Build a table for the thing you actually track

Every business tracks something its software did not come with. The usual answer is a spreadsheet kept beside the system, which is where data goes to stop being reliable.

In Diract the tables are yours. The ones your template came with are a starting point, not the limit.

Making one

1. Click Settings, then Schema configuration. Every table is listed. One marked Template came with your template and cannot be renamed or deleted.
2. Click New table. Type the Table name, pick an Icon and a Colour.
3. Tick Private: only visible to me to keep it to yourself, or leave it unticked for a shared table.
4. Click Create table. It appears in the sidebar under Tables.

Only a company admin can create a shared table. Anyone else can create a private one.

The field types

Click Open full schema map, click the table, then Add field. The types are Text, Number, Date, Yes / No, Dropdown, Link record, Auto ID, Email, URL, Currency, Property, Entity, Project, Relation, ABN, ACN and Image.

• ABN and ACN are real field types, not text boxes with a label on them. The number is checked against the check digit rules, so a mistyped one is caught where it is entered.
• Link record and Relation join tables together. A record on one table points at records on another, which is what stops the same client being typed in twice.
• Auto ID numbers the records for you, and never reuses the number of a deleted one.

A field that works itself out

Open a Number or Currency field. Under Computed value, pick Multiply or % of to calculate it from two fields on the same table.

Pick Sum of related or Max of related to total the values on a linked table, or take the highest. A job's total is then the sum of its own line items, held in the field rather than in somebody's head.

Tick Required, Unique or Show in master table columns as needed.

Then make the page look right

Open the table from the sidebar and click Setup. Click a field to show it in the table or in the expand panel, drag to reorder, and set a column width.

New record adds a row. Export CSV downloads the lot, which matters for the same reason the storage choice does: the data is yours and it comes out.

A table you made is a real table

This is where most custom field features stop being useful. The new thing exists, and then nothing else in the product knows about it.

• It is in the global search. Records on your own tables come back beside matters, contacts and properties.
• Dashboard widgets can read it. A widget points at a table, and yours is one of them.
• Its records can be linked from anywhere. A Link record field on another table can point at it.
• It exports. Export CSV is on your table for the same reason it is on the ones that came with the template.

Current as at 12 September 2026. Diract changes often, so check the screen before relying on a detail here.