Recognising Field Types

The look of a field tells you what it expects, and the same signals are used throughout the system:

What you see	What it means
A small arrow at the end of the line	A list to choose from. Free text is not accepted here — if the entry you need is missing, it has to be created in the configuration first.
A field showing 0	A number is expected, and one is always required. Leaving it empty is not the same as zero.
A date field	Filled from the calendar or by typing — see Working with the calendar.
A time field	Entered as hh:mm in the 24-hour clock.
Everything else	Free text.

Fields that have to be filled

Which fields are mandatory is decided by the configuration and differs per module and per category. A record that refuses to save usually says which field is missing — that message names the field as it appears on screen.

Two cases are worth knowing, because they look like faults and are not:

• A field is missing entirely. It is switched off for this module or category, not broken.
• A field is greyed out. The record is in a state that no longer allows changes — closed, approved, or open for reading only because it belongs to a closed process.