Welcome to the new Edit Record Types page!
The benefit of material tracking is you know where your materials are at any stage of the supply chain, from manufacture to install on site. Every material you're tracking has a record in Matrak that shows where it is and what its status is.
These Record Types have different categories: Materials, Locations, Containers and Tasks.
Materials include everything from big items like Facade panels to small items like nuts and bolts.
Locations tell you where these materials are in the supply chain.
Containers are your stillages, shipping containers, or deliveries. Tasks show which jobs need to be done, or what needs to be checked.
In the Edit Record Types page you can:
Add new Record Types such as Materials, Containers, Locations and Tasks
Quickly edit the fields within these Record Types
Edit multiple Records Types in one interface
What we'll cover in this article:
Let's dive a little deeper into Record Types
Record Types are essentially like templates for your Matrak records. They all have unique IDs and status fields by default, and then you can add different fields to collect information about your materials like comments, dates, times, links, and photos. When you edit these fields it will change the fields in all of the associated records that use this template.
You can create Record Types for Materials, Locations, Containers and Tasks. For example, when you create a Record Type for a Stillage in the Container category you might want to include fields like Location, Arrival Date, Arrival Time and Comments. That way you know where your delivery is going and if it's been packed properly.
How to create a new Record Type:
Step 1:
Click on the 'Edit Records Type page' on the main navigation.
Note: Only Admin access users will have access to this page. If you are an administrator or editor, you will not have access or be able to see this page.
Step 2:
On the left hand side of your workspace, you will see a vertical navigation bar, with our Record Type categories 'Materials', 'Tasks', 'Containers' and 'Locations'. There is also a handy search bar, so you can find your Record Types easily.
To add a new Record Type into one of these categories, simply click the '+' add button next to your chosen category, this will automatically create a new Record Type within this group.
Step 3:
Now type in your Record Type name and click enter, for this example let's setup a Stillage Record Type.
Step 4:
You'll now see a new Record Type called 'Stillage' in your left hand side bar, this has been pre-populated with a text fields for the 'ID' and a list of possible values for 'Status', you can't remove these fields, they're necessary to make sure all your materials are tracked correctly!
But you can add more fields, above we wanted to add some fields to make sure we knew the progress and arrival date of our new Stillage, let's add some fields for Location, Arrival Date, Arrival Time and comments.
To add new fields to your records: Simply right click on either of the current descriptions and it will bring up a menu where you can:
Insert a new field above
Adds a new field above the field you selected
Insert a new field below
Adds a new field below the field you selected
Edit the list reference (Only if you right click on a list)
Allows you to quickly change the selected list to one you've previously created, super helpful if you're creating multiple descriptions with the same list ie: Pass, Fail or N/A.
Detach a list (Only if you right click on a list)
Detaches this list if you've used the Edit List Reference tool above
Deletes the selected description
Permanently deletes the descriptions you've selected.
Note: This cannot be undone, and will remove this field from any associated records.
If you hover over 'Insert one below' or 'Insert one above' it will bring up a list of field options:
Step 5:
To create a new description for location we're going to select a list and name it 'Location', so we can add multiple selection options such as 'In Transit' and 'Arrived on Site'.
We can now continue to add new fields to our Record Type such as a Time field for the 'Arrival Time' a Date field for the 'Arrival Date' and a Text Area field to collect comments.
Note: Text is a single line of text for shorter descriptions and Text Area is expandable suitable for many comments and longer descriptions.
Now your Record Type is set up correctly, you can start creating Records by using the Add Records Page, you can add information for all of the new fields you've created by typing it in or pasting directly from Excel.
How to re-Order your Record Type Fields
If you want to reorder the fields in your Record Type you can simply hover over a field you would like to move, and left click and hold, and move it up or down to it's required position.
You have the ability to reorder fields from three different places on this screen:
1. You can rearrange and reorder fields within the record cards themselves
2. You can also rearrange and reorder fields within the list dropdowns:
3. . You can rearrange and reorder fields within the side navigation.
Note: You can drag and drop Record Types within these categories, if you want to move a Record Type into another category, right click on the Record Type and use the menu to click 'Change Category' and select and new option.
Navigating the Edit History sidebar
You may have noticed throughout this article the Edit History Side bar has been updating with our actions as we've been creating this new Record Type.
This will show you a history of all the changes made to this page. You can see if someone creates new Record Types, changes or creates new fields, or deletes any information. This way, you know all the edits that were made to your record types.
If you can't currently see the Edit History sidebar, simply click on the wrench icon which will bring up some Admin settings, the clock icon will bring up your Edit history sidebar.
Editing Lists
Previously in this article we quickly touched upon the 'Edit List Reference' feature, this is a super handy feature if you want to quickly change to a common list you use frequently.
On any project you're going to have multiple types of list such as statuses, locations, quality checks and ITP's, if you right click in your Record Type, it brings up your menu.
Click 'Edit List Reference':
This will bring up a screen with all the lists you've created for this project, you can scroll and select any list from this page, and it will update the list value in your Record Type.
Editing multiple Record Types in your workspace:
If that wasn't enough we have another handy feature on the Edit Record Types page, if you right click on any of your Record Types on the Right hand navigation, it brings up the menu where you can click to 'Add to workspace'.
This allows you to view and edit multiple Record Types at the same time, without having to click between multiple tabs or pages.
You can also use this menu to change the category of your Record Types, Rename or Delete them.
Note: Deleting a Record Type cannot be undone.
Thanks for spending the time getting to know the new Edit Record Types page, we hope it's been informative and as always reach out in our help chat for any further questions.