Custom Registers (D) – CivilPro

In addition to the many useful fields that are available for each record, CivilPro allows you to add your own fields to some of the main registers. Each field you create is called a Custom Register, and the available values are called Custom Register Items.

Creating the Register and Items

The application of custom registers is open ended. Use them for whatever you want. All you need to do is go to the Other Setup => Custom Registers section. For example, you may want to track the senior manager responsible for each lot in the lot register. To do that, Enable Editing and create a Custom Register called Manager. Double click on the record selector (or if editing is not enabled, you can double click on the row) and populate its Custom Register Items with the names of the managers. Similary, you may have another register called Crew populated with the crews responsible for the work, so just repeat for the new register.

Managers

Scott Drott
Douglas Digger
Paul Pulvi

Crew

Drainage (Dave)
Drainage (Evgeny)
Pavement (Alf)
Earthworks (Ngani)

Custom Registers List

Short Codes

Short codes are not often required, but can be used for custom register items used in the lot register. Their use case is when the custom register’s value is to be used in the generation of the Lot Number. For more information on this topic, refer to the Custom Lot Numbering topic.

Scope of a Custom Register

When you create a new Custom Register, you will note there are a lot of checklist columns to the right. These columns specify where the new register is available, and when it is available, if it is a compulsory field.

For certain registers the scope is very straight forward as they are ‘top level’. Lets look at these registers first:

Top Level Registers

Lots
Cost Codes
Invoices
NCRs
Variations
Contract Notices

Basically, when you check each of these columns, the register becomes an additional field in the specified register.

Inheriting Registers

The other registers are inheriting registers. This is because they have a direct reference to a top level register

Lot Quantity (has a reference to the Lot)
Test Request (has a reference to the Lot)
Daycost (has a reference to the Cost Code)

If you have a custom register that is enabled in any of these registers, but NOT in its top level register (e.g. you have a Custom Register called ‘Tester’ that is enabled only in the Test Request, not the Lot), then the behaviour is exactly the same as above for Top Level registers.

The difference only occurs when you have a register that is enabled for both the Top Level register and the Inheriting Register. In this case, the record will inherit the value first, but it can be overridden for individual records. For example if you have a custom register called ‘Recoverable’ with the items which is active for Cost Codes and Daycosts.

Let us imagine we have cost codes CC1001 and CC1002 and CC1003. We mark CC1001 as Yes + offsite, CC1002 as Yes at Cost and CC 1003 as No.

Now in the daycosts, any record with CC1001 will show the Recoverable field with a value of Yes + offsite by default, because that is the value it inherits from the Top Level. Let us say in this instance though, we have an item that is a special case, and is not recoverable. We can change the value to No, and that will override its default.

Notes on Inheritance

If you want to use the same Custom Register independently between a top level and inherited register, simply make a copy of the register and mark one active in the top levelo, and the other active in the inherited level.

It is not possible to override a top level value by making it blank. If you need this behaviour, then add a value into the Custom Register Items to represent an unknown or unspecified field such as “None” or “Unknown”

Using the Custom Register

To view the custom registers, open the register (for example the lot register), and select the custom register from the column chooser.

Select the custom register column you want (It will start with Register: in the list), and drag it into the grid. NOTE: If the register was open while you updated the custom register, you will need to close and reopen the register as they are populated at startup.

Then enable editing and update – just like any other field.

The custom register fields are also listed for the New Lot and Lot Update screens when viewing an individual lot. This will be added for the NCR and Contract Notice in future versions.

IMPORTANT PRODUCTIVITY TIPS:

If you want the custom registers to always be available without adding them through the Column Chooser, then use a Custom View.

If you need to rapidly update multiple rows, you can use the Fill Up/Down functions.