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Creating Custom Fields

Article: 000050282
Updated: December 4, 2023

Lead Gen & CRM has system fields (firstName, lastName, email, and the like) that you can use for each lead created in or imported into Lead Gen & CRM. There will be times where you want to track data that is non-standard, like a preferred time to call, a favorite sports team, and so on.

Lead Gen & CRM allows you to create custom fields in a variety of formats, enabling you to tailor your instance of Lead Gen & CRM to fit your company’s needs.


Article Contents

 
Users:
Administrators 
Company Managers  
Marketing Managers  
Sales Managers  
Salespersons  
Jr. Salespersons  


Creating Fields

You can create different kinds of custom fields.

To create a custom field, start from the Settings menu. You can click the Settings icon at the very bottom of the list in the left toolbar or go to 13personas.png User Menu and click on Settings from there. 

  1. Click on Settings.
  2. Click Custom Fields, located under Features in the left panel.
  3. Click Add Field.
  4. Choose from one of the following field categories:
     
     Field Category Description 
     Lead 

    Appears only on contacts.

     
     Account 

    Appears only on accounts.

     
     Opportunity 

    Appears only on opportunities.

     


    Add a new field
     
  5. Enter the Field Label or name of your new custom field. If you selected Lead Field as the field category, select applicable lead field options.
    • Visible in Contact Manager will display the field on contact pages. 
    • Available When Creating Forms will make your field available to use as a form field.
    • Email Merge Variable will make your field available as a merge variable, when sending emails.
    • Editable in Contact Manager will allow you to make changes to the field’s content within a contact page. This field is checked by default. 
  6. Choose the Field Type.
  7. Fill out any of the options needed to create your custom field. If applicable, enter a user-facing label in the placeholder field. 
  8. If multiple options are available, such as with the Drop-Down Selection, Checkbox Group or Radio Group field types, define the selections with a Label and give the selections a Value
  9. If multiple options are available, such as with the Drop-Down Selection, Checkbox Group, or Radio Group field types, decide if there should be any option selected by default. 
  10. If multiple options are available, such as with the Drop-Down Selection, Checkbox Group, or Radio Group field types, add multiple selection at once using the Bulk Add feature. 

    Field details
     
  11. When using the Bulk Add feature, enter the label and value for your new selections, separated by a delimiter. 
  12. In the Add delimiter field, define what the above field should recognize to separate selection data. If you separated labels and values by a comma, enter a comma in the Add delimiter field, if you instead separated labels and values by a semi-colon, enter a semi-colon in the Add delimiter field. 
  13. Decide to Add to the current options or Replace the current options
  14. Click OK.

    Bulk Add
     
  15. Click Create Field.

    Create a new field


Editing Custom Fields

You can edit custom fields as necessary. To edit a custom field, begin from your Settings

  1. Under Features, click Custom Fields
  2. In your Custom Field Manager, locate the desired field and click  1cog.png  Options then Edit Field.

    Edit field
     
  3. Change the field's parameters as necessary in the page that appears and click Update Field.
    Important: Custom fields will delete associated data when the custom field type is changed.

    Update

Important: Checkbox custom fields will delete associated data if the value or label is changed. Refer to Organizing and Reordering Custom Fields and Categories for more information on organizing custom fields.



Lead Fields

These are custom fields that operate within the Contact Manager and are the only custom fields that are usable within the Task and Workflow feature sections. In addition, forms only collect information from lead fields.

Important: When creating selections for a field with the Bulk Add option, an error will occur if duplicate labels or values are entered.

The available custom fields are as follows:
 

 Custom Field Description 
 Text Input


 

Accepts any alphanumeric data, with a limit of 256 characters.

 
 Drop-Down Select


 

Standard format, most commonly seen on web forms where you choose one possible option out of multiple choices. Create these fields in bulk or one at a time. 

 
 Boolean 


 

True or false representation. Used in basic logic assessment, as well as some web forms.

 
 Phone Number


 

Accepts most phone number formats. Examples include
555-555-5555 or (555) 555-5555.

 
 URL


 

Good for tracking pages that contacts or leads may be interacting with outside of sites you are actively tracking.

 
 Attachment URL


 

Ideal for keeping track of externally hosted attachments pertaining to contacts or leads. 

 
 Text Area


 

Similar to Text Input, but with more space available. Similar to a comments field on a web form with a 2000-character limit. 

 
 Country


 

Already a system field, but could be useful for tracking multiple country interactions with each of your leads, contacts, accounts, or opportunities.

 
 Checkbox Group


 

Similar to Drop-Down Select, but allows the selection of more than one (or all) of the possible choices in the field.

 
 Hidden


 

These fields typically are used in web forms, where the form will pass along hidden data from one page to the next.

 
 Date Picker 

Ideal for tracking specific days that could pertain to future meetings times, events, and so on. If you want to use time-based workflows utilizing a custom field, only use the DateTime Picker. Under Merge Variable Format, select the format you would like to display the date as a merge variable. 

 
 Bit


 

The only possible values are 1 and 0. Similar usage to Boolean.

 
 States


 
Similar usage to Country, but for states. 
 Radio Group


 

Similar functionality to the Drop-Down Select field, as it only allows one selection from a list of possible choices.

 
 DateTime Picker 

This is a field that is usable as a reference point for time-based workflows utilizing a custom field, as it references a specific time as well as data. The Date Picker custom field does not require a specific time, only a day. This is useful to dynamically schedule and send reminder emails to leads/contacts for meetings, events, webinars, and so on. Under Merge Variable Format, select the format you would like to display the date and time. If a lead has filled out a form with a DateTime field, that information will autofill the next time a lead visits a page with that form.

 
 File Upload 

This field allows you to upload a file to Lead Gen & CRM for later reference. Useful to track proposal documents pertaining to opportunities and leads. Maximum file size limit of 25MB. 

 

 



Account Fields

These custom fields pertain to the Account Manager, where the companies that have had an opportunity associated to them are cataloged and tracked.

Important: When creating selections for a field with the Bulk Add option, an error will occur if duplicate labels or values are entered.

The available custom fields are as follows:
 

 Custom Field Description 
 Text Input


 

Accepts any alphanumeric data, with a limit of 256 characters. 

 
 Drop-Down Select


 

Standard format, most commonly seen on web forms where you choose one possible option out of multiple choices. Create these fields in bulk or one at a time.

 
 Boolean


 

True or false representation. Used in basic logic assessment, as well as some web forms. 

 
 Phone Number


 

Accepts most phone number formats. Examples include
555-555-5555 or (555) 555-5555

 
 URL


 

Good for tracking pages that contacts or leads may be interacting with outside of sites you are actively tracking.  

 
 Attachment URL


 

Ideal for keeping track of externally hosted attachments pertaining to contacts or leads.

 
 Country


 

Already a system field, but could be useful for tracking multiple country interactions with each of your leads, contacts, accounts, or opportunities.

 
 Checkbox Group


 

Similar to Drop-Down Select, but allows the selection of more than one (or all) of the possible choices in the field.

 
 Bit


 

The only possible values are 1 and 0. Similar usage to Boolean.

 
 States


 
Similar usage to Country, but for states. 
 Radio Group


 

Similar functionality to the Drop-Down Select field, as it only allows one selection from a list of possible choices.

 
 File Upload


 

This field allows you to upload a file to Lead Gen & CRM for later reference. Useful to track proposal documents pertaining to opportunities and leads. Maximum file size limit of 25MB.

 
 Text Area


 

Similar to Text Input, but with more space available. Similar to a comments field on a web form with a 2000-character limit. 

 
 Date Picker 

Ideal for tracking specific days that could pertain to future meetings times, events, and so on. If you want to use time-based workflows utilizing a custom field, only use the DateTime Picker. Under Merge Variable Format, select the format you would like to display the date as a merge variable. 

 
 DateTime Picker 

This is a field that is usable as a reference point for time-based workflows utilizing a custom field, as it references a specific time as well as data. The Date Picker custom field does not require a specific time, only a day. This is useful to dynamically schedule and send reminder emails to leads/contacts for meetings, events, webinars, and so on. Under Merge Variable Format, select the format you would like to display the date and time. If a lead has filled out a form with a DateTime field, that information will autofill the next time a lead visits a page with that form.

 

 



Opportunity Fields

These custom fields pertain to opportunities only and have a similar functionality to Account fields. You can designate opportunity custom fields as required. These fields can either be required on opportunity creation or opportunity close. When a user attempts to create or close an opportunity without filling out the designated required fields, a notification will appear in the upper right-hand corner of the platform indicating the field requirement.

Important: When creating selections for a field with the Bulk Add option, an error will occur if duplicate labels or values are entered.

The available custom fields are as follows:

 Custom Field Description 
 Text Input


 

Accepts any alphanumeric data, with a limit of 256 characters. 

 
 Drop-Down Select


 

Standard format, most commonly seen on web forms where you choose one possible option out of multiple choices. Create these fields in bulk or one at a time.

 
 Boolean


 

True or false representation. Used in basic logic assessment, as well as some web forms. 

 
 Phone Number


 

Accepts most phone number formats. Examples include
555-555-5555 or (555) 555-5555

 
 URL


 

Good for tracking pages that contacts or leads may be interacting with outside of sites you are actively tracking.  

 
 Attachment URL


 

Ideal for keeping track of externally hosted attachments pertaining to contacts or leads.

 
 Country


 

Already a system field, but could be useful for tracking multiple country interactions with each of your leads, contacts, accounts, or opportunities.

 
 Checkbox Group


 

Similar to Drop-Down Select, but allows the selection of more than one (or all) of the possible choices in the field.

 
 Bit


 

The only possible values are 1 and 0. Similar usage to Boolean.

 
 States


 

Similar usage to Country, but for states.

 
 Radio Group


 

Similar functionality to the Drop-Down Select field, as it only allows one selection from a list of possible choices.

 
 File Upload


 

This field allows you to upload a file to Lead Gen & CRM for later reference. Useful to track proposal documents pertaining to opportunities and leads. Maximum file size limit of 25MB.

 
 Text Area


 

Similar to Text Input, but with more space available. Similar to a comments field on a web form with a 2000-character limit. 

 
 Date Picker 

Ideal for tracking specific days that could pertain to future meetings times, events, and so on. If you want to use time-based workflows utilizing a custom field, only use the DateTime Picker. Under Merge Variable Format, select the format you would like to display the date as a merge variable. 

 
 DateTime Picker 

This is a field that is usable as a reference point for time-based workflows utilizing a custom field, as it references a specific time as well as data. The Date Picker custom field does not require a specific time, only a day. This is useful to dynamically schedule and send reminder emails to leads/contacts for meetings, events, webinars, and so on. Under Merge Variable Format, select the format you would like to display the date and time. If a lead has filled out a form with a DateTime field, that information will autofill the next time a lead visits a page with that form.

 

 



Regarding Labels and Values

The checkbox, drop-down, and radio group field types allow you to set values and labels within Lead Gen & CRM.

Values are words or numbers that are attributed to the field. They are separate from one another, which allows for multiple and different selections within the field. Values are stored in the database in your instance of Lead Gen & CRM.

Labels are what are displayed in the application. They provide a way to see what the value is. These can be the value itself, a category name, or something else.

While values and labels can read differently from one another, best practice is to have the fields and values match.
 



Reordering Fields

You can group specific fields together, as well as reorder them for ease of use. Fields are reordered and moved into category folders.

Refer to Organizing and Reordering Custom Fields and Categories for more information on reordering custom fields.

 


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