Create Custom Fields

You can add a custom field in the report designer while you’re editing a report.

To create a custom field:

1. Go to Reporting and Analytics > Reporting > Reports and open the report that you want to add a custom field to.
2. Click Fields and select Add Custom Field.
3. In the Custom Field Editor screen, enter a display name and description for the field.
4. Select a data type in the drop-down list. You can choose from the following options:
   
   • String: Returns a text value (for example, "Boole, George").
   • Boolean: Returns a true or false value.
   • Integer: Returns a whole number (for example, 4).
   • Decimal: Returns a number with decimal precision (for example, 4.12).
   • Currency: Returns a currency amount (for example, $8.50).
   • DateTime: Returns a date and time (for example, "9/29/2016 4:55:59 PM").
   • Date: Returns a date (for example, "1/1/2016").
   • Time: Returns a time (for example, "3:15:22 AM").
   • Reference: Returns a value that links to another record or entity in the system.
   • Big Integer: Returns a large whole number, used for values exceeding the standard integer limit.
5. Select an option in the People Role Security drop-down list. For example, if you select Phone Numbers, users see data in the column only if their user role has access to phone numbers for the employee’s user role. The field is blank if a user doesn’t have access to that information for another user role. This drop-down list is active only if your Dayforce instance has the Enable People Role Security in Reporting client property enabled and some people role security options are configured.
6. Select an option in the Access Authorization drop-down list. For example, if you select Employee Payroll Elections, users who don’t have Can Read permission for the Employee Payroll Elections access authorization will see the data in that column masked by asterisks (****).
7. Important: If you select None, any user who has access to the report also has access to the field.
8. Note: See Appendix: Access Authorization Library in the Dayforce Implementation Guide.
7. Add fields and functions to create an expression that represents your custom field. You can select the items in Fields and Functions tab on the side panel, then click Insert to add them. You can also click the functions icons to add them to the expression. Click the info button when you have a field or a function selected to view more information about it in the slide-out panel:
8. 
9. Note: As a best practice, add fields by selecting them in the Fields tab and clicking Insert rather than entering them directly in the expression builder. Some field names that are inserted into the expression are different from the display names that are in the Fields tab.
10. Important: Don’t group custom fields that contain mathematical functions (for example, SUM), as the resulting group by values won’t be accurate.
8. Click Validate.
9. Click Save.
10. Note: If you close the report without saving, Dayforce discards your custom field.

After you save a new custom field, it’s added automatically as a column on the report. You can remove the column by clicking the X next to the column name in the report designer.

After you remove the column, the custom field remains available in the Field Selection from Dataset panel. You can read it as a column, or you can use it as a filter without displaying the data in the report.

To delete the custom field from the report’s dataset, click the X next to the field name in the Add fields from datasets panel.