How to Create a Custom App - Part 1

FreeAgent CRM allows you to fully customize your experience so that it fits your process.

You'll have default apps in FreeAgent, however, you can customize them to fit your business. You can also create your own apps from scratch if the default apps aren't enough to meet your needs.  

We'll take you through the process of creating and setting up your own app from beginning to end. 

This tutorial will cover the following topics:

1. Navigate to Apps
2. Create Apps
3. App Configuration
4. Form Fields and Sections
5. Form Rules

Navigate to Apps

Open the menu and go to Admin Settings > App Setup > Apps. You can also use the search function to get there faster, just start typing 'Apps'.

Create Apps

Out of the box, your Account includes 7 Apps:

• Accounts
• Contacts
• Opportunities
• Products
• Projects
• Quotes
• Tickets
• Tasks

However, you can add more if you need to. Just click the 'Add New App' button. 

Give your App a name, and include it in the 'singular version' Field as well. I'm going to call my app 'Big Ideas'. I want a place to keep all of my brainstorming and notes.

If you click the 'Save' button at this point your App will be created and you will be able to go to App Setup in the System Settings menu to add Fields, Form Sections, and other configurations for your app. 

App Configuration

As soon as you hit 'Save' you should automatically be taken to the App Configuration section. If not you can get there by going to Admin Settings > App Setup > App Name > App Configuration.

1. General

If you haven't already, select an Icon for your App

The icon you select will be available in the Menu and in the Apps Home Page. You can add it to the Card Configuration as well.

Add a Description

Provides more information about your app and it is visible under the Apps Home Page.

2. Access Control

Enforce Individual Access

If this option is enabled it means that any user with an Individual Access Level will only be able to see the records assigned to them.

3. UI Preferences

Customize your App's title.

It allows you to customize the Name shown at the page level for your Apps. All you need to do is select from one of the available fields. Only Text & ID field types are available.

Note: This will also change the information displayed in the dropdown for the Reference fields to the App.

Choose a Custom Color

This color will be used to identify your App both in the menu and on the Apps Home Page. 

Info Panel Layout & Form Layout

This will determine the form layout for the information panel and the form in your records, as it can be displayed as a single-column or a double-column layout. 

The single-column layout is recommended for those apps where you have a small number of fields.

However, if you have multiple active fields for an app, we recommend switching to the 2 columns layout, as it will divide them into those two columns, giving you better access to all your information.

Enable Quick Add

If set to 'Yes' it will display an additional field where you can add custom code for the Quick Add logic. This will allow your team members to easily create new records for other Apps right from the Related List of the record's details. To learn more about how to configure Quick Add please visit the following tutorial:
Quick Add Configuration

4. Privacy Preferences

Allow private records

Will enable you to flag individual records as "Is Private" to control whether they can be accessed by the team or is confidential to the user.

Allowing Private Records will also enable an App Action button that will allow you to toggle between 'Make Private' and 'Make Public' when working with these records.  Records can then be set to be public or private by default.

FreeAgent recommends allowing private records only in Apps when a specific use case applies.  e.g. marking Emails public or private.

Default Privacy Setting

5. Sort

Here you can add default sorting rules for your App. You can add more than one rule if desired. It is a great way to get, for example, a list of contacts sorted by First Name. If some contacts share First Name, then you can add a secondary sort for Last Name. 

And if for some reason, you have multiple contacts with the same full name, then you can add another sorting option to see them in the order they were first created. 

For each rule you add, you can set the sorting order to Ascending or Descending.

6. Search Preferences

Manage the fields used when performing searches in the search bar for each of your Apps. This will give you full control over the search function in FreeAgent as you can add or remove existing fields from this configuration to get the results you need. 

Search Preferences

Form Fields and sections

After you create your new app it's going to look like this:

That's because we haven't added any records to it yet. Before we do we should create some Field Sections and then custom fields to put in those sections. Think of the fields as places to enter your information and the sections as a way to organize those fields.

1. What information do I need to record and have access to in my app?
2. How would I like to organize it?

First I created a new form section where I want all fields related to sketches and mind maps that I create to help flesh out a new idea.

Now when I go to 'Form Fields' there should be a new tab called 'Sketches'.

Select the Sketches tab and then click on 'Add Field'. Any new field created will live in this section. You can learn more about form fields and different types here.

Form Rules

Gain full control of your Form Fields in each of your Apps by setting them as read-only, mandatory, or even visible to certain team members based on the state of each of them with Form Rules. You will also have the option to reset the value of a given field based on conditions.

Open the menu, scroll down, and click on 'Admin Settings'. There click 'App Setup' to display the available options and then select the desired app. There click 'Form Rules'.  You can start typing 'Form Rules' to get there faster, just make sure you click the option under the desired app.

Create Form Rule

To get started, click the 'Add New Form Rule' button. Form Rules include 3 different sections:

Note: Only the Roles selected in the Form rule configuration will be affected by it. If no Roles are added, then the Form Rule will affect everyone.

Records that are coming from an import or an integration, need to be blank edited so the form rules can trigger as long as they meet the conditions. Every time a form rule is created, it impacts only the records that are manually created/edited after this rule takes place, as long as the new records/updated records meet the conditions of the form rule

Conditions

You can add multiple conditions for a single Form Rule. In order for the Form Rule to apply, all the set conditions have to occur.

Within the conditions, you have different options for the Operator according to the Field type. 

Form Actions for Fields

There are 5 Form Actions available for fields:

1. Mandatory
2. Read Only
3. Reset
4. Visible
5. Set Value

Each of the first 4 options in the list above has two possible values: True or False. If you want to make a field mandatory, read-only, visible, or reset its current value, select 'True'. On the other hand, if you are looking for the opposite, select 'False'.

For the 'Set Value' option, the possible values will vary according to the selected field. When the conditions are met, the value for the selected field will be automatically updated.

Form Actions for Sections

To create this type of Form Action, you just need to select the Section you want to show or hide. Setting the value to False will hide the section.

Form Actions for App Actions

If these are selected, you will need to specify if you want the App Action to be displayed for those of the selected Roles by selecting True or False. If you don't want a Role to be able to edit for example, just set the Edit App Action to False in your Form Rule.

Form Rules Order

You can add multiple Form Rules to any of your apps. In case multiple Rules have the same criteria, they will be executed according to the 'Order' shown in the order column of the Form Rules list. 

In order to Reorder your Form Rules, click the 'Reorder' button located right next to the left of the 'Add New Form Rule' button. Then simply, drag&drop the Form Rules in the desired execution order and click the Save button. 

Edit Form Rules

Select the Form Rule and click the 'Edit' button. You can update all the elements of the selected form rule. 

Delete Conditions

You can delete existing conditions by clicking on the 'trash can' icon. 

Edit Form Actions

Click on the circle next to the form action and click the edit button. You can update the field, operation, and value. Save your changes. 

Delete Form Actions

You can delete form actions that you don't need, just select the desired form action and click the delete button.

Deactivate/Activate Form Rules

You can Deactivate existing Form Rules when needed, just select the Form Rule and click the 'Deactivate' button.

You can activate your Form Rules any time, just click the 'Show Deactivated' checkbox, select the Form Rule, and click the 'Activate' button.

Form Rules Examples

Mandatory fields when Opportunity is Closed Won

Whenever your team members are ready to change the Stage of an Opportunity to 'Closed Won', you want to make sure you have all the information for that Opportunity, especially for the fields used for reporting purposes. To make them mandatory all you have to do is create a Form Rule like the one below:

As soon as your team members select the Stage ' Closed Won' the fields specified will be mandatory, and they won't be able to save the Opportunity without filling them out.

How to Create a Custom App - Part 2