What are they?
User Defined Fields are one of the unique features that have been developed by Stamina Software as an integral component of our application products. They allow you to extend the basic data entry fields associated with key master files without changing a single line of computer source code!

What does this mean to me ?
One of the basic truths of commerce is that every business is different, and although we have tried to accommodate as many variations to the theme as possible, it is also true that the information needs of every organisation are different and reflect the unique corporate culture of each.

For example, if we look at, say, inventory, a manufacturer may require information like a drawing number, engineering release number and revision number associated with their products. A distributor on the other hand may want to keep associated sales products and promotional messages.

In a traditional software product if you needed to add these information fields to your product/inventory master file you would need to have programming changes made to achieve this result, which will cost you money. If in 2 years time you required additional information, you would need more changes, and so on.

With Stamina Software products you do not have to make any programming changes. The system has been designed in such a way that you can add additional fields to key master files throughout the system, like customers, suppliers, products, jobs and service contracts etc, without the services of a computer professional.

The ease with which this can be done means that you are more likely to keep this key information electronically, rather than manually in an external support file, and this in turn will help ensure that your staff have access to the information they require to get their job done your way !

This means it is not only quick and painless to keep information that is important to your business which may have been omitted in our original design, but you can easily add (or remove) additional fields in the future as your information needs evolve.

How does it work ?
Each of the major system modules (like Accounts Receivable, Payable, Inventory etc) has a parameter file associated with it, which is maintained through a maintenance screen. These parameters allow you activate or regulate the operation of key areas of the associated application.

One of these areas is the establishment of user defined fields. You simply enter a question onto the parameter file, which then becomes a standard field that will be prompted for whenever a new master file record is created, and this information can also be amended as required.

In addition to establishing the question as a screen entry field, the parameter maintenance process also creates a dictionary item on the master file that describes this field. This in turn means that entries to these user defined fields can be accessed by the Query Language Interface, meaning that you can use these fields to sort, select/extract or report on as the field is visible to the underlying database system.