Mastering FieldDoc is all about starting strong with effective data management. This live walkthrough will arm you with essential tips and tricks to maximize your success. From leveraging Projects as organizational folders and adopting smart naming strategies to exploring import best practices and utilizing table features, you'll gain practical insights to optimize your experience in the platform.

Recap and Keep Learning

Projects

Projects in FieldDoc serve as an optional and flexible organizing structure, similar to "folders," designed to help you group and manage records effectively within your organization. Projects are tied to your organization, offering a way to organize data by initiatives, geographic areas, or staff responsibilities, and they allow for collaboration through shared access. While they can hold some direct data, most metrics are added and aggregated from associated activity records. Unlike Pacts, Projects have distinct purposes, and caution is advised against using Projects to represent specific grant agreements to avoid disorganization and confusion during reporting. Ultimately, whether to use Projects depends on your organizational needs, and FieldDoc will ensure data from 'Legacy FieldDoc' is preserved, with updates and cleanup tips forthcoming to optimize data management.

🌱 Keep Learning: Project

Sites (currently deprecated)

FieldDoc has evolved its approach to sub-folders, originally a mandatory feature that users found cumbersome and of limited value. Initially serving as a rollup for practice records, sub-folders did not align well with user needs. Now, FieldDoc offers greater flexibility, making sub-folders an optional organizational tool that users can employ as needed to enhance their workflow. Looking ahead, a new and improved Site-like sub-folder feature is set to launch in Q1, offering a more intuitive and effective way to organize and track site-specific data, addressing past limitations and aligning with user needs.

🌱 Keep learning: Sites (deprecated feature)

Activities

Activities are the backbone of FieldDoc, serving as the primary data entry point for tracking work and outcomes. Properly setting up and managing activities is essential for accurate reporting and effective data organization. Thoughtful naming conventions, such as including location, activity type, and installation year, make activities easier to find and reference. The description field provides flexibility to add specific details or context to each activity, enhancing its utility. Activities have a one-to-one relationship with projects, but they can be reorganized without deletion, ensuring flexibility. Key dates like completion or annual installation can also be tracked within activity records to support ongoing efforts. For advanced reporting and compliance, especially with grants or state agencies, NEIEN fields are available to align activities with the required schema, streamlining reporting processes.

🌱 Keep learning: Activities

Imports

FieldDoc’s new import feature simplifies the process of uploading data, allowing users to import Activities, Metrics, NEIEN, and Projects directly from the home page. Activities and Metrics are particularly useful, and the tool supports geospatial files for batch-importing multiple records. During the import, users can map source file fields to FieldDoc fields for precise data alignment. However, some limitations exist: Activity Type and Modeled Metrics must be set manually after import, and matching record keys will overwrite existing data, so ensuring unique keys is critical. Before finalizing the import, users can review their data in a non-responsive viewer to catch any errors. Looking ahead, upcoming webinars will introduce Workflows, a feature that allows users to update existing records with external files or systems, offering even greater flexibility. After importing, users should complete key steps such as adding activity types, activating models, and refining metrics. From here, the transition to exploring Table functionality is seamless.

Tables & Grid Views

Table views in FieldDoc 2.0 address long-standing user requests for a more streamlined way to manage large volumes of data. Previously, navigating individual activity records and metrics was time-consuming, making table views a game-changer for efficiency. With features like filtering, editing, sorting, and copy-paste functionality, table views simplify data organization and allow users to identify trends, fill gaps, and prioritize tasks effectively. They are particularly useful for activities, enabling users to add activity types or switch project assignments directly in the table. For Pacts, users can add Metrics or implemented values within the table view, streamlining data entry. Metrics linked to activities offer insights into contributions at both the organizational and funder levels, with the flexibility to report the same data without duplication. Additionally, planned values must be entered before implementing metrics, ensuring clarity in reporting. When combined with the Import feature, table views create a seamless workflow, allowing bulk data imports followed by efficient refinement and assignment of details.

Clean Up

To keep your FieldDoc setup clean and efficient, follow these key steps:

• Remove Test Records: Delete any "test" records created during setup or experimentation to avoid clutter and confusion.
• Turn Off Unnecessary Models: If you're using custom metrics for Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphorus (TP), or Total Suspended Solids (TSS) instead of FieldDoc's automated models, disable unused models to streamline your workflow.
• Check Project Ownership: Ensure you have the correct ownership permissions for your projects to avoid unexpected restrictions on managing your data.
  Eliminate Duplicate Records: Identify and remove duplicate activity records or metrics to maintain data accuracy and organization.
• Switch Records in a Pact: Adjust options for any duplicate or incorrect records tied to a Pact to ensure accurate representation of your metrics and activities.
  These steps will help maintain a clean, functional, and well-organized FieldDoc workspace.