About Setting Up Optional Fields

Note: You can set up and use optional fields only if you use Transaction Analysis and Optional Field Creator.

Setting up optional fields is a two-step process. You must:

Set up system-wide optional fields in Common Services. More...

Before you can use optional fields in Purchase Orders, you must define optional fields for your Sage 300 system using the Optional Fields screen in Common Services.

Set up optional fields for use with Purchase Orders transactions and records. More...

You use the Optional Fields screen in the P/O Setup folder to assign optional fields to:

• Requisitions, purchase orders, receipts, invoices, returns, and credit/debit notes.
• Requisition, purchase order, receipt, invoice, return, and credit/debit note transaction details.
• Additional costs and receipt additional costs.
• Receipt additional cost details, invoice additional cost details, and credit/debit note additional cost details.
• Item records defined in Purchase Orders (if you are not using Inventory Control).

Important! Make sure that you use the same optional fields for invoices in Accounts Payable and for general ledger accounts in the General Ledger program in order to pass information between programs. For more information about how optional fields flow from one module to another in Sage 300, see About Optional Fields.

After setting up optional fields in Purchase Orders, you can use them in Purchase Orders records and transactions.

Optional Field Settings

You specify the following settings for each optional field you set up in Purchase Orders:

• A default value (depending on the type of field).

  Note:

  If an optional field requires validation, you can select only a value that is assigned to the optional field in Common Services. (If the optional field allows blanks, you can leave the default value field blank.)

  If the optional field does not use validation, you can select a value from the list (if any were assigned in Common Services), leave the field blank, or enter any value that is consistent with the type of field (yes/no, text, number, date, amount, and so on) and does not exceed the maximum number of characters permitted for the optional field.

• Whether the optional field will be automatically inserted in new records or transactions.
• Which optional fields will be passed to other Sage 300 modules, and which will be included in transactions that are passed to General Ledger for posting to G/L accounts.

Unless you restrict the fields that are passed to other modules, all optional fields in Purchase Orders that match optional fields in Accounts Payable and in General Ledger accounts are passed those modules.

Example: When setting up invoice detail optional fields, you click the Settings button, and then choose the types of G/L accounts that receive optional field information from invoice details, and the details in Accounts Payable invoices that will receive optional field information.

Note: The Settings button is available only for transactions that are sent to another Sage 300 program. For example, invoices are sent to Accounts Payable, but requisitions are used only in the Purchase Orders program.

Creating Validation Tables for Optional Fields

You can create a list of permitted entries for each field you add to a screen, using the Optional Tables screen in Common Services.

For information about creating optional tables, see the System Manager Help.