App Settings (General)

User Permissions: Only Administrators or App Admins can customize Apps.

This article covers the following topics:

1. General App Settings
2. Access Control
3. UI Preferences
4. Form Script
5. Privacy Preferences
6. Sort
7. Unique Fields
8. Search Preferences

Navigate to App Settings

There are two ways to access App Settings.

1. From the Navigation Menu, go to Settings > Apps and select the App you'd like to edit.

2. From the Apps Home Page, hover your cursor over an App icon and you'll see the gear icon appear in the top right corner. Click on it to enter the App Settings for that App.

General App Settings

When you enter App Settings, you will be presented with the General App Settings tab.

From here, you can edit the App’s look, name, and description, and set up access controls, privacy preferences, and more. 

Let’s go through this tab section by section.

General 

In the General section of the General Apps Settings tab, you can change the Name, App Icon, Color, and Description of the selected App.

Name

The Name field allows you to change the name of the selected App. 

The name of an App should be simple and informative, telling you what kind of records the App will contain. It should also be pluralized to represent that it will contain many different records of that type.

Contacts and Accounts are good examples of App names.

This is a required field (*).

Singular Version of Name

The Singular Version of Name field is where you’ll designate the name of a single record stored within an App. It is recommended that you use the singular version of the name used in the Name field.

For example, a single record stored within the Contacts App is called a Contact.

This is a required field (*).

App Icon

The App Icon field allows you to choose an icon for the selected App.

When you select the App Icon field, you will be provided with a selection of App icons to choose from. It is recommended you choose an App icon that suits the type of records that will be stored within the App.

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

This is a required field (*).

Custom Color

The Custom Color field allows you to choose a color for the selected App. 

When you select the Custom Color field, you will be presented with a number of default color options. You can also enter a HEX color code if you have a specific brand color you want to use.

The color you select will be visible in the Navigation Menu when you select the App and on the Apps Home Page.

Color is a great way to organize Apps and create an environment that aligns with your brand. 

For example, you could make your Sales Apps (Contacts, Opportunities) your primary brand color and your Activity Apps (Tasks, Emails, Phone Calls) your secondary brand color.

Description

The Description field allows you to provide general information about the type of records stored within the App. 

This information will be displayed when you hover over the App icon on the Apps Home Page.

Note: App descriptions should be short, no more than a sentence or two.

Access Control: Enforce Individual Access

If this option is enabled, users with an Individual Access Level can only see the records assigned to them.

This allows for fine-grained control over the information stored within the App. However, it adds administrative complexity and can impede collaboration between team members and departments.

Consider carefully what apps you choose to Enforce Individual Access.

UI Preferences 

In the UI Preferences section of the General Apps Settings tab, you can choose how individual App records will be Titled and Subtitled, decide if you want to Show Stage Progress and enable Link Actions, Quick Add, and Speed to Lead reporting.

Title Field

The Title Field allows you to designate a specific field within the APP to use as the title for individual records within that App.

For example, in the Contacts App, you can title an individual contact record based on the Name field, First Name field, Last Name field, or Title field of that specific contact.

The options available are presented as a drop-down menu populated with the fields in that App. The title of an individual App record will appear at the top of the record page.

Parent Field

The Parent Field allows you to enable hierarchy support for the Accounts App. Select Parent Account from the Parent Field bar and new Parent Account field will appear in all your Account records.

When this feature is enabled, you will be able to access child accounts from the hierarchy icon at the top of the details page of an Account record.

Subtitles

The Subtitles field functions like the Title Field and allows you to designate a number of other fields to display next to the record’s title at the top of the record page.

To add a Subtitle, select the +Add Subtitle button and choose an option from the drop-down menu that will appear. You can choose up to 4 Subtitles.

Show Stage Progress

If an App uses a Stage field, you can enable this option to see a visual representation of the stage progress of a record in that App.

Here’s an example using a record from the Opportunities App. This Opportunity is in the Negotiation stage.

This visualization will display the time that a record has been in each stage and if you hover over a stage, you will get a pop-up with even more detailed information regarding that stage history.

When enabling the Show Stage Progress field, you can designate stages as representative of a positive outcome or a negative outcome.

A positive outcome will be displayed as a green bar.

A negative outcome will be displayed as a red bar.

Enable Link Action

If this option is enabled, a record from the App can be linked to an existing record in a Related List. This allows you to quickly establish connections between records without the need to recreate information. 

This option is turned off by default because allowing all users to link records from any App to any Related List can create data clutter and add to the overall complexity of your FreeAgent instance.

Note: For businesses that manage sensitive data such as PHI (Protected Health Information), restricting link actions is a security measure that can help prevent unauthorized access. 

Enable Quick Add

The Quick Add feature allows users to create a new record for an App right from the Related List of the App record they are in.

For example, if you are on the record page of an Account in the Accounts App and Enable Quick Add is enabled in the Contacts App, you can create a new Contact right from the Related List of that Account record.   

When Enable Quick Add is selected, the Fields for Smart Quick Add drop-down menu will appear. This allows you to select the fields that users are required to fill out in the Quick Add section to create a new record.

There is also a Quick Add Custom Code field you can use if you want to make custom fields required.

Note: To Quick Add an App record of a particular type, Enable Quick Add needs to be enabled in that App. For example, to be able to Quick Add a new Contact record, Enable Quick Add must be enabled in the Contacts App Settings. 

Speed to Lead (only in the Contacts App)

Speed to lead is a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) that measures the time it takes a sales rep to respond to a lead.

If Speed to Lead is enabled in the Contacts App, the following additional fields will become available for use in a Contact record:

• Speed to Call
• Speed to Text
• Speed to Email
• Speed to Lead
• First Call
• First Text
• First Email
• First Response
  

These fields are populated automatically based on the last corresponding Activity in the Contact record. This enables new reporting options that can be added to your Saved Views.

Note: Speed to Lead is only available in the Contacts App.

Form Script 

Form Script is an option that allows FreeAgent admins to customize the Form Rules of the Form Fields within an App using Form Actions. 

Note: It is generally easier to set up Form Rules in the Form Rules section of the App Settings. Form Script is for experienced and code-savvy FreeAgent users who require a custom set of Form Rules for a specific function.

Form Actions and Code

While code is required to create Form Scripts, it is minimal and easy to set up. The following is a list of Form Actions and their corresponding code:

Setting up Form Scripts

When Use Form Script is selected, the Form Scripts code window will appear.

Enter the custom code for your Form Script. You can compile all your chosen parameters in a single Form Script. 

Save the Form Script before moving on. 

Privacy Preferences 

In the Privacy Preferences section of the General App Settings tab, you can set the privacy conditions for the App.

Allow Private Records

When Allow Private Records is enabled, you can designate individual App records from the App as Private to control whether they can be accessed by the team or are confidential.

To make a record private, first enable Allow Private Records in the App Settings of the App that contains the App record you want to make private, then save.

Next, navigate to the list view of the App that contains the App record you want to make private and hover over the Inline App Actions button of the record you want to private.

You will now see options to Edit, Duplicate, Delete, Make Private, and Make Public. Select Make Private.

Note: In general, it is easier to manage information access through Access Control Lists. We recommend allowing private records only in Apps when a specific use case calls for it.

Default Privacy Setting

When Default Privacy Setting is set to Public, records from the App will be Public by default. If it is set to Private, records from the App will be Private by default.

Note: Unless Allow Private Records is enabled, all records are Public by default.

Advanced Preferences 

In the Advanced Preferences section of the General App Settings tab, you can enable the Approval Rules for the App. Approval Rules allow you to automate notifications in your approval processes via stage changes in the App record. 

For example, if you want your quotes to be approved by a sales leader before being sent to a potential customer, you can have a notification sent to a sales leader automatically when a quote enters the designated approval stage.

Note: Only Apps with stages (Quotes, Projects) can use Approval Rules.

Enable Approval Rules

When Enable Approval Rules is enabled, you can create Approval Rules for that App. To enable Approval Rules, select the Enable Approval Rules button and save. A new Approval Rules tab will appear at the top of the page.

Add Approval Rule

In the Approval Rules tab, you will see a search bar and an Add Approval Rule button, as well as a list of your existing Approval Rules (if any). Select the Add Approval Rule button and the Edit Approval Rule menu will appear.

Name

The Name field allows you to name the Approval Rule. 

The name of the Approval Rule should be simple and informative, telling you what is being approved by the rule.

Approve Quote or Approve Draft are good examples of Approval Rule names.

This is a required field (*).

Field

This is a default field that will automatically populate with the name of the stage field for the App you are creating the Approval Rule in.

This is a required field (*).

Stage

The Stage field allows you to designate the stage that will trigger the approval request notification. The available options will be determined by the stages of the App you are creating the Approval Rule in.

For example, in the Quotes App, you could designate the Quote Created stage as the trigger for the notification. This means when a quote is saved as Quote Created, a notification will be sent to the designated Approver.  

This is a required field (*).

Stage for Approved/Rejected

The Stage for Approved and Stage for Rejected fields designate whether the approval request has been approved or rejected. In either case, a notification will be sent automatically to the person who initiated the approval request. 

Note: You may need to create new stage options to designate as your approved and rejected stages. Refer to Stage Field in the FreeAgent Knowledge Base for step-by-step instructions on creating new stages.

Rules

The Rules section of the Edit Approval Rules menu is where you will designate the Approver of the approval request. You can designate multiple Approvers and set the conditions that determine which Approver the request be sent to. 

To access the Rules menu, select the + Add button in the bottom left corner of the Rules section section of the Add Approval Rule menu.

Once selected, the Rules menu will appear.

Description

The Description field allows you to provide a brief description of the specific Approval Rule you are creating. 

For example, if all your quotes are approved by the same sales manager, you could describe the Rule as All Quotes. Alternatively, if you have multiple sales managers approving quotes based on the value of the quote, you could call one Rule Quotes Under $10, 000 and another Rule Quotes Over $10, 000 and so on.

Approver

The Approver field is where you will designate the approver of the approval request. The options available are presented as a drop-down menu populated with all the FreeAgent users in your company.

Precedence

The Precedence field allows you to create a hierarchy for your Approval Rules. 

For example, if you want a project manager to approve your quotes after your sales managers have approved them, you could create a separate rule that designates your project manager as the Approver and set the Precedence of that Rule to 2.

Conditions

The Conditions line allows you to set the conditions for the Rule. To access the Conditions line, select the + Add button in the bottom left corner of the Conditions section of the Add Approval Rule menu.

Once selected, the Conditions line will appear.

Note: The Conditions line is not present by default because Conditions are only necessary for complex approval processes.

The Field bar allows you to choose a field to base the Condition on. The options available are presented as a drop-down menu populated with with the fields in the App you are creating the Approval Rule in.

For example, if you have multiple sales managers approving quotes based on the value of the quote, you could select the field that contains the quote’s value here.

Once you select a field, the Operator and Value bars will populate with options based on that field. 

Continuing our example, if we select the field that contains the quote’s value, we could set the Operator bar to >= and the Value bar to $10, 000. This would mean that all quotes of less than $10, 000 go to the Approver we designate in the Approver field.

In this case, we would also need to create a second rule for approvals over $10,000. To do this, we would follow the steps above but change the Operator bar to <= and the Value bar to $10, 001.

Note: You can set several Conditions for a single Rule. This allows you to create even more specific Conditions for the Rule.

To add more Conditions, select the + Add button in the bottom left corner of the Conditions section of the Add Approval Rule menu another Conditions line will appear.

For example — if you want to designate a sales manager to approve quotes of more than $10, 000 but less than $50, 000 you could set the first condition line as Operator bar <= and the Value bar $10, 001 and then add a second Condition line with Operator bar >= and the Value bar $50, 000.

Sort 

The Sort section of the General App Settings tab is where you set the default sorting rules for the App. 

Sort By

Sort By is a drop-down menu that will provide a number of sort rule options based on the existing fields in the App. 

For example, In the Contacts App, your Contacts can be sorted by First Name, Last Name, or Contact Owner (just to name a few).

You can add multiple sort rules as desired by selecting the +Add Sort button. This is useful for cases where the Sort By field chosen could have duplicate content.

For example, multiple Contacts could share the same First Name, so adding a second sort rule to Sort By Last Name is a good idea.

To delete a sort rule, select the garbage can icon to the right of the Sort By and Direction fields. 

Direction

The Direction field allows you to set the order for each sort rule as either Ascending or Descending.  

For example, if you set the sort rules in the Contacts App to Last Name and Ascending, your Contacts will be arranged in order of the Contact’s last name from A to Z. If you set the sort rules in the Contacts App to Last Name and Descending, your Contacts will be arranged in order of the Contact’s last name from Z to A.

Unique Fields 

The Unique Fields section of the General App Settings tab allows you to designate specific fields within an App as Unique. If a field is designated as Unique, FreeAgent will not allow records from other Apps to be created or imported that contain that field.

To designate a field as Unique, click on the Fields bar and a drop-down menu with all the available fields will be displayed. Select the one you would like to designate as Unique. Continue this process until you have selected all the fields you want to include.  

To delete a field from the Fields bar, click on the 'X' on the right-hand side of the field name.

Note: When importing data, you can use the Unique field name rather than the field ID.

Search Preferences 

In the Search Preferences section of the General App Settings tab, you can manage the fields referenced when performing searches in the Global Search Bar of the Navigation Window.

This allows you to limit the amount of fields a user has to search through when looking for a record in the Navigation Menu, improving performance and simplifying the user experience. 

By default, all existing apps will have a set of fields pre-selected in the Fields bar. 

To add a field, click on the Fields bar and a drop-down menu with all the available fields will be displayed. Select the one you would like to include in the search function and continue this process until you have all the fields you require.  

To delete a field from the Fields bar, click on the 'X' on the right-hand side of the field name.