings (2) and select User Email Signatures (3): When first entering this tab the page will appear like so: Inputting Your Email Signature into AdviceOS First select the user you ...