Fields and choices

Overview

Fields control the organization-specific information shown on positions, employees, job codes, and departments. They define which standard fields are available, which custom fields your organization adds, where those fields appear, which choices users can select, and how status values affect counts.

FTE Tree separates this setup into five areas:

• Standard fields: Settings for fields included with FTE Tree.
• Custom fields: Organization-defined fields for capturing additional data.
• Field order: One shared sequence for standard and custom fields.
• Option sets: Selectable values used by custom fields and other configurable fields.
• Status values: Status choices for positions and employees, including behavior settings such as whether a status counts as active.

Access needed

Standard fields and custom fields

Standard fields are included with FTE Tree. They provide the standard data needed for position control, such as:

• Position: Name, status, department, job code, FTE, pay rate, reports to, adjustments, and funding source.
• Employee: Name, status, FTE, job code, and reports to.
• Job code: Pay rate, adjustments, hierarchy placement, and pay grade.
• Department: Hierarchy placement.

Standard fields cannot be deleted. Their settings can still be adjusted where FTE Tree allows it, such as whether the field is required or where it appears. Position fields can also control whether changes require approval.

Funding source is a position standard field because it supports multiple allocations, each with a source and percentage. It is visible by default and optional by default. Its selectable values are managed through the Funding source option set. When funding source is filled in, its percentages must use two decimal places and total exactly 100.00%.

Reports to is optional by default so your organization can create and keep more than one top-level position. To change its required setting, go to Settings > Positions > Position standard fields, then open Reports to. Turning on Required makes users select a position in Reports to during later routine position entry; it does not add reporting relationships to existing top-level positions. The field’s approval stage is separate and controls how changes to Reports to are reviewed.

When Required is on, a person who can manage positions only in selected departments must choose an active position in Reports to that they can also manage. The choices are limited to positions that person is allowed to manage.

A person who can Manage positions in All departments can still leave Reports to blank when an intentional top-level position is needed. This supports more than one top-level position; you do not need to create a generic root or turn Required off temporarily. Existing top-level positions remain valid and can still receive unrelated updates.

Position imports require permission to manage positions in All departments. A person with this access can leave the required Reports to column blank when creating a top-level position. A manager limited to selected departments cannot start a position import and should use the position form. In update imports, a blank Reports to cell leaves the current reporting line unchanged; use the position form to make an intentional move to the top level.

Custom fields store additional information for positions, employees, job codes, or departments. Custom fields can be created, edited, reordered, deactivated, and reactivated. Deactivation removes a field from new entry while preserving its settings and saved values.

Navigating to field settings

Field settings are found under Settings, organized by area. Select the row for the area you want to configure, such as position, employee, job code, or department.

Depending on the area, you may see links for:

• Standard fields: Configure fields included with FTE Tree.
• Custom fields: Create and manage organization-defined fields.
• Field order: Arrange standard and custom fields together in the sequence used throughout that area.
• Option sets: Manage choices used by single-select and multi-select custom fields.
• Status values: Manage status labels and behavior for positions, employees, and other areas that use a status.

Creating a custom field

To create a custom field, navigate to the desired area’s Custom fields page and click Create custom field. The following settings are available:

• Label: The name displayed wherever the field is included on supported forms, Details pages, lists, or Position reports. It must be unique for that area within your organization.
• Data type: The kind of information the field stores. The data type cannot be changed after the field is created. If you need a different type, create a new field and deactivate the old one.
• Help text: Optional guidance displayed with the field on forms.
• Required: When enabled, users must provide a value when creating or updating a position, employee, job code, or department in that area.
• Option set: For single-select and multi-select fields, select the option set that provides the available values.

Available data types are Text, Long text, Integer (whole number), Decimal, Currency, Date, Date time, Boolean (yes or no), Email, URL (web address), Single select, and Multi select.

Use a decimal field for a non-monetary number; it supports four decimal places. Use a currency field for a U.S.-dollar value; it supports two decimal places and displays the central $. The $ is presentation only and is not part of stored, submitted, imported, or exported numeric values. Selecting the correct type prevents a hidden fraction of a cent from affecting comparisons, approvals, or reports.

Long text accepts up to 5,000 characters. An active Long text value remains available on supported Details pages and in reports, but Position search does not use Long text, Currency, Email, or inactive custom-field values. After updated position information is ready, values in a deactivated field no longer find positions in search; saved history remains.

An organization can have up to 100 active position custom fields and 250 position custom fields in total, including inactive fields kept in history. Deactivating a field leaves room for another active field but does not remove the saved field. At the total limit, reuse or reactivate an existing field.

After creating a custom field, open its Display settings to choose where it appears on supported FTE Tree pages. A field can appear in one page location and be hidden from another; for example, a field can remain available on an edit form while being hidden from a list. Reports are independent of these page display choices.

Standard and custom field settings

Standard fields and custom fields share many of the same settings:

• Field approval stage for position fields: Controls position change requests after a position is approved. The choices come only from the position change workflow. Fields set to No field approval requirement take effect when saved by an authorized person, while a named stage requires a position approval request. A submitted position change still completes its normal approval path, and a field can extend it to a later stage. Field stages do not alter new position, position replacement, or position elimination approval paths. Every initial field on a new draft remains proposed until the complete position is approved.
• Required: Controls whether users must provide a value.
• Currency formatting for supported standard fields: Displays a standard numeric value as a two-decimal U.S.-dollar amount. Custom fields use the Currency data type instead; Decimal and Integer custom fields do not have a separate currency setting.
• Display settings: Control whether the field appears in each supported location. Required active fields must remain visible where users enter them.

FTE Tree will not let you make a field required or reactivate a required field while it is hidden from every place where users can enter it. Turn on an editable location in Display settings, then make the field required or reactivate it.

Availability is changed through a separate action, not a checkbox on the field settings form. Open a custom field and choose Actions > Deactivate custom field when it should no longer be offered for new values. Choose Reactivate custom field when it should be offered again.

Display and report behavior

Display settings use the page locations available for each area. Position fields can appear on the position list and Details page. Employee fields can appear on employee forms. Job code and department fields can appear on their trees, forms, and Details pages.

Downloaded import templates include the active fields supported by that import; field display choices do not control imports. Hiding a field from one page does not delete its saved values or hide it from other supported pages.

Position control status includes every active Position custom field, even when no position has a value yet. Page display settings do not remove fields from the report, and there is no separate report checkbox or field picker. Approved positions use their approved values; a never-approved draft uses its current proposed values. Currency custom fields require View sensitive workforce data for the approved department or, for a never-approved draft, its current proposed department. Email custom fields require employee read access for the included departments; otherwise the value is shown as Restricted.

When your organization renames standard fields or labels, newly downloaded templates use the current labels. A newly prepared report uses the labels and choices that apply when you run it. A completed report keeps its original columns, labels, choices, and values. Always prepare an import from a newly downloaded template so its column headings match your organization.

Reordering fields

Open Field order for the area you are configuring. Standard and custom fields appear together in one sequence. Use the move controls to place a field earlier or later.

The same relative order applies on forms, lists, trees, and Details pages wherever those fields are included. Position control status uses the configured Position custom-field order. Display settings can hide a field from one page location without creating a separate order or changing the sequence elsewhere.

Deactivating a custom field

Deactivate a custom field when it should no longer be offered for new values or included in later reports. The field definition, existing values, and activity history remain. Reports already completed remain unchanged, while reports run after deactivation omit the inactive field. Reactivating the field includes it in later reports. Standard fields are kept and cannot be deactivated unless FTE Tree specifically allows it.

Effective dating and approval status

Many field values can change by date. An effective date determines when the value starts applying, and the value remains in effect until a later value for the same field starts.

Custom fields on positions, employees, job codes, and departments always use an effective date. If a value should apply to all earlier reports, enter the organization’s historical baseline date. That value remains in effect until a later dated value begins.

Clearing an optional dated field removes the earlier value from that date forward until a later value begins. This differs from leaving a cell blank in an import update file, which keeps the existing value.

Saved employee, job code, and approved position values are kept rather than deleted. Add a new effective date for a business change. To correct a mistake without changing when the value began, update the value at the same effective date; the earlier recorded version remains in history. An unsubmitted proposed position value can be discarded when the action is available, but discarding it does not remove an approved value.

Multiple dated values let you track changes over time. FTE Tree shows the latest value that has begun by the date you are viewing. Reports use each value for the part of the reporting period when it applies.

Each field value also has an approval status:

• Draft: The value has been entered but has not been approved. Draft values are indicated on the relevant Details pages.
• Approved: The value is official as of its effective date, either because it did not require approval or because its request was approved.

Every initial standard and custom field on a new draft remains proposed until the New position request is fully approved, including fields set to No field approval requirement. FTE Tree approves all initial position information together; it does not approve individual initial fields early.

After the position is approved, a field with a Position change approval stage must go through a Position change request before a new value or change takes effect. A field set to No field approval requirement takes effect when a person with access saves it. If a Position change request is submitted, it completes its default route and continues to any later stage required by a changed field. The request status determines whether a proposed value becomes official, and the effective date determines when it applies. See Working with approval requests.

Option sets

Option sets provide the choices for single-select and multi-select custom fields. The same option set can be used by more than one of these custom fields in the same area.

A job code option set supplies choices for a job code custom field. It does not organize the job code tree or decide which job codes can be used in a department.

Manage option sets

Open the Option sets link for the relevant area to create and edit option sets. Each option set contains one or more option values. Availability is a separate action, not a checkbox on the option-set form.

Open an option set and choose Actions > Make unavailable when the set should no longer be offered for a new or changed custom field. Existing custom fields keep their link to the saved option set, and saved values remain unchanged. Choose Make available to offer the same set again. Making an option set unavailable does not delete it or make its individual option values unavailable.

Option values

Each option set contains one or more option values. The following settings are available for each value:

• Name: The label displayed to users when selecting from the list. It must be unique within the option set.
• Display order: Controls the order values appear in the selection list.
• Default: Marks this value as the default selection when creating new entries. Only one value per option set can be the default.

Option-value availability is also a separate action, not a checkbox on the edit form. Open the value and choose Actions > Make unavailable when it should no longer be offered for new selections. Existing field values and planned changes retain the recorded choice. Choose Make available to offer the same value again. A default value must remain available, so select another default before making the current default unavailable.

Status values

Status values define the choices available for status fields on positions and employees. They also carry behavior settings used by FTE Tree:

• Position statuses can be configured to count, or not count, as active positions.
• Employee statuses can be configured to count, or not count, as active employees.

This lets your organization customize visible status labels while making each status’s behavior clear. For example, a position status value with Counts as active position enabled counts toward active position totals and your paid position count.

If you add status choices, keep an available default and at least one available choice for both active and inactive records.

Use Make unavailable on a status value when it should not be offered on new records or changes. Existing positions or employees keep their recorded status. Status values are not deleted through standard settings.

Activity history

Changes to field settings, field order, display settings, option sets, option values, and status values appear in activity history where available. Open Activity history from the relevant settings page to review who changed a setting and when.