The Entities menu in the Admin Module gives Pipeliner Admins access to all the resources needed to customise Pipeliner to capture the information needed about each type of record.

Using the features of the Entities menu to make sure you have the right Fields in place to capture the data you need for reporting and analysis, improving the user experience by adjusting the layout of Forms, managing access permissions to fields, changing which tabs are visible, working with the scoring tools - all of these options help Admins ensure that Pipeliner works for your business most effectively.

For the main system entities - Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Projects - you'll be able to access sub-tabs which enable you to manage:

The sub-tabs for Tasks, Appointments, Products, Product Line Items and any custom entities vary from entity to entity but may not have the options for Tags, Deduplication, Interface or Settings.

Different Entities may have specific, additional options:

Enter the Admin Module — from the Pipeliner CRM Application, click on the App Switcher in the top left corner ⤵

NOTE: Only Administrators will see the Administration menu

Select the "Entities" Menu. Next from the top of the page select the Entity you would like to work with. In this article, we will use Opportunity as an example ⤵

NOTE: If you have multiple Pipelines, there will be a different Opportunity Form available for each Pipeline. Similarly, if you use multiple Lead processes, there will be a different Lead form available for ech process.

First, in the Opportunities entity Forms tab, select the Pipeline and Form that you want to work with and click on "Edit Form" ⤵

NOTE: for Leads and Opportunities, there is more than one Form available for customisation. As well as the main record Form accessed by clicking on the "Edit Form" button, you can also customise the Lost Lead or Lost Opportunity Forms and, for Opportunities, also the Qualification Form and Won Form.

When you edit a form, a panel will open on the right hand side of the Form. Within this side panel are three tabs.

NOTE: when choosing Form Elements to place Fields in, you'll generally want to limit the amount of scrolling that your users need to do by using the 3 column or 4 column elements to place Fields horizontally across the Form. Having said that, you need to be aware of the type of monitor that your users work on - if they work primarily on a small laptop screen, the 3 or 4 column elements will not fit horizontally and fields will be pushed down onto the next row so you'll be better off using the 2 column element instead.

You can reuse an existing Lead or Opportunity Form as the basis for your Form by clicking on the "Reuse other Opportunity/Lead form" button ⤵

Select the "Fields" tab, click the "Create New" button ⤵

In the Field Properties dialog box, use the type drop-down to select the type of field you require. Use the scrollbar to find the type of field you wish to add. For our example we will use a Dropdown field type ⤵

Next complete the values that should appear in your Dropdown list. Click the "Add" button to add each selection that should appear when your users use the field ⤵

NOTE: the Lead checkbox allows you to mimic your new Opportunity field into the Leads entity. If you then also place the new field onto the Lead form, when it's filled in and a Lead is qualified, the fields values will be retained and will pass from the Lead into the corresponding Opportunity field. This is the only chance you have to do this - as soon as you have clicked on Save, you will not be able to retrospectively make this choice.

EXAMPLE: If you select this option, once you've added the new Dropdown field to both the Lead and the Opportunity Forms, your users would be able to fill in this field for a Lead record and when that Lead was Qualified to become an Opportunity, the data would be preserved for the new Opportunity.  If you don't select this option, the field will ONLY exist for Opportunities.

Click "Create".

Your new field will appear on the right side of the Opportunity Form in the Fields area. If you don’t see it use the search option in the upper right, or scroll down ⤵

Now simply "Drag & Drop" the field using the crosshairs onto your form exactly in the place you would like it to appear for users ⤵

Once the field is dropped onto the Form, you need to decide how you want the field to behave on the Form. The Field Settings (For this particular form) dialog box will come up automatically ⤵

Field Label on this form - you do not need to display the full name of the field on the form, you can adjust the label for the field for this particular form. Note that it is good practice to make sure that field labels and field names are as similar as possible while keeping the form easy to use. When using Reports or Filters, you will always see the Field Name (not the label) so if they are very different, it can be hard to identify which field you need.

Field Description - this is like a ToolTip which will appear to the end-user as a small letter “i” in the upper right of the name of the field and the user can mouse over that to see this description.  Use it to help your users know what to enter in the field.

Default option in the depending dropdown - choose "Select First" to auto populate the field with the first of a list of values available depending on the user's choice in the dropdown field this one is dependant on or "Select only if one item" when there is only one dependant option available.

In the Visibility section:

Available on mobile - this is switched on by default and allows this field to be accessed by users when using the Mobile app

Available in Outlook addin - add this field to the bottom of the corresponding sidebar in the Office 365 Outlook addin

Show field (using conditions) - switch on this option to enable visibility of fields only when specific conditions are met. Click on "Set Rules" to create the filter condition(s) that, when met, will display the field on the Form.

Click on "Save" to save your condition and return to the Field Settings window.

NOTE: Only fields from the same entity as the Form are searchable and selectable. Not all field types are currently supported. If this option is switched on, you must set valid conditions or the field will remain hidden at all times!

In the Validation section:

Required field - switching on this field without setting rules will make the field required at all times. Click on "Set Rules" and add your conditions if you want to make the fields required only when specific criteria are met.

Read-only field - switching on this field without setting rules will make the field read-only at all times. Click on "Set Rules" and add your conditions if you want to make the fields read-only only when specific criteria are met.

Validate field (using formula) - switching on this field allows you to create a formula to govern when the data entered is valid. Click on "Set Simple Formula" and add your formula criteria and then enter a message which will display to users if the validation fails.

Click "Save" when you have selected the options you need.

Hover over the field you want to modify and then click on the gear icon and choose whether you wish to modify the underlying Field Properties, or the Field Form Settings⤵

NOTE: Field Properties include the Field Name, value options and/or default value (depending on Field Type).  Note that, once saved, you cannot modify the System Field name or Field Type.  Field Form Settings govern how the field behaves on the Form itself (as detailed in the previous section).

In the panel on the right of the Form, select the "Form Elements" tab ⤵

Select which Column Element would fit the way you would like to organize your fields.

EXAMPLE: If you have 4  fields that you want to appear on the form in a single row horizontally, select the bottom Column Element ⤵

Click and then drag & drop your element using the crosshairs to place it on your form ⤵

Once your Column Element is placed in the form, click and drag the fields you want to place into the cells within the Column Element ⤵

Repeat until your Form is designed just how you want it. Move fields that are already on the Form by dragging and dropping them to their new location or click on the X to remove them from the Form ⤵

NOTE: removing a field from a form does not delete the field - or any data already entered by users - it just removes it so your users can no longer access it. You'll still see the field in question when filtering or creating reports so you need to manage this situation to avoid confusion. If you delete a field (from the Fields tab), the field - and all data entered into it - are immediately gone forever and cannot be accessed again.

Once your Form is finished, click "Save" to apply your changes and then click on the "Publish" button.  Publishing will push those changes to the live system ⤵

Confirm which table(s) you are ready to publish and then click on "Publish" ⤵

Click "Continue" to finish and return to the Forms tab ⤵

When you’re working with Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, (if you have multiple pipelines), Leads, Projects, Tasks, Appointments and Products, you can create multiple forms for different types of records.

For example, you might want to add different types of company (Accounts) in Pipeliner — perhaps “Prospects” (limited information gathered), “Customers” (much more information, some of it required), “Vendors” (different information to Customers) or different types of Contact (general “Contacts” vs “Subscribers” for example).

You can now manage these different scenarios by creating different Forms for each type of Account (or other entity) in the "Admin Module › Entities". You can add different fields to each Form, making certain fields “required” only for certain Types of Account/record ⤵

The same idea applies to different types of Tasks — you might have different fields for an Activity Type of “Call” to a general “Task”.

Different fields can be added to each Form, making certain fields “required” only for certain Types of record etc.

When creating new records in the Web App, users are prompted to select which Type they want to add. When working with records, they can change from one type to another using the sidebar pane. If they change the type, they’ll be required to fill in any additional mandatory fields that Admins have added to the Form ⤵

Select the "App Switcher" icon in the upper left. Select "CRM Application" and review your changes! ⤵