How to Use Custom Fields on Customers?
Need to track something about your customers that the standard form doesn’t cover — an emergency contact, a loyalty tier, a preferred delivery window, a referral source? Custom fields let you add your own fields to the customer record. Define a field once and it appears on every customer’s Create and Edit forms across your organisation, so the same information is captured consistently for everyone.
Why Use Custom Fields?
The built-in customer form covers the essentials — name, contact, tax details, addresses. Custom fields extend it to whatever your business needs:
- Consistency — everyone on your team captures the same extra details in the same place.
- No developer needed — you define fields yourself from the app; no code or setup request.
- Non-intrusive — if you configure zero custom fields, nothing extra shows on your forms. They only appear once you add them.
Custom fields are organisation-wide. A field you create shows up on every customer, not just one. There is no per-customer field definition.
Part 1 — Define Your Fields
You manage the list of custom fields (the “schema”) from the Customer List, not from an individual customer.
Step 1: Open the Custom Fields manager
On the Customer List, click the Custom Fields button in the toolbar. A drawer titled Customer · Custom Fields opens, listing any fields you’ve already created.
The Custom Fields button is visible to anyone who can view customers, but you need Settings (write) permission to add, edit, reorder, or deprecate fields. Without it, the drawer is read-only.
Step 2: Add a field
Click Add Field and fill in:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Field name | The label shown on the form (e.g. “Emergency contact”). Up to 120 characters. |
| Field type | How the value is entered — Text, Number, Date, or Dropdown. |
| Required | Tick “Mandatory in Create and Edit forms” to force a value before the customer can be saved. |
The available field types are:
- Text — free text. Optionally set a Maximum Character Length (1–9999) to cap how much can be typed; leave it empty for no limit.
- Number — numeric entry only.
- Date — a date picker.
- Dropdown — a fixed list of choices. Add each option on its own line; you need at least one.
Click Create field to save.
A yellow banner in the form reminds you that this is an organisation-wide change — the new field will appear on every customer’s Create and Edit forms.
Step 3: Reorder, edit, or remove fields
Back in the list view, each field has actions:
- Move up / down — arrows set the order fields appear on the customer form.
- Edit (pencil) — rename a field, toggle Required, or adjust dropdown options and max length. The field type cannot be changed after creation — this protects values already entered against a customer.
- Deprecate (trash) — retire a field you no longer use.
Deprecating is a safe, reversible “soft delete” — it never erases data:
- The field is hidden from the Create and Edit forms.
- Any values already saved against customers stay visible (shown greyed out) on their profiles.
- You can reactivate the field at any time with no data loss — tick Show deprecated fields in the drawer, then use the reactivate action.
Part 2 — Enter Values Against a Customer
Once fields exist, they collect values in two places.
When creating a customer
Open the Create Customer popup. Below the standard fields you’ll see an Additional Details section listing your custom fields. Fill in whatever applies. Any field you marked Required must have a value before the customer can be saved.
When editing a customer
Open a customer’s profile and go to the Additional Details tab. Each field is shown as a row with its current value (an empty value shows a dash). To fill in or change a value:
- Click the Edit (pencil) icon on the row.
- Enter the value using the input that matches the field type — text box, number box, date picker, or dropdown.
- Click the check icon to save, or the X to cancel.
To clear a saved value, use the Clear value (trash) icon on the row. Required fields are marked with an asterisk, and deprecated-but-still-valued fields appear greyed with a Deprecated tag.
Editing values on a customer requires Customers (write) permission. If the Additional Details tab shows no fields, none have been configured yet — add them from the Customer List first.
Tips
- Deprecate instead of guessing. If a field is no longer relevant, deprecate it rather than leaving it on every form — the history stays intact and you can bring it back later.
- Set a max length on text fields you export or print, so entries stay tidy.
- Use Dropdown for anything with fixed choices (tiers, sources, regions) — it keeps values clean and reportable versus free text.