Defining Custom Fields
ONESOURCE Trust Tax includes a number of custom fields you can use for your specialized tracking needs. For example, you may want to track a promised delivery date for a return or a recipient letter, or you may want to flag accounts you consider sensitive or that need special attention. You can use custom fields to gather this information.
Custom fields can be associated with an account, with each recipient or with each state return for an account. For the account and recipient fields, you can specify whether the information is permanent or year dependent. You can also define custom fields that are associated with each asset, sale, tax lot or transaction.
Custom Fields without ONESOURCE Trust Tax Tools
Before you obtained a license a license to use ONESOURCE Trust Tax Tools, you had access to a handful of fields that you could use to store data any way you wanted. However, you could not control when these fields displayed or how the fields were referenced. In addition, different tax preparers in your organization could use these fields in different ways, which could result in confusion.
Custom Fields with ONESOURCE Trust Tax Tools
ONESOURCE Trust Tax Tools lets you control whether a custom field displays for your tax preparers. You can also control:
- The field description that displays in the list of columns on the Register Properties page.
- The title used as a column heading when the field is included in a register.
- The number of decimal places to show for numeric fields as well as the maximum number of characters allowed for text fields.
ONESOURCE Trust Tax Tools also provides you with the ability to define custom list fields. With list fields, you define the list of acceptable entries (referred to as list values). After saving the list, the values display as selections in a drop-down list.
Planning Custom Fields
Before you define your custom fields in ONESOURCE Trust Tax, you can use the following worksheet tabs in your Microsoft Excel workbook to organize them:
- Account Custom Fields Setup
- Asset Custom Fields Setup
- Beneficiary Custom Fields Setup
- Sale Custom Fields Setup
- State Custom Fields Setup
- Tax Lot Custom Fields Setup
- Transaction Custom Fields Setup
Defining Custom Fields
To define a custom field:
- SelectSETUP,CustomizethenFields. The following graphic shows theCustomize Fieldscollapsible section on the Fields page:
- Select the custom field you want to define from theCategorydrop-down list. Selections include:
- Account
- Asset
- Beneficiary
- Sale
- State
- Tax Lot
- Transaction
- Select the type of field you want to add from theField Typedrop-down list. Selections include:
- Text
- Lists
- Numbers
- Dates
- SelectSearch.
- The grid is updated to show the applicable custom fields. Custom fields that are currently in use display with a check mark in the check box in theOncolumn and the fields that can be edited have a white background. For custom fields that are not currently in use, the check box in theOncolumn is cleared and the row's background is gray.
- If you do not want to use a custom field, you can turn it off so it is not available to add to registers. To turn off a custom field, select the check box in theOncolumn to clear the check mark.
- Turn on the custom field you want to define by selecting the check box in theOncolumn.
- Use the custom field information you entered in your Microsoft Excel workbook to complete theDescriptionandTitlefields. Remember, the description is how the field is recognized in the list of columns on the Register Properties page. The title is shorter than the description, and it is used as a column heading when the field is included in a register.
- Complete one of the following for the field type you are adding:Field TypeSteps to Complete for Field TypeTextUse theCharacters Allowedfield to specify the maximum number of characters that can be entered in the field. This is helpful if you want tax preparers to enter a code or if the information will be exported for use in a different software application.noteTheCharacters Availablefield shows the maximum number of characters that are allowed in the custom field.ListsSelect theListlink to display a pop-up window. If you want a list value to show in the drop-down list as a default, enter the value in theIf no user entry, the field will showfield. Complete the following to add list values:
- In the grid row that includes the text, "Please select here to add new row," enter the first list value in theDropdown Listfield then press the TAB key.
- Enter the list order number for the list value in theList Orderfield. The list order determines how the list values are sorted in the drop-down list.
- Press the TAB key to add the first list value to the grid.
- Repeat steps a through d to continue with adding the list values.
- When you finish, selectSavethenCloseto return to theCustomize Fieldscollapsible section on the Fields page.
NumbersIf necessary, use thePrecisionfield to enter the number of digits that can be entered to the right of the decimal point. If you do not enter a number in this field, the number will display as a whole number. - SelectSave.