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Configure a Field to Screen

The phone field configuration is the heart of PhoneTools. It tells PhoneTools which fields in your org hold numbers that need screening, and which functional fields to write the result into. PhoneTools screens a phone field only when that field is listed here and has Enable Screening ticked.

The configuration is held in the Phone Number Field to Screen Custom Setting, API name pw_pss__ScreenedField__c, but you should manage it through the PhoneTools Administration tab rather than through Setup.

What Is Configured out of the Box

Installing the package configures the standard phone fields on the three supported objects:

Object Phone fields
Account Phone
Contact AssistantPhone, HomePhone, MobilePhone, OtherPhone, Phone
Lead MobilePhone, Phone

None of them has screening enabled to begin with, so nothing is screened until you enable it. Any other phone field, including Fax on Account, Contact and Lead, and any custom phone field, has to be added by hand.

Adding a Phone Field

  1. Open the App Launcher and select PhoneTools.
  2. Go to the PhoneTools Administration tab.
  3. Stay on the Configuration tab and find the Phone-Field Configuration section.
  4. Select Add field.
  5. Choose the Object. The Phone Field list is then populated with the phone fields available on that object.
  6. Choose the Phone Field you want to screen.
  7. Leave Enable Screening ticked. It is ticked for you when the dialog opens, and the four settings below it are already showing. Untick it only if you want to record the field now and start screening it later.

  8. Choose the fields for Phone Status Field, Next Screen Due Field and Screening Results Field. These three are required. PhoneTools may have pre-selected them for you; check them rather than assuming they are right.

    On Account, Contact and Lead, choose the fields the package installed: Phone Screening Status, Next Phone Screen Due and Phone Screening Results. On any other object, choose the fields you created in Create the Functional Fields.

  9. Optionally choose a Formula Field. If you have not created a formula field yet, leave this alone and come back to it later. See Limiting Which Records Are Screened below.

  10. Select Add & Save.

Repeat for each phone field you want PhoneTools to screen.

Note: A phone field on an object other than Account, Contact or Lead is only screened once that object also has a trigger. See Create a Trigger.

Enabling Screening on a Field That Is Already Configured

The fields configured at installation are listed on the Configuration tab with a Screening Enabled column, which is unticked until you enable them.

  1. Open the App Launcher and select PhoneTools.
  2. Go to the PhoneTools Administration tab and stay on the Configuration tab.
  3. Select Edit in the Action column, next to the field you want to enable.
  4. Tick Enable Screening. Four more settings appear.
  5. Choose the fields for Phone Status Field, Next Screen Due Field and Screening Results Field, and optionally a Formula Field.
  6. Select Save.
  7. Repeat for each field you want screened.

Note: The functional fields are shared by every screenable phone field on an object, so changing them for one field changes them for all of them. Where the object already has more than one phone field with screening enabled, PhoneTools asks you to confirm before saving and names the fields it is about to change. Where only one phone field is enabled there is nothing to share yet, so the change is applied without a prompt.

To stop screening a field without removing it, select Edit and untick Enable Screening. To remove the field from the configuration altogether, select Del.

Note: Unticking Enable Screening also clears the three functional field selections and the Formula Field for that phone field. If you re-enable it later you will need to choose all four again.

Limiting Which Records Are Screened

Formula Field is optional, and lets you exclude records you do not want to spend lookups on, such as records with a non-UK address.

Create a formula field on the object that returns 1 for records that should be screened and 0 for records that should not, then select it in the Formula Field list. PhoneTools skips any record whose formula evaluates to 0, and the Lightning Component shows those numbers as Excluded from screening rather than as unscreened.

See Define a Screening Formula and Bind a Formula to a Field to Screen.