This form provides a very important tool in customising SchoolBase® to meet the specific needs of your school. All of your users have access to Export Builder, the tool that allows them to export selected columns of data to a spreadsheet. The CustomColumns form determines which fields they can export. In some cases they can export multiple values such as all telephone numbers or all the siblings of a particular pupil.

There are four data types associated with Custom Columns:

Pupil - this is the default set of fields available when Export Builder is opened from the Finder form.
Adult - when Export Builder is opened from the Finder form the user can optionally add the fields of Adult type such as Parent Address to the list of available fields.
Staff - these fields are available when opening Export Builder from the Staff Reports form.
Medical - these fields are available when opening Export Builder from the Finder form when it is being used to access Medical Records.

There are two kinds of field you can add to the Custom Column list:

1. Fields which are held directly in the Pupil, Adult or Staff tables.
2. Fields which are derived from functions stored by SchoolBase® in your SQL Server database.

An example of the first type is Pu_Surname, the field which holds the pupil's surname. An example of the second type is FeederName() which requires the field pu_lastschool to be passed to it as an argument.

The second column allows you to specify how the field appears in Export Builder. Users do not need to be aware of how the data is derived.

The third and fourth columns allow you to add the field to the list of those which can be used for grouping records in the exported data. Not all fields by any means are suitable for such use.

The final column is a new column which has been added to enable you to set system access levels which will restrict access to data for export as you deem appropriate. If the current user's access is below that set for the column, it will not be available to them in Export Builder.

From time to time the release notes will include details of new fields which can be added to Custom Columns. In Appendix 3 of the Systems Manual you can find a list of some of the available functions. If the one you need is not there, please contact the Support Desk.