Making checklist fields required — possible?

Question

Our compliance team requires that certain safety attestations be completed before a technician can close out a work order. We are evaluating FieldPulse for field operations in a regulated environment.

I have reviewed the checklist template creation interface and do not see an option to designate specific fields as mandatory. It is worth noting that from a governance perspective, we cannot rely on voluntary completion — the system must enforce this at the data entry level.

Is this capability available, or is it on the product roadmap? If not currently supported, what workarounds have other organizations implemented to ensure audit-ready documentation?

Priya Nair (Staff) · Accepted Answer

Hi Fatima, great question! Yes, you can make checklist fields required. Here's how:

Go to Settings > Forms & Checklists > Checklist Templates 
 Edit your template or create a new one 
 Click the field you want to require 
 Check the box labeled "Make this field required" 
 Save the template

When a technician tries to complete or close the work order, FieldPulse will block submission until all required fields are filled. This validation happens on both mobile and web.

For your audit use case, you may also want to enable audit logging to capture when checklists are submitted and by whom.

Josh Mercer · Answer

Pro tip: Required fields work for most field types, but there's a gotcha with photo fields. If you mark a photo field as required, the tech must upload at least one image — no skipping it with a note. We've run into this with safety verification shots where the tech meant to add a description instead.

Also worth noting: required fields only enforce on completion , not on status changes like "In Progress." So if your techs move jobs through multiple statuses, the validation won't trigger until they try to mark it done.