Would you like to control the list of available options in certain fields based on the answer to a prior question? With Conditional Lists, Scout makes it easier for both the administrator building long selection lists, and the user populating the fields.

Read on to learn more about Conditional Lists in Custom Fields: what they are, why you should use them, and how to set them up.

What are Conditional Lists?

Company Admins can create new conditional list options for any single-select custom field! A custom field with a Conditional List will generally work the same as standard custom fields.

The new Custom Field type “Conditional List” is available for:

• Project Custom Fields
• Contract Custom Fields
• Supplier Profile Custom Fields

For example: When the selection for the state is New York, the options for cities should only include those cities within the state of New York. When the selection for the department is Marketing, only budget approvers within Marketing should be available for selection on a subsequent field.

Why use Conditional Lists?

Benefits for Conditional Lists include:

• Simplified setup
• Improved end-user experience
• Greater efficiency

Conditional Lists are a great fit for any custom field where a top-level selection should control what options are available in a dependent field. Many customers use this feature to display particular options on fields like: sub-category, cost center, and location based selections to name a few.

Additionally, any dependent fields will be reportable in the same way another custom field would. You can find this field listed in the 'Filters' side-panel within Reports and pull it into your report per usual. For more information on Reports, click here.

How to Create Conditional Lists

First, navigate to your Settings panel:

Next, navigate to Custom Fields to begin creating a Conditional Custom Field:

For our Custom Field, let's create 'State' as a single select custom field:

Once you click into Add Options, you will want to list your different options:

To create Conditional Lists, click into Add Dependent Fields and hit Save:

After you create a Dependent Field(s), you can click Add Options for each answer option:

This will allow you to add conditional options that will only appear after a top-level selection is made:

You can also create Dependent Fields on Dependent Fields:

In your Settings panel, you will be able to see which single select fields have conditional lists set up:

Click here for more articles about Company Settings