Manual Data Sources | Plecto Docs

What is a manual data source?

Manual data source means that you enter and manage your data in Plecto manually. The data source updates when you update it, and you can quickly add registrations from your phone using the Plecto mobile app as well.

Manual data sources can be used to register sales, create targets, keep track of tasks, and more.

Step 1: Create a manual data source

Go to Data sources > New data source.
Scroll to the bottom of the page or click the category Custom.
You can choose among four types of Manual entry data sources: Closed deal, Sales target, Booked meetings, or Custom input.
1. Closed deal*, Sales target*, and Booked meetings are preset data sources (we've predefined the data source name and added an extra field). If you choose these, Plecto will create an empty manual data source with the following fields: ID, Employee, Team, Created date, Amount*.
2. Custom input is a manual data source from scratch. Choose your own title, adjust permissions if necessary, and save.
You now have a blank data source. Go to Step 2 and learn how to add your own custom fields.

Step 2: Add custom fields

Once you've created the data source, you can start adding custom fields.

In the data source settings, click Add field to create a new custom field. Fill in the following details:
- Field name: This will appear at the column header in your data source.
  Please note that only plain text should be included in the column titles. Inserting special symbols such as "()*/" etc. can cause formulas to malfunction and not display any data.
- Field type: Choose what type of data you expect to see in this field (text, number, Yes/No, list, etc.).
- (Optional) Help text: Provide more information about what you expect to see in this field.
- (Optional) Default value: Whenever someone creates a new registration, Plecto can pre-fill the field with a default value. It's possible to overwrite it when adding new registrations.
- (Optional) Order: Reorganize your fields. Lower order values will be placed more on the left in the data source.
- (Optional) Allow empty field value: Enable this option if the field doesn't necessarily have to be filled out when adding new registrations.
Keep adding fields until you have the data source you need.

(Optional) Add online registration boxes to the Home page

If your team works with manual data sources, you can help them create registrations faster by adding online registration boxes to the Home page.

With these boxes, you enable employees with Standard login access to add registrations without gaining access to the data sources.