Fields: the building blocks of Flowzone

Fields are one of the building blocks of Flowzone. Spend time setting up your fields correctly and the system just - well - flows. Fields are fundamental and there are various types. Here, we run through the different setup options in Projects, Documents, Users and Companies.

"Field" is just the technical term for a placeholder or container for data. Everything you want to capture about a project, activity, user, document - or -whatever - needs to be entered into a different field. If you are working with a spreadsheet right now, then the field name is the equivalent of one of your column titles. And the field data is the information in each cell of that column.

Project fields

You can create as many project fields as you need. Once created, they can be added to your project lists and laid out however you like in your project tabs. The most widely used fields in Flowzone are text, number and date fields but there are many others which can be incredibly useful. Let's take a look at some of these.

One of the most useful is a selector. With a selector you create a list of values that users select (hence the name!) when they want to make an entry. It means that you can control what values are in the field. Each selector value can have a colour so they are great for creating statuses or for categorisation. And as you can create multiple selector fields you can have multiple statuses or ways of categorising your projects.

Booleans are great. They are simple tick boxes, so allow you to say "yes" or "no" in a field.

Another handy field is a currency. This is the same idea as a number field but you can choose a currency such as Pound (£), Euro (€) or Dollar ($).

A user field presents a list of all the users in the system. Or you can use criteria in the setup of the field to constrain it to certain users. For example, you might want a user field that gives you all your account managers. No problem. With user fields you no longer have to worry about how to spell your colleagues' or clients' names!

Think of a file field as being like an attachment. If you want someone to be able to add attachments to your projects then file fields are perfect. However, don't forget that each Flowzone project can also come with its own documents area where you can upload multiple files in a slightly different way (we can help you decide which route is best for you!).

A company field is a bit like a selector but it displays all the companies that you have created in Flowzone. Use it to select from a list of suppliers, for example.

Last, but by no means least, there is the milestone field. This lets you link a project date to a milestone in your timeline, giving you a graphical view of these key dates in your projects.

All these field types can be set with defaults and you can set controls to either require that the field is completed or to restrict the data within certain constraints.

Fields in Tabs and Lists

You can add your fields into your project tabs. Lay them out exactly as you want. You can group them into sections or panels with Flowzone's powerful layout options so that the information that users see is relevant and clear. For example, sections for financial fields or others for key date fields can help the users quickly get the information they need at a glance. Once fields have been added to a project tab they will also be available in all your project list views and dashboard panels.

Fields and Automations

Fields can be used to drive process. So, when a field gets updated we can use an automation to send emails out, update other information, do calculations and much more. Flowzone's unique capabilities give you all this power.

Even more fields - Documents, Companies and Users

So far, we've been talking about project fields. But everything you can do with project fields you can do in these other areas of your system!

What information do you want to collect about your documents? Maybe some keywords, or an expiry date. You could add photographer, location or brand fields; whatever makes sense for the types of documents that you use. It's easy to customise your own fields if you need to - and we will help you configure all of this during setup.

User information, meanwhile, can be used to group people by department, by job title, by skill set, office location and much more. Company fields capture data about things like addresses, brands and status ("Hot" or "Not", so to speak).

Don't forget that in Flowzone all this data is linked and controlled. As you link a company to a project all the company fields are available in your projects and vice versa. All this data is beautifully presented in clear, concise ways that are inherently searchable and can be quickly filtered.

Our role in the configuration process is to work with you to set the system up exactly as you require. Fields are the backbone of how Flowzone presents the data back to you, in order to tell you something constructive about your work. Get in touch if you want to find out more about configuring your fields in new or different ways.