Custom fields and dashboards: what a firm can change
Whether a firm can add custom fields, forms or dashboards to Achekam, and what it can tailor instead: statement lines, engagement types and methodology.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Within a few weeks of adopting any practice system, someone asks for a field. The tax manager wants to record each client's preferred eFiling contact. The audit partner wants a dashboard of engagements by risk rating. The office manager wants a form for new client details in the firm's own order. Each request is reasonable, and the honest answer matters more than a quick yes.
In Achekam, the answer today is that a firm cannot add custom fields, forms, views or dashboards of its own. It can, however, tailor a good deal of what matters most to an accounting firm: its financial statements, its engagement types, its methodology and templates, its documents and its client-facing forms. This article sets out both sides, so the firm can plan around the limit rather than discover it.
Platform Studio is not built
Achekam has a Platform Studio page, and it says plainly that custom fields, forms, views and dashboards are not available. The capability catalogue lists Platform Studio as not built. The part of that area that runs on the server is the Automation Centre.
That has practical consequences:
- No extra fields on records. A detail with no field on the client record cannot be given one.
- No firm-designed internal forms or views. Screens show what Achekam's own design shows.
- No custom dashboards. The firm uses the dashboards and reports Achekam provides.
Say so clearly when staff ask, and record the request. A list of what people wanted and why is useful later, whether to choose a workaround or to judge a future release.
What is missing is server storage for custom objects, fields and forms. That matters because a custom field is only useful if every colleague sees the same value on every computer, and that requires the server to hold it.
The same reasoning explains a caution about some existing screens. On the client screens, a few sub-lists edited in place, namely statutory deadlines, accrued hours and KYC fields, still live only in the browser. They can look like a convenient place to keep extra details, but a colleague on another computer will not see them, and clearing the browser loses them. Do not use them as a substitute for custom fields.
Questions to ask about any request
When someone asks for a field or a dashboard, three questions usually lead to a sensible answer:
- What decision will it help someone make? Many requests turn out to be about one report that already exists elsewhere.
- Does the information already have a home? A contact role, a document in the client's folder or a note on a lead may serve.
- Who needs to see it? If only one person needs it, a personal list may be enough; if the whole firm does, it needs a shared home.
Custom statement lines and wording
Where customisation matters most to an accounting firm, in the financial statements themselves, the firm has real control. A firm can add its own statement lines and groups and change the wording of any row title, and later builds keep those choices.
There is one structural rule: each custom line still totals into a standard line, so notes, the cash flow statement and iXBRL tags stay consistent. That rule protects the statements from a custom line that would otherwise sit outside every total.
Presentation choices should still respect the framework. The IFRS Foundation's summary of IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements sets out the overall requirements for the presentation, structure and minimum content of financial statements, and notes that IFRS 18 replaces it for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027. A custom line that improves clarity is welcome; one that hides an item the framework requires is not. How to use this well is covered in custom statement lines and groups.
The firm's own engagement types
When creating an engagement, staff choose its type, such as annual financial statements compilation, independent review or statutory audit, and a firm can add its own named types. A firm that offers, for example, a quarterly management accounts service or a specific agreed-upon procedures package can name it as its own type.
ENGAGEMENTS > Engagement Templates shows Achekam's built-in service templates with how many engagements use each. That list is read-only; the firm's own types are added when creating an engagement.
The firm's own methodology and templates
For audit and assurance work, a firm's partners keep their own methodology and working-paper templates beside Achekam's platform methodology, which they can adopt. A template version is published only by someone other than its author.
This is the most substantial customisation in Achekam, and the one with the strongest controls. It lets a firm encode how it actually works, its own procedures and its own wording, while the four-eyes rule on publishing keeps a single person from changing the firm's methodology alone. The approach is set out in the firm's own methodology and templates.
Working with what exists
Beyond these, several other parts of Achekam are the firm's to shape:
| What the firm wants | What it can use |
|---|---|
| A form for website enquiries | Web forms, each with its own public address, that create leads |
| Standard requests to clients | Reusable request templates under RFI Templates |
| A consistent list of services and prices | The service catalogue and quotation templates |
| The firm's identity on documents | Its logo and recorded particulars, placed on what Achekam sends |
For a detail that genuinely has no home, such as the tax manager's preferred eFiling contact, decide on one place for it and stick to it: a contact on the client's record with a clear role, or a document in the client's folder. What matters is that the whole firm uses the same place.
Gather this quarter's customisation requests in one list, mark each as possible with an existing feature or not possible today, and tell the people who asked which is which.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
