Contract Guardian Table Fields

Adding Power to your Contracts with Table Fields

Thom Davidson

Contract Guardian allows you to create custom contract types with corresponding custom fields for your contract database. Most users have explored the use of creating custom fields using the field types shown below:

Auto increment	Establish starting value and increment
Calculated Date	Dynamically calculate a date by using an existing date combined with other field values in the system
Checkbox	Example might be a checkbox for if BAA is required
Currency	Properly format any dollar amounts associated with your contract
Date	Create as many date fields as you need on your contract Calendar popup and picker for enter the date
Email	thom@abchospital.com
MultiPicker	Drop down field with the ability to check more than one (you define the drop down values)
Paragraph	Essentially unlimited text for your contract
Phone	(555)-123-4567
Single Picker	Drop down with a single option that can be selected
Text box	Basic text content for a field
URL	Web address like www.ContractGuardian.com

If you never went any further than that, you’d still have a contract repository that tracks your important contract information. But now it’s time to take your contract definitions to a new level with the use of a new field type called a Table Field.

Table Field

A Table field is a grid used to group a set of fields that repeats as needed, allowing the user to add multiple rows of identical information. Imagine you have a contract that is addressing multiple assets where each asset has a different condition and a different location. We will assume there are five assets in my example. There are two ways to add this type of information into the metadata:

1. Create unique fields for each instance. In other words, you would create five asset fields, five condition fields and five location fields.
2. Create a Table Field that contains asset, condition and location.

The Table Field bring several advantages to the process. It allows you to quickly identify any repeating meta data. One does not need to know how many instances prior to creating the contract. It can dynamically change whenever a new instance is required. It also is a much more efficient use of your screen real estate. Screen real estate is the amount of space available on a display for an application to provide output. Typically, the effective use of screen real estate is one of the most difficult design challenges because of the desire to have as much data and as many controls as possible visible on the screen to minimize the need for hidden commands and scrolling.

We are seeing clients use this type of field in a wide range of contract types. Clients tend to use this feature more frequently with Procurement Agreements, Physician Agreements and Services Agreements. However, it is applicable to any contract type that might have more than one instance of any piece of data.

Field Table Illustration

The illustration displays a group of fields related to multiple vehicles being leased.

One can edit the table to add or delete vehicles as needed in the table for this contract by simply selecting the X on the right side of the row for deletion or click the bottom row to +Add Row.

How To Create a Table Field

• Select the configuration tab and then select fields.
• Name your field and provide an appropriate caption for the field.
• Select Table from the dropdown of Field Types.
• Select the fields that you wish to have in your table. Each field you select will have all of the supporting features and security associated with the initial definition of the field. For example, the Physician Evaluation Field is a drop down field that reflects 20 different categories. The values will be available on each row that you create.

Next Step

Give it a spin. Experiment by creating a table field and adding it to a test contract type. If you have any questions, contact support at 800.211.8798 or submit an issue directly from your Contract Guardian screen.