Streamlining Acumatica: Dynamic Field Control for Enhanced User Experience
This content explores how to solve challenges with Acumatica user interface by implementing conditional field visibility and editability for improved efficiency.
(a) Challenges
- Dynamic Field Behaviour: Customers require fields to be editable and visible based on a checkbox selection, especially for complex settings like tax integrations. This need for dynamic field behaviour is critical to ensure users only interact with relevant fields, thereby reducing confusion and errors.
- Manual Data Entry Issues: Without conditional logic, users must manually determine which fields to complete, leading to data entry errors. This manual process increases the risk of incorrect information and wastes time.
- Suboptimal User Interface (UI): Irrelevant fields clutter the UI, creating a confusing and suboptimal experience for users. This clutter detracts from the efficiency of the software and makes it harder for users to navigate the interface.
- Customer Feedback: Customers reported difficulties with inadvertently filling out fields not relevant to their tasks, indicating a clear need for improved field control. This feedback highlights that the standard UI needed to be improved.
- Review of User Interface: An observation of the existing user interface revealed that the lack of conditional field control led to a cluttered and confusing user interface. The observation confirmed the need for a more streamlined approach.
(b) Solution and Benefits
- Dynamic Control of Field Properties: The solution involved using event handlers to control field visibility and editability based on a checkbox state. This dynamic approach ensures fields appear only when necessary, reducing clutter and the possibility of errors.
- Event Handlers: Event handlers were used to make fields appear or disappear based on user actions. For example, when a ‘tax integration enabled’ checkbox is selected and saved, the ‘tax code override’ field becomes visible and editable.
- Row Selected Event: Logic was implemented in the row selected event to control field visibility and editability based on the checkbox state. This ensured dynamic behavior is dependent on the checkbox state.
- Simplified User Interface: Dynamically showing or hiding fields based on their relevance simplifies the UI, reducing clutter and improving the user experience. A cleaner interface enables users to focus on the fields relevant to their current task.
- Error Prevention: Enabling fields only when needed reduces the risk of users mistakenly modifying irrelevant data. By controlling when fields are editable, users are less likely to input incorrect information.
- Custom Fields: Custom fields, such as a ‘tax integration enabled’ checkbox and a ‘tax code override’ string field, were added to the Data Access Class (DAC) extension. These additions enabled the conditional logic to be implemented in the system.
- Testing: The solution was thoroughly tested under various scenarios to ensure fields behaved as expected. User acceptance testing was conducted to validate that the implemented solution met the customer’s specific needs.
- Real-World Application: The case study demonstrated a real-world problem where a tax code override field was made to appear only when a tax integration checkbox is checked and saved. This shows how practical implementation can improve user experience.
Benefits/Advantages:
- Improved Data Accuracy: By only enabling relevant fields, the chances of incorrect data entry are significantly reduced.
- Enhanced User Experience: A cleaner, less cluttered interface makes it easier for users to interact with the software.
- Increased Efficiency: Users can quickly complete tasks by focusing only on the relevant fields, saving time and effort.
- Reduced Errors: Conditional logic prevents accidental modification of irrelevant data, leading to a more reliable system.
- Customisation: This solution demonstrates the possibilities of Acumatica customisation to meet specific user needs.
- Customer Satisfaction: By addressing direct customer feedback, the solution leads to higher customer satisfaction.
- Expertise of Tayana Solutions: The solution highlights the expertise of Tayana Solutions in Acumatica customization and their commitment to solving real-world business problems. Tayana Solutions provides a range of services to help businesses maximize their use of Acumatica. They can help with implementing, customizing and supporting Acumatica. Tayana Solutions are known for their deep understanding of both the technical side of Acumatica and the real-world business problems their clients face. They are a top Acumatica partner with a team of experts.
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