In this guide 6 sections
Configuration changes the product through settings such as fields, stages, tax codes, templates and roles, and it survives upgrades without a developer. Customisation changes the code for your account. It can break at the next upgrade, needs a programmer and often leaves you stuck on an old version, long after fixes have shipped to everyone else.
What a setting can change
An administrator can add or hide fields, rename stages, set tax codes, edit invoice templates and give the cashier and the supervisor separate roles, with no source code touched. The software behaves as designed. Only the words are yours.
A pest control firm can add a treatment area field and a chemical batch number to its job sheet, and the technician sees both boxes on the next call-out. No ticket. No wait.
Test this in the trial. Ask the administrator to add a dropdown for treatment area and rename one stage, then log in as a technician and confirm that both changes appear without a developer.
- Extra fields and dropdown values
- Stage names and their order
- Tax codes and rounding
- Print templates and letterheads
- Roles and who sees what
What needs code
A change needs code when the rule itself is new. A school may want a tuition fee head that waives itself for a second sibling, but only after the first term closes, and no settings screen offers that logic.
Ask one question. Is this a field, a list or a rule? Fields and lists are settings, while a rule that decides something on its own, such as a waiver, a late fee or an approval limit, usually is not.
The prescription format test
A clinic wants its prescription to print the drug name, the dose in words and a follow-up date in the doctor’s preferred order.
If the product has a drag and drop template editor, that is configuration; if the layout is fixed and the vendor offers a rebuild, that is customisation. The first costs the practice manager an hour. The second costs a quotation, a purchase order and a wait of several weeks.
During the demo, have the vendor show the template editor and build the doctor’s layout while you watch. If the drug name, the dose in words and the follow-up date land in the right order within ten minutes, the editor is real.
How each choice affects upgrades and support
Configuration moves with the release. The vendor tests each new version against its settings screens, so your fields, stages and templates carry over, and support staff can open the same screens.
Customisation sits outside that testing. Each upgrade must be checked against private code, and one renamed database column can break a custom fee report overnight. Who maintains it? Who pays? Can you ever return to the standard release?
- Do settings carry over to the next version?
- Who tests custom code at each upgrade?
- Is custom code in the support agreement?
- Can you export it if you leave?
Ask for a list before you sign
Write ten changes you expect in the first year, such as a late fee head, a second outlet, a new GRN approval step or a renamed pipeline stage. Next to each one, ask the vendor to mark it as a setting, a request or a code change, and to say who maintains it after the next upgrade.
Choose the product with the longest settings column, even if its demo looked plainer, because that is the one you can still reshape in three years without ringing anybody.
Change request sorting worksheet
A worksheet with ten blank rows. Each row holds the change you want and a tick box for field, list, rule or layout. Next come the vendor’s answer of setting, request or code, then who pays and who maintains it after the next upgrade.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Is customisation always bad?
No. It suits a rule at the core of your business when no setting can express it, provided the upgrade cost is priced and written down before you agree.
Who can change settings in our company?
Usually an administrator role that you assign. Keep it with one or two trusted people, and ask the product to log every change to a field, a tax code or a role.
Can a vendor turn a request into a setting?
Sometimes, when other customers want the same thing. Ask whether your request can join the product plan rather than sit in your private copy.
Does configuration limit what we can do?
Within the product’s design, yes. Outside it, you need a request or a code change, and a written change list shows exactly where that boundary sits.