Overview
Imagine being able to assign your own data, any data, to things like clients, engagements, or even coaches. Custom fields are user-defined data fields that allow administrators, or coaches, to capture specific information in Coaching.com. Clients, engagements and more can be tagged with custom fields. Custom fields are incredibly powerful, and will open up new opportunities in how you and your coaches use the platform today.
The diagram below shows all of the different Coaching.com elements that you can add custom fields to.
Custom Fields Can Be Applied to the Following Elements
When adding custom fields, there is a new dialog that allows for the fields to be easily added, or reviewed throughout the platform. See below for the dialog that would assign custom fields to a engagement. Dropdowns on the left allow for adding specific custom fields. And then the area on the right allows for adding custom field values.
Centralized Custom Field Manager
Custom fields can be managed from a central location within the Global Settings. A new card is presented for Premium and Enterprise accounts.
Global Settings
Clicking on the Custom Fields card opens the Custom Fields Manager.
Custom Fields Manager
The Custom Fields Manager shows a list of all of the custom fields that you create within your account. When a custom field is created, it can be used across the platform for tagging different components, such as engagements, engagement templates, clients, coaches, and more.
The Custom Fields Manager allows for new fields to be created, edited, and also deleted. The custom fields are completely yours, and based off of your needs.
Adding or Editing a Custom Field
When you add or edit a custom field, the Custom Field Editor Dialog will open.
Custom Fields have 4 attributes:
Visibility | Controls who can see or edit custom fields. There are 3 options:
|
Name | Sets the display name for the custom field. |
Format | There are initially 2 formats offered which include:
|
Value | For Multi-Select this can be a pre-defined list of options that can be used. For Open Text, the value will be filled in when tagging the engagement or coachee. This field is limited to 255 characters for both Multi-Select and Open Text. |
Applying Custom Fields
Once custom fields have been defined in the Central Manager, they can be used to tag engagements (and engagement templates), client coachees, client companies, employees, vendor companies, and coaches. That data is then accessible from the various pages where this information is found, including within engagements.
Employees
Custom fields can be applied to employees, regardless of their role. They can be used to create unique data for coachees that are employees, coaches, or even administrators. Custom fields are accessible from the 3-Dot menu next to each employee on the employees page.
Client Companies & Client Coachees
Custom Fields can be applied to client companies or direct clients via the clients page. The 3-Dot menu next to each client on this page has an option to 'Edit Custom Fields' as shown below:
Clients Page
To drill down even further, custom fields can be applied client coachees of the client companies through a 3-Dot menu in the list view(s) of the 'Coachees' tab.
Coachees Tab of Client Company
Selecting 'Edit Custom Fields' opens the Custom Field Selector Dialog shown below.
Custom Field Selector Dialog
The selector dialog has some neat features. The drop downs for the name and value fields are smart and will search for existing values. The multi-select will allow for selecting more than one option.
The custom fields applied to client companies as well as client coachees are also available for engagements with the related coachee, providing another place for accessing (or editing) the content. This is shown in the "Engagements & Engagement Templates" section below.
Vendor Companies, Shared Coaches, and Independent Coaches
Custom fields can be applied to vendor companies, their shared coaches, and to independent coaches from the vendors page. The 3-Dot menu next to each vendor on this page has an option to 'Edit Custom Fields' as shown below:
Vendors Page
Each coach that is shared by a vendor can also be edited to apply custom fields via the 3-Dot menu on the Vendor -> Coaches page.
Coaches Page
Whether coaches are sourced from independent coaches, internal employees, or if they are shared from vendors, they will appear on the Coach page within the software. The Coach page now showcases custom fields. Each coach on the Coach page has a new menu item to 'Edit Custom Fields', as seen below:
Engagement Templates & Engagements
Engagement templates can be used to pre-set custom fields. Every engagement created from the template will have the same custom fields applied.
Within the Engagement Settings, the custom fields are accessed about half way down the page. Here, administrators will be able to see all custom fields. Coaches and Engagement editors will only be able to see custom fields that are defined as visible or editable by coaches. The example below shows a custom field that is visible to coaches, and another that is editable by coaches.
Accessing Custom Fields Data
When custom fields are applied to an engagement, an employee, etc, the custom fields can then be displayed and reviewed in various places within the platform. Custom fields are available from:
Pages that show table data, such as the Clients page, the Employees page, etc
Reports including the Engagements Report, the Coachee Report, & the Coach Report
Within an engagement
Pages That Show Table Data
Various pages have a table of data that can show custom field information alongside Coaching.com information. The pages that can show the related table data includes:
Engagements page
Clients Page
Client Coachees Page
Vendor Page
Vendor Coachees Page
Employees Page
Engagements Page as an Example
In order to view the custom fields associated with engagements, the 'Columns' button on the Engagements page can be selected to display the Customize Columns Dialog. From here, custom fields can be selected to be shown in the table.
Once custom fields are selected in the Customize Columns Dialog, the columns will be displayed alongside other columns in the table:
The columns will be remembered as a preference for subsequent visits. The custom fields can also be exported using the 'Export' button.
Updates to Filters
Certain pages allow you to filter the data to help find specific records. Namely these pages include:
Engagements page
Coach page
Coach Pools page
The filters on these pages now include custom fields. Once your data has been applied then the filters will become available in the filters dialog.
Accessing Custom Fields From Within Reports
Custom fields data is now included in reports. Custom fields applied to engagements will be available on the Engagements Report. Custom fields applied to coachees will be available on the Coachee report. And lastly custom fields applied to coaches will be available on the Coach report.
Report Filters
For the Engagement, Coachee, and the Coach Report, custom filters that are applied to those entities will appear on the associated report. These new filters provide incredible power for filtering the report by custom data. A new menu item appears next to the filter pills that allows for the custom field filters to be shown:
Once the "Show Custom Fields" menu item is selected, any custom field that has been applied to an engagement (for example) will be shown (See below).
This works similarly for the Coach and Coachee Report.
Reporting Table Data
For the Engagement, Coachee, and the Coach Report, the custom fields can be included within the table data on the report. The custom fields can be presented by using the 'Customize Columns' dialog, just like on other pages:
Once selected the columns will appear in the report's table data, along with the data provided by Coaching.com. The data will also appear in the exported CSV and Excel files when downloaded.
Accessing Custom Fields Within an Engagement
Engagements are unique in that this is where custom fields all come together. Custom fields applied to the engagement (or template), the client company, the coachee, the vending company, and the coach will all be available from within the engagement.
The screenshot below shows that there are 3 places within the engagement where custom fields can be accessed. The coachee custom fields (which are derived from the employee or client coachee records) are available from within the header, next to the caochee's avatar. This is also where the Client Company custom fields can be accessed. Similarly, next to the coach, the custom fields for the coach and their vendor company can be accessed. Meanwhile the engagement custom fields can be seen after clicking on the 'Settings' tab within the engagement.
For example, when accessing the custom fields next to the coachee, both the coachee and the client company information will be available in a single popup, and presented under different tabs.
Bulk Import
Bulk import of employees, client coachees, and engagements all support the ability to include custom fields during import. This speeds up the process for applying custom fields for many records with just a few clicks. Bulk import of custom fields is now available for:
Engagements
Employees
Client Coachees
New columns can be added to the standard bulk import CSV's. The example below, for engagements, shows that there are new columns (on the far right).
Custom fields that have already been defined in the Central Manager can be added. Below are the tips for how to set these up and utilize them in your workflow.
Requirements for Using Custom Fields in Bulk Import
The Custom Fields must already be defined in the Custom Fields Central Manager found in Global Settings.
The import can include both Multi-Select and Open Text custom field types
The column header should be named with the following format:
custom_field.[key 1]
For example: custom_field.billing code
For example: custom_field.reference_id
Values for the fields can then be included within the rows, along with the other information.
Commas are not accepted in the values
If more than one value is needed to be set, the values can be separated using a | pipe
For example: You have a Multi-Select that is named reference_id, and you have many different values defined in Central Manager. For one of your engagements you would like to include 2 different reference_id values
The column header would appear as: custom_field:reference_id
The row value for the custom field would appear as: value A|value B
When adding multiple values using the | pipe, please ensure there are no spaces before or after the | pipe.