About Optional Fields

Learn more

Adding Optional Fields to Transaction Entry Screens

O/E Optional Fields Screen

O/E Optional Fields Settings Screen

Setting Up Order Entry

You can customize your Order Entry system by using optional fields to store additional information that you want to keep with miscellaneous charges, orders, shipments, invoices, credit notes, and debit notes.

You can add unlimited optional fields to Sage 300 screens and transaction details. You can also specify whether information is passed to other subledgers or General Ledger.

Note: After making changes to program options (on Options screens) or optional fields (on Optional Fields screens), you and all other users must sign out and sign in again to apply the changes.

Validating Data in Optional Fields

You can restrict the information that can be entered into any optional field you add to a transaction entry screen. To do this, you create a list of permitted values when you add the optional field on the Optional Fields screen in Common Services, and then use the O/E Optional Fields screen to add the optional field to selected transactions, transaction details, or charges.

When you enter information in the field on a transaction entry screen in Order Entry, Sage 300 validates the information before accepting it. This is useful for any field that has a clearly defined set of valid entries, such as a list of approved freight carriers.

Adding Optional Fields to Transaction Entry Screens

Before adding optional fields for Order Entry, you must first define optional fields for Sage 300 using the Optional Fields screen in Common Services.

After you define these optional fields, you use the O/E Optional Fields setup screen to define optional fields for the following transactions, transaction details, and charges:

For more information, see Adding Optional Fields to Transaction Entry Screens.

Note: If you want to delete an optional field that is used in Order Entry, you must first delete the optional field from the records that use it, or post any transactions that include it.

Passing Information to General Ledger and Other Subledgers

Important! You can—and should—restrict the flow of information that is passed to General Ledger when you post transactions that use optional fields. Send values to General Ledger only for optional fields that require financial analysis, and only to accounts where they are required.

If the optional fields you add to Order Entry transactions and transaction details match optional fields in General Ledger transactions, the Order Entry optional field can be passed automatically to General Ledger.

Optional field values are passed to General Ledger if they meet the following criteria:

If you want Order Entry optional field information to appear on invoices transferred to Accounts Receivable, you must use the same optional fields in both programs.

On the O/E Optional Fields setup screen, you can specify groups of accounts for which values for an optional field will be passed to General Ledger. For more information, see O/E Optional Fields Screen.