Every business can add its own fields to its contacts and companies. A limo company might add Vehicle and Flight number; an insurance agent Policy number and Renewal date. Each business's fields are its own: a client never sees another client's fields.
Fields are managed in the business's Settings → Custom fields, by owners and managers. The agency can switch this off for a client's business.
Field types
- Single line and Multiple lines for text;
- Number and Money;
- Date;
- Dropdown (pick one), Radio buttons, Dropdown (pick several) and Checkboxes (pick several), each with its own list of choices;
- Checkbox (yes / no);
- Phone, Email and Web address, checked like the contact's own;
- File upload: files kept on the contact (private, opened with a short-lived link).
A field's type can't be changed after it's made, because the values already saved would stop matching it. Make a new field instead.
Settings for each field
- Name, a placeholder (the gray hint in an empty box) and help text;
- Default value: filled in on every new contact that doesn't have a value, however it arrives (by hand, a form, an import, a webhook). It's checked like any value, so a dropdown's default must be one of its choices;
- Required: people editing a contact by hand must fill it. Website forms, imports and webhooks can still save a contact without it, so no lead is lost;
- Folder: groups fields into sections on the contact page (for example "Policy" or "Vehicle"). Deleting a folder keeps its fields;
- Order: drag fields into the order the contact page shows them.
Removing a choice from a dropdown keeps it on contacts that already have it; it just can't be picked again.
Archive and reactivate
Archive hides a field everywhere but keeps every value. Reactivate brings it back exactly as it was. A website form with a field of the same name reactivates the archived field rather than making a second one.
Filtering by a field
Smart lists and filters compare fields by type:
- text: is, is not, contains;
- numbers and money: is, is not, is greater than, is less than;
- dates: is, is before, is after;
- choices: is, is not; pick-several fields: includes;
- yes / no: is;
- every type: is empty, is not empty.
Using fields in emails
Each field has a key, set when the field is made, for example policy_number. Emails (coming with automations) fill {{contact.custom.policy_number}} with the contact's value, and {{contact.first_name | there}} shows "there" when the value is empty. Renaming a field doesn't change its key, so templates keep working.
Built for automations
Fields are tracked by a fixed id, not their name, and every change to a value is recorded with its old and new value. When automations arrive, "Renewal date changed" or "Policy type is Home" can start or steer one without any setup again.