As an Admin, you may want to restrict fields from being edited by your team. You can set a field to 'Read Only' on field creation and/or editing. Your team will still be able to see the value that has been entered in the field, but they cannot change that value.
In this article, we'll tackle the following:
Understand 'Read Only' fields
As an Admin, you may want to preserve the value of a field while still letting your company users see the value. For example, maybe a field was written by a third-party integration, or maybe it's something as simple as you wanting the owner of a record to be permanent. Your users need to see the what's filled out in the field, but your process runs smoother if they can't change its value.
You have three choices when creating a read-only field:
'Read Only' on field creation - You may want to ensure the person who creates a record is initially set as the owner. If you don't specify 'Read Only' on edit for this field, the owner can later be changed.
'Read Only' on field edits - You may want to allow a non-admin to establish the initial value of the field, but prevent further editing. Allowing a non-admin to update the value on field creation but not when making further edits to the field resolves this scenario.
'Read Only' on both field creation or field edits - You may never want your company users to edit certain fields. Making them 'Read Only' on creation and edit will accomplish this.
There are some fields that cannot be 'Read Only' fields because they would restrict the product's intended purpose. For example, you cannot set an opportunity's 'Stage' field to read-only because the point of a pipeline is to move opportunities through your stages. The following are fields that cannot be set as 'Read Only':
'Stage' on opportunity records
'Loss Reason' on lost opportunities
'Visibility' on all record types
'Status' (when you drag an opportunity into the 'Won,' 'Lost,' or 'Abandoned' boxes) on opportunities across all pipelines
'Contact Type' on people records
'Company' on people records
'Related To' in tasks and projects
Note: Our API will bypass 'Read Only' fields.
Note: Our import will bypass 'Read Only' fields.
Define your workflow
Do you have a need for field values to be seen but not editable by your team? Write down each field and what the specific need is. Cross reference your list of fields against the list of fields that cannot be 'Read Only' (in the previous section) to ensure you can move forward.
Who should fill in the value of these fields?
If you want to allow company users to fill in field values when creating a record, set only the 'Record Editing Rules' to 'Read Only.'
If your Admin (or a third-party integration) should be the only person editing the record, set both 'Record Creation Rules' and 'Record Editing Rules' to 'Admin-Only.'
Create a 'Read Only' field
Sign into your Copper account, and click 'Settings' from the left-hand menu.
Click 'Field Rules' under 'Customize Copper.'
Across the top of the page, you'll see the record types (people, companies, opportunities, tasks, projects and leads) listed. Choose the record type you want to edit fields for.
Scroll down the list of fields until you find the one you're looking for. To the right of that field, under the 'Record Creation Rules' column, click the drop-down menu to select that this field is 'Read only.' This will ensure any non-admin creating a person record will not be able to fill in this value.
Farther to the right of the field, you'll see a column for 'Record Edit Rules.' Selecting 'Read Only' in the drop-down menu of this column that corresponds to the field in question will make that field read-only to users on existing records.
Now, depending on whether you chose 'Read Only' on record creation, record editing, or both, check out the result. Here is an example of what it looks like to be a company user creating a record with a 'Read Only' 'Owner' field:
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