Custom Fields Overview

Overview

Custom fields give you the ability to add additional value fields to projects, tasks, and members. Use them to keep better track of client or project codes, contact information, employee IDs, target ROIs, or any other relevant data that might get lost in an email chain. They can also help you adapt Kantata OX to your business processes and workflows.

You can create custom fields at the project, task, user, and group level. They are searchable and editable from the Project List and can be used to sync Kantata OX with other third-party applications like Slack, QuickBooks, and Jira.

How Custom Fields Are Arranged

Custom fields are arranged into predefined sets that correspond to Project, Task, User, and Group in Kantata. They act as repositories for your custom fields.

Project Sets—Use to add information, such as a project number, target ROI, or client code, to a project. You can view and edit the information from the Project Pulse side panel. They are searchable and editable in the Project List and can be made available in project Estimates (if legacy Estimates are enabled on the account).

Note: You can also use Forms to view and edit a project's custom fields. Forms can be added as tabs in the project workspace. You can control which custom fields appear and arrange them in the way you want. For more information, see the Forms article.
Task Sets—Use to add information to Tasks, such as work location or a category code. You can view and edit the information from the Task Details side panel, and search them from Tasks, or within a Project’s Task Tracker.
User Sets—Use to add information about members, such as an employee ID, employee location, former name, or whether they are full(-) or part-time. You can view and edit the information in the User Details side panel as well as the Account Members Details side panel. These fields can be made available to the Resource side panel to help better match resource supply with demand.
Group Sets—Use to add information to Groups, such as a project owner, the date the group was created, or any other relevant information. You can view and edit the information from the Groups tab within a Project.

Field Types You Can Add to Sets

Text—Creates an open text field that you can use to enter information such as email addresses, statuses, alphanumeric codes, and other text-based information. If you do not want the same information—like an alphanumeric project code—to be used again when the field is used elsewhere, select Unique Value Required.
Date—Creates a date picker, which can be useful to keep track of internal deadlines.
Currency—Creates an open currency field; use it to include things like a target ROI, or the maximum budget for a project.
Number—Creates an open numerical field. It is useful for things like internal client or project codes. If you do not want the same information—like an alphanumeric project code—to be used again when the field is used elsewhere, select Unique Value Required.
Choice—Creates a drop-down menu from which to make selections. This is useful if you need to select a location, update project status completion, or if you need to specify whether an employee is full-time, part-time, or a contractor. Select Allow Multiple Sections to enable multi-choice options for the choice field type.

INFO

The options in a Choice custom field are displayed in the order they are added and cannot be rearranged. If you manually re-sort the options by deleting and recreating them, this will create new options that are separate from the original options. Any project, task, user, or group that has the original option selected will not switch to the new option.

Who Can See and Edit Custom Fields?

The ability to view and edit custom fields is based on two custom field permission types:

Project Custom Fields—These permissions are based on the user's project permissions in each individual project per custom field. Read and Write Permissions within the project level are managed by Account Administrators.

NOTE

Users with view project permissions—View Tasks, View Time and Expenses, and View Financials—are unable to edit task and project information, which means they can also not be given Write Permissions for Project Custom Fields.

Users with the Report Viewer account permission or above can see all project custom fields, regardless of their project permission.
User Custom Fields—These permissions are based on the user's account-level permissions. User Custom Fields are viewable only if the field's Read Permissions are equal to (or higher than) the member's account-level permission. For example, a Text field with Read Permissions set to Reports Viewer can be viewed by members with Reports Viewer access or higher. Read and Write Permissions are managed by Account Administrators.

Any custom field can be hidden from view. This is useful if you want to hide custom fields related to integrations such as Intacct, Jira, and Slack; or just show fields necessary for projects, tasks, users, and groups. Hidden fields will not appear in most places in Kantata OX, but are still available for integrations, the Kantata API, and as filters in Resource Center, Insights, the Project List tab, and global Tasks list.

Note: When a custom field has the Hide Field setting enabled, it is viewable only in some areas of Kantata—such as the Project List— but is not editable by any users. Hidden fields are only editable through the API and cannot be marked as Required for Staffing.

Task Custom Field Checkboxes.png

How to Create a Custom Field Set

In the left navigation, hover over Settings, then select Custom Fields.
Click the Add Custom Field Set button.
Select either a Project, Task, User, or Group for your set.

Note: You can only add 200 custom fields per type.
Enter a Set Name and then click Add. The name of the set appears under the selected type.
Note: If you need to change the name of a set once you've created it, select the Edit icon (“ ”) and change the name accordingly. To remove a set, click the Delete icon (“ ”).

How to Create a Custom Field

In the left navigation, hover over Settings, then select Custom Fields.
Click the set name you want to add a custom field to.
Under the Configure Custom Field section on the new page, click the Add Custom Field button.
In the Select a field type section, click the field type that you want to add a custom field for—Text, Date, Currency, Number, or Choice—on the left-hand side.
Enter a Field name.
Select the account permission levels that are required both the Read and Write permissions from the corresponding drop-down menus.
Click Add.
Note: Project or User custom fields permissions determine whether certain custom fields are visible or can be edited.

Making Custom Fields Available for Estimates and Resources

Remember that if you are adding custom fields to Project Sets, you can make them available in project Estimates (if legacy Estimates are enabled on the account).

Project Custom Fields Checkboxes.png

If you’re creating User custom fields, you can make these fields Available for Resources by checking the box. You can also make them Required for Staffing, meaning that the fields must be filled out before a Resource Request is submitted or an unnamed resource is staffed.

User Custom Fields Checkboxes.png

Note: When the Available to Resources box is checked, User custom fields do not follow standard User custom field read/write permissions but are instead dependent on the Edit Resources section of Resource Management Access set in Access Groups that control how resources are managed in Resourcing areas. In other words, if a member has the ability to view and/or edit a resource, they have the same access to view and/or edit information for their custom fields.

Kantata API

Kantata API: Custom Fields