Create the Functional Fields¶

PhoneTools stores the outcome of screening in three custom fields on the record. We call these the functional fields, and every object you screen needs all three.

Role	Purpose	Data type
Phone Status Field	Summarises the screening result for the whole record	Picklist
Next Screen Due Field	Records the date and time at which the result becomes stale	Date/Time
Screening Results Field	Holds the detailed result for each number screened, as JSON	Text Area (Long)

You select these three fields later, when you configure a field to screen.

Account, Contact and Lead already have them. The package installs Phone Screening Status, Next Phone Screen Due and Phone Screening Results on all three objects, so if you are only screening those objects you can move straight on to configuring your fields.

If you plan to screen a phone field on another object, create the three fields on that object as described below.

Creating the Phone Status Field¶

PhoneTools writes the result into this field using fixed API names, so the picklist has to offer exactly those values. If a value is missing, the update will fail and the record will never show a result.

Value on the record	Readable label	Meaning
`NotScreened`	Not Screened	Not screened yet, or a number has changed since it was
`Error`	Error	Screening reported a problem, for one number or for the run
`SafeToCall`	Safe to Call (not listed)	None of the screened numbers is listed
`Caution`	Caution (partially listed)	Some, but not all, of the screened numbers are listed
`DoNotCall`	Do Not Call (listed)	Every screened number is listed

The values are listed here in the same order as the block you paste in step 5, which is the order the packaged fields use.

Go to Setup, open Object Manager, locate the object and open Fields & Relationships.
Select New.
Choose the data type Picklist, then select Next.
Enter a Field Label. We suggest Phone Screening Status, which is what the package calls this field on Account, Contact and Lead. The label is yours to choose, because PhoneTools identifies the field by its API name when you select it in the configuration, but matching the packaged label keeps your objects consistent with the rest of this documentation.
Select Enter values, with each value separated by a new line, and enter the five values exactly as written below:
```
NotScreened
Error
SafeToCall
Caution
DoNotCall
```
Set NotScreened as the default value, so that a record that has never been screened reads as unscreened rather than as blank.
Select Next, give the field visibility to everyone who will be screening records or reading the result, then select Next and Save.

Note: Values entered this way are shown to your users exactly as typed. PhoneTools also ships a Global Value Set, Phone-Screening Status, which pairs the same five values with readable labels such as Safe to Call (not listed). If it is available when you create the field, choosing it gives you the friendlier labels and removes any risk of a typo.

Creating the Next Screen Due Field¶

From Fields & Relationships on the same object, select New.
Choose the data type Date/Time, then select Next. It must be Date/Time, not Date, because PhoneTools stores a time as well as a date. The Next Screen Due Field list offers plain Date fields as well, so take care to select the right one later.
Enter a Field Label. We suggest Next Phone Screen Due, which is what the package calls this field on Account, Contact and Lead.
Select Next, give the field visibility to everyone who will be screening records, then select Next and Save.

Creating the Screening Results Field¶

From Fields & Relationships on the same object, select New.
Choose the data type Text Area (Long), then select Next.
Enter a Field Label. We suggest Phone Screening Results.
Set Length to 65536 and # Visible Lines to 5, to match the fields the package installs on Account, Contact and Lead.

Note: Length is not a matter of taste. PhoneTools only offers a Text Area (Long) field in the Screening Results Field list if it can hold at least 16,384 characters, so a shorter field will simply never appear as an option when you come to configure the object.
Select Next, give the field visibility to everyone who will be screening records, then select Next and Save.

Note: This field holds a JSON record of the result for each number screened. Your users are not expected to read it, but the PhoneTools Lightning Component does, so it must be readable by anyone using the component.

Good to Know¶

The three fields are shared by every phone field configured on the object. You need one set per object, not one set per phone field.
Creating the fields does not start any screening on its own. The object also needs a trigger, and each phone field has to be configured and enabled.