Creating and Managing Trip Fields

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to create and manage Trip Fields in Company Administration for Concur Travel.

Create a New Custom Trip Field

On the Trip Fields tab, you have the following capabilities:

Add a new trip field
Edit existing trip fields

Steps

To create a new custom trip field, select New Trip Field.

Enter the relevant information and then select Save.

Screenshot of the New Trip Field creation page in Concur. The form includes fields for Custom Field Name, Display Name, Data Type (selected as Text/Drop-Down), Max and Min Length, and options to set attribute values. among other settings. At the bottom of the form, there are “Save” and “Cancel” buttons highlighted.

To learn more about the related settings, review the following labeled graphic and corresponding table.

Screenshot of the New Trip Field setup page in Concur, with key fields numbered 1-6. Refer to the table in the main text for information about the numbered features.

Field	Description / Action
1: Custom Field Name	Enter the name of the field. This name will appear on the Trip Fields tab so that you can edit the custom fields. Note Best practice is not to allow personal, sensitive, or uniquely identifying information in custom fields.
2: Display Name	Enter a display name, if desired. Users will see the display name during the booking process. The display name will appear in parentheses on the Trip Fields tab. If you do not enter a display name, the custom field name will appear during booking.
3: Data Type	Choose a data type and the associated fields. For more information, refer to Determining Types of Fields below.
4: Enter optional values for the attribute	Enter as appropriate. Note The Value (to be stored) field must be unique.

5: Use in these Travel Configurations

Field	Description / Action
Configurations	Select the appropriate travel configurations.

6: Use in these Rule Classes

Field	Description / Action
Rule Classes	Select the appropriate rule classes. Rule-class-connections to custom fields are independent of travel configuration connections; a custom field does not have to link to a travel configuration in order to be tied to rule classes within that configuration. Either configuration or class can associate trip fields. Caution This feature is not available for companies that use customized stored procedures for custom fields (custom work had to be done to pull specific data). In these instances, the Use with these Rule Classes list will not appear on the Edit Trip Field page.

Field

Description / Action

Rule Classes

Select the appropriate rule classes. Rule-class-connections to custom fields are independent of travel configuration connections; a custom field does not have to link to a travel configuration in order to be tied to rule classes within that configuration. Either configuration or class can associate trip fields.

Caution

This feature is not available for companies that use customized stored procedures for custom fields (custom work had to be done to pull specific data). In these instances, the Use with these Rule Classes list will not appear on the Edit Trip Field page.

7: Conditional Display Settings

Field	Description / Action
Required Field	Enable this check box to make the field required. When enabled, the user will not be able to continue through the booking process until a value is entered. This option is not available for the Yes/No field type, since users should be able to either select (enable) the check box or leave it clear (disabled). Note Display for Regular Trips, Display for Guest Bookings, and Display for Meetings check boxes define the use cases in which a trip custom field should display. If none of these check boxes are enabled, the trip custom field will not display, even if the Required check box is enabled.
Display field data on itinerary	Enable this check box to see the custom field data appear on the itinerary.
Display at the start of booking	Enable this check box to display the trip custom field at the beginning when booking a workflow.
Display for Regular Trips Display for Guest bookings Display for Meetings	Enable this check box to make the field required. When enabled, the user will not be able to continue through the booking process until a value is entered. This option is not available for the Yes/No field type, because users should be able to either select (enable) the check box or leave it clear (disabled). Note Display for Regular Trips, Display for Guest Bookings, and Display for Meetings check boxes define the use cases in which a trip custom field should display. If none of these check boxes are enabled, the trip custom field will not display, even if the Required check box is enabled.
Display for Trip Edits	Enable this check box to display the custom trip fields on the Trip Confirmation page that appears for pre- and post-ticket changes. By making these fields available here, the user can make any desired changes. Note The custom trip fields display on the Trip Confirmation page even if the Display at the start of booking check box is selected (enabled). For a trip custom field to display on the Trip Confirmation page, besides enabling the Display on trip edits option, you must also enable Display for Regular Trips and/or Display for Guest Bookings.

Additional Options

The Reporting Field Name is available for specific configurations. Use this section to map your custom fields to dedicated fields in the Concur Data Warehouse Model.

Note

This section of the page appears only for clients with the DW Archive module, and the DW Reporting Archive module property set to true.

Data Types

Determining Data Types

When you select a data type, there are four options available. For each new custom field, determine the field data type. Review the table below to learn more about the data types available.

Data type	Description / Action
Text/Drop-Down	Creates a text or dropdown menu. For this field type: Set the number of characters available in the Maximum Length field. Choose whether to enter optional values. If you leave this blank, the user will be able to type information into the field. If you enter optional values, those values appear to the user in a list. For 200 items or fewer, the list is a dropdown list. If there are more than 200 items, the list becomes a look-up list where the user types a few letters and the results appear. There is no maximum limit to the number of items you can add. To enter optional values, enter the option name and stored value and then click Add. Use the Up, Down, Change, and Delete buttons to modify the values.
Long Text	Creates a text field: For this field type, set the number of characters available in the Maximum Length field. Users will be able to type in the field up to the maximum length and will not be presented with a dropdown menu.
Number	Creates a numeric field: For this field type, enter optional values if you want users to choose from a dropdown menu. If you leave the optional values blank, users will be able to type any number into the field. Optional values are restricted to numbers only.
Yes/No	Creates a check box that users can select to enable or clear to disable.

Examples of Data Types

Now that you’ve reviewed the different options available for data types, let’s look at some examples. In each example below, you’ll see a comparison of how the data is entered and how it appears during the booking process.

The following graphic is an example of the Text/Drop-Down data type without values.

The image shows three Concur interface windows. The main background is the Editing Trip Field page for the custom field Billable details. The Data Type is set to Text/Drop-Down, and there are max and min length fields as well as options to enter optional values for the attribute (all highlighted). Two foreground Welcome to Concur screens are shown: the first displays the Is this trip billable? field as a required free text box for the user, and the second shows the same field with the value Yes entered.

The following graphic is an example of the Text/Drop-Down data type with values.

The image shows two Concur interface windows. The main background is the Editing Trip Field page for the custom field Billable details. The Data Type is set to Text/Drop-Down, with the drop-down values Yes and No entered and highlighted, along with max and min length fields. In the foreground, a Welcome to Concur screen is displayed, showing how the field Is this trip billable? appears as a required drop-down menu with Yes and No as selectable options for the user.

The following graphic is an example of the Long Text data type.

Screenshot showing two Concur screens. The main screen in the background is the Editing Trip Field page for a custom field called Billable details. and the Display Name set to Is this trip Billable? The Data Type is set to Long Text with a max length of 10 and a min length of 1. On the right side, an overlay shows the Welcome to Concur! trip booking page, where the field Is this trip billable? appears as a required long text box that the user must fill out.

The following graphic is an example of the Number data type without values.

The following graphic is an example of the Number data type with values.

The following graphic is an example of the Yes/No data type.

Note

The required option is not available for the Yes/No field type because users should be able to either enable the check box or leave it clear and disabled

Working with Itinerary Rules

You can configure custom trip attributes to trigger based on itinerary rules, allowing you to drive questions asked during the booking process based on the type of travel booked.

In this process, you must:

Set up the itinerary rule triggers.
Update the custom trip field.

Note

You will learn how to set up itinerary rules, in the Travel Rule Builder (part of travel policy unit).

For this example, the custom field will trigger at the end of the booking, when there is no car segment on the itinerary.

The image displays the setup page for a new trip field with the following sections highlighted: Custom Field Name input with display name and data type settings; Rule Classes selection; Conditional Display Settings with options for required fields and display conditions; Itinerary Rules for Display dropdown menu; and If/Then Settings for field visibility based on custom values.

Considerations for Itinerary Rules

Itinerary rules are only available for questions asked at the end of the booking process based on the itinerary selected:
If you choose to display at the start of the booking, the trip field deactivates.
Itinerary rules won’t work in conjunction with if/then conditions:
If you enable if/then conditions, the itinerary rules deactivate.
You cannot combine multiple rules; only one rule per trip field is allowed:
If multiple rules exist, the last one selected is used.
All other options in the custom trip field configuration are possible:
You can assign it to specific travel configurations or travel classes, determine whether the field is required, and whether it should be a dropdown or text field.

Edit and Delete a Trip Field

In addition to adding new custom trip fields, you can also edit and delete existing custom fields if information has changed, or you simply no longer need the field. To learn more, review the following steps on editing and deleting trip fields.

Steps

Ensure you are on the Trip Fields tab and then select the custom field you want to edit or delete.
Modify or delete the custom field.
On the Editing Trip Field screen, you have three options:
- Save
- Delete
- Cancel
1. To modify, make any necessary changes and then select Save and ensure you apply the changes to all Travel configurations that are using the field.
2. Select Delete if the field is no longer needed. Ensure no configurations are using this field before deleting.
3. Select Cancel if no changes need to be made.

Summary

Create a new trip field: set name, display name, data type, values, travel configurations, conditional display settings, then save
Follow privacy best practice: do not store personal, sensitive, or uniquely identifying information in custom fields
Configure usage: link to travel configurations or rule classes
Yes/No Data Type fields cannot be made required
Itinerary rules are only available for questions asked at the end of the booking process; the itinerary rules deactivate if you enable If/then conditions

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