Find the Field Code and Values for a Dropdown Field

Updated: 2025-03-18

TaxCycle contains many dropdown fields on its forms. These fields reference one field code with a value for each possible selection. 

To create a condition for a template, data monitor or print set, you need to know the field code and the value. The value is often different than the description displayed in the field, since it cannot contain spaces or punctuation, and it is always in English.

You can easily find the value for a dropdown field by previewing its field code in the Template Editor.

Example 1: T1 Residency Status

1. Open a T1 return, go to the Info worksheet and click in the Residency status field.
2. Click the field code link in the blue bar at the bottom left of the window to copy the {{CurrentClient.Info.Residency.ResidencyStatus}} field code to your clipboard.
3. Paste the field code into the template.
4. The preview will show the value from the Info worksheet. If you select Resident from the list, a value of Resident also shows in the template preview. However, if you change the selection to Non-resident, the template preview displays a value of NonResident, without a space. To create a condition that checks whether the taxpayer is a resident or deemed resident, you will need both of these values.
5. To make this condition easier to read, we recommend breaking apart the field code. You can divide it up in a few different ways. We typically do this:
   
   1. Create an opening and closing condition for the CurrentClient context.
   2. Within that, create an opening and closing condition for the Info.Residency portion of the field code, removing the row number.
   3. This leaves the ResidencyStatus portion on its own for the longer condition. 
6. Create a condition that checks whether the selected ResidencyStatus is the Resident value, then apply the not() function to reverse the condition so that it checks for a value other than Resident selected: {{# not(ResidencyStatus="Resident") }}
7. Use the and operator to add another value to the code that excludes the value DeemedResident: {{# not(ResidencyStatus="Resident") and not(ResidencyStatus="DeemedResident")}}
8. Close the condition by repeating the tag with a slash at the beginning: {{# not(ResidencyStatus="Resident") and not(ResidencyStatus="DeemedResident")}}
9. In between these two tags, enter the text you want to display for non-residents.

Example 2: T3 Trust Type

1. Open a T3 return, go to the Info worksheet and click in Code field.
2. Click the field code link in the blue bar at the bottom left of the window to copy the {{CurrentClient.Info.ID.Type}} field code to your clipboard.
3. Paste the field code into the template.
4. The preview will show the value from the Info worksheet. However, the value is not the code trust type code you see on the form. For example, if you select 905, preview value is TestamentarySpousal. You can use this to create a condition: {{# CurrentClient.Info.ID.Type="TestamentarySpousal"}}
5. The Type field also has a numerical ID for each entry. To find each ID, copy and paste the field code and add Field at the end: {{CurrentClient.Info.ID.TypeField}}
6. The preview for this code will show Principal.Info.ID.Type = 1, 1 being the ID you can use to write a condition, instead of the text value: {{# CurrentClient.Info.ID.Type=1}}
7. To make this condition easier to read, we recommend breaking apart the field code. You can divide it up in a few different ways. We typically do this:
   
   1. Create an opening and closing condition for the CurrentClient context.
   2. Within that, create an opening and closing condition for the Info.ID portion of the field code, removing the row number.
   3. This leaves the Type portion for the main condition. 
8. To create a condition that displays text for any testamentary trust, select each trust type from the list to discover the ID. Then, use the or operator to create a condition that checks for all the IDs.
9. If you use the text value, you must put the values in quotation marks.
10. If you use the ID, you can omit the quotation marks, and make your condition much shorter.
11. Close the condition by repeating the tag with a slash at the beginning.
12. In between these two tags, enter the text you want to display for testamentary trusts.