It's possible to add an extra level of data validation to data entered as part of your processes.

This lets you ensure that core and custom field data is correct and complete, by letting you stipulate:

For example, you may wish to ensure that users are populating IMEIs for service lines, and that they are entering the correct number of digits.

Or, you may wish to make sure that only postcodes of a valid format are entered.

Validation can be applied to the following areas of the system:

Validation can be configured differently for specific items in inventory, or for whole base categories. This allows for validation to vary from product to product.

Validation will be performed when the user enters data in a Data Capture or Batch Editor cell. Invalid data will cause the cell to be highlighted in pink, and a customisable message will be shown.

There is also a Validate button within both Data Capture and Batch Editor. This will perform validation on all displayed lines.

This is useful for performing validation after new rules have been configured, for older data, or for data that was not manually entered (e.g. assets after a Data Manager import).

Quotation-level validation affects the data entered in quotation-level Data Capture, if it has been enabled in your instance.

If validation has been set up at quotation level, then all validation requirements must be met before a quote can be produced.

This should be an important consideration if validation rules are to be applied at quotation level.

Quotation-level validation affects the data entered in sales order-level Data Capture.

If validation has been set up at quotation level, then all validation requirements for a sales order line must be met before that line can be converted to asset.

Clicking Validate will run validation on all lines and highlight any required fields or invalid entries.

Clicking on Convert to Assets will perform validation only on assets with an Action set.

This means that you can convert assets that have all required data entered, without the operation being blocked by incomplete or invalid data in other lines. Incomplete lines can be left with No Action under the Action field.

Please note that validation of assets only occurs when using Batch Editor. Validation set up for assets will not be respected when editing an asset record.

For each field that requires validation, we can assign a validation rule. A validation rule dictates an acceptable format for data in any fields to which it is applied.

The Layer provides a number of default rules that may be useful in a range of situations. Custom rules can also be configured.

To see the rules available in your instance, go to Settings - Validation Groups and click on Validation Rules on the left side panel.

Each rule is comprised of:

Click the Add New button to create a new rule.

Enter the name, regex string, and validation message, then click submit.

This rule will not take effect until it has been applied to a field via base

category settings or a validation group.

Validation can be enabled for inventory items in two ways:

From Settings - Inventory - Manage Categories, you can enable a set of validation rules on a per-base category basis

The Is validation set column can be used to quickly check for the presence of any validation for a given field.

The links in the Validation column allow you to enable validation rules for that field.

Validation groups allow for the creation of a set of validation rules. This group can then be applied to individual items across base categories.

If an item in inventory has been assigned a validation group, that group's rules will override any that have been set against the item's base category.

A validation group can be assigned from the Product Header tab on an item record.

Groups can be viewed and managed from Settings - Validation Groups

Any existing groups will be detailed here. You can click on a group name to edit the rules, or click on New Validation Group.

Enter a name and description, then save to proceed to the configuration.

There are separate tabs for custom and core fields, as well as products and services.

As with base category validation configuration, you can easily see which fields have validation enabled, as they will show a green tick in the Validation Set column.

Additionally, you can quickly disable or enable any configured rules using the three Enable checkboxes. You can consider these as overrides for any rules already applied to that field.

The Validation column links will open the window where you can manage validation rules - see the next section.

Whether you are using base category-level validation, or validation groups, the link in the Validation column will allow you to apply your existing validation rules to specific fields.

Here you can configure rules separately for asset (batch editor), quotation, and sales order levels.

The options are as follows:

In the example image above, we have applied the same validation rule to the MSISDN field for all three stages. However, we have marked the field as a required field for only sales order and asset stages.

This means that the user is not required to enter the MSISDN at quotation stage. However, if they do enter data, it will need to pass the validation checks - i.e. containing only numbers.