Creating and Managing User Fields

Objective

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

Create a New User Field

On the Manage Custom Fields page, you can access the User fields and Trip fields. On the User Fields tab, you have the following capabilities:

  • Add a new User field
  • Edit existing User fields
Screenshot of the Manage Custom Fields - User Fields section: The User Fields tab is highlighted, showing one custom field named Division_NAI_US (Cost Center) with Data Type as Text/Drop Down, Max. Length as 50, and set as Required.

Steps

  1. To create a new custom user field, select New User Field.

    2. Screenshot of the Manage Custom Fields - User Fields section in the SAP Concur Administration section. The User Fields tab is highlighted, showing one custom field named Division_NAI_US (Cost Center) with Data Type as Text/Drop Down, Max. Length as 50, and set as Required. The New User Field button is highlighted.

  2. Enter the relevant information and then select Save.

    Screenshot of the New User Field creation page in SAP Concur. The form allows administrators to enter a custom field name, display name, data type, and configure min/max length. There are fields to add dropdown options, sort or change their order, and select which travel configurations use the field. Conditional display settings include making the field required, displaying it on the My Profile page, or allowing users to edit it.

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

    Screenshot of the New User Field form in SAP Concur with numbered circles highlighting key input sections. Refer to the explanation of the numbered items in the corresponding table that follows in the main text.
    FieldDescription / Action
    1: Custom Field Name

    Enter the name of the field. This name will appear on the User Fields tab so that you can edit the custom field.

    Note

    Best practice is not to allow personal, sensitive, or uniquely identifying information in custom fields.
    2: Display Name

    Enter a display name.

    • The display name will appear on the User Profile page.
    • The display name will appear in parentheses on the User Fields tab.
    • If you do not enter a display name, the Custom Field Name will appear on the User Profile page.
    3: Data Type

    Choose a data type and the associated fields.

    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 ConfigurationsSelect the appropriate travel configurations.

    Note

    Custom fields can also be enabled in the Travel Configuration page, under the Custom Attributes section.
    6: Conditional Display Settings

    To enable Conditional Display Settings, select the appropriate checkbox. You have the following options:

    • Required Field - This check box is not available for the Yes/No field type because users should be able to either select the check box or leave it clear (disabled). If you select this check box for Text/Drop Down, Long Text, or Number field types, the other two display options will be automatically selected, and they cannot be cleared.
    • Display this field on the My Profile page - Make this field appear on users' profile pages. If you disable this check box, the custom field will appear only to administrators in the user's record; the user will not be able to view or edit this field in the profile.
    • Allow users to edit this field on their profile - Select this check box to allow users to edit the contents of this field on their profile pages. If you clear this check box, the field will appear to users grayed out and not available for editing. Administrators will be able to edit the field in the user record.

    Additional Options

    The following options are not shown in the above labeled graphic and are available for specific configurations:

    • Send to Sabre - This field appears only if Sabre Profiles has been activated using the Sabre Profiles Enabled field: Administration→Travel→Travel System Admin→View Travel Agencies. For more information, refer to the Sabre Profiles Travel Service Guide.
    • Reporting Field Name - Use this section to map your custom fields to dedicated fields in the Concur Data Warehouse Model. Please note that 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 

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 TypeDescription / Action
Text/Drop-Down

Creates a text or dropdown menu. For this field type:

  1. Set the number of characters available in the Maximum Length field.
  2. 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.
  3. To enter optional values, enter the option name and stored value and then select Add.

    Note

    This data type accepts letters and numbers. For example, if you are adding a user field called Cost Center, you might display to the user the name of the cost center [Sales] and include the associated cost center code [1234] as the value to be stored in the database.
  4. 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/NoCreates 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 in the user profile.

Note

As you review the following examples, you might notice that depending on the user field, you might want to choose one data type over the other based on the information you're collecting.

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

Screenshot showing two SAP Concur screens: On the left, the Editing User Field interface, where the Division_NAI_US custom field is set as a required Text/Drop-Down field with options 1947, 2314, 4321, and 9823 (all highlighted). On the right is the My Profile - Personal Information page, where under Company Information, the Cost Center (required) drop-down field displays these same options for user selection (highlighted).

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

Screenshot showing two SAP Concur screens: on the left is the Editing User Field interface, where the Division_NAI_US custom field is set as a required Text/Drop-Down field with empty optional values. On the right is the My Profile - Personal Information page, where under Company Information, the Cost Center (required) editable free text box displays, allowing the user to type in values (highlighted).

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

Screenshot showing the setup process for a custom field in SAP Concur. On the left, the Editing User Field page displays the field Division_NAI_US with the display name Cost Center. The Data Type is set to Long Text, with max and min length options highlighted. On the other screen, the My Profile - Personal Information page shows the Cost Center (Required) field is highlighted in the Company Information section as a large free-text input box.

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

Screenshots showing the configuration of a custom field in SAP Concur: On the left, the Editing User Field page shows the field Division_NAI_US with the display name Cost Center. The data type is set to Number, and the section for entering optional attribute values is highlighted, but this section does not contain any values; it is empty. The other screenshot is the My Profile - Personal Information page, where the Cost Center (Required) field in the Company Information section is highlighted as a free text box, where only numeric input is accepted.

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

Screenshot showing the configuration of a custom field in SAP Concur and its appearance on the user profile page. On the left, the Editing User Field screen displays the Division_NAI_US field with the display name Cost Center, and the data type is set to Number. Several optional values, specifically 1947, 2314, 4321, and 9823, have been entered for this attribute, as shown in the highlighted section. On the My Profile - Personal Information page, the Cost Center (Required) field in the Company Information section is highlighted. It includes a drop-down menu listing these numeric options.

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

Screenshot showing the configuration of a custom field in SAP Concur and its appearance on the user profile page. On the left, the Editing User Field screen displays the Division_NAI_US field with the display name Cost Center, and the data type is set to Yes/No, as shown in the highlighted section. The field is set as required and set to appear on the My Profile page. On the right, the My Profile - Personal Information page displays the Cost Center field in the Company Information section as a checkbox.

Manage Existing User Fields

In addition to adding new custom user 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 user fields.

Steps

  1. Ensure you are on the User Fields tab and then select the custom field you want to edit or delete.

    Screenshot of the SAP Concur administration interface, specifically the Manage Custom Fields - User Fields section. The User Fields tab is highlighted, showing one custom field named Division_NAI_US (Cost Center) with Data Type as Text/Drop Down, Max. Length as 50, and set as Required.

  2. Modify or delete the custom field.

    The image shows an Editing User Field interface for a web application. The user is editing a custom field named Division_NAI_US with a display name Cost Center. Under the settings that the user configures, the three options, Save, Delete, and Cancel, are highlighted.

    On the Editing User Field screen, you have three options:

    • Save
      • To modify, make any necessary changes and then select Save.
      • Make sure you apply the changes to all Travel Configurations that are using the field.
    • Delete

      Select Delete if the field is no longer needed. Ensure no configurations are using this field before deleting.

    • Cancel

      Select Cancel if no changes need to be made.

Summary

  • Create a new user field: set name, display name, data type, values, travel configurations, conditional display and edit settings, then save
  • Follow privacy best practice: do not store personal, sensitive, or uniquely identifying information in custom fields
  • Choose appropriate data type: Text/Drop-Down, Long Text, Number, Yes/No; set lengths, optional values, lookup behavior
  • Yes/No Data Type fields cannot be made required

Learning

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