Custom fields

Custom fields let you record anything your firm tracks that isn't already a field — referral source, payroll provider, fiscal year end, whether they're on retainer. Once defined, a field appears on every client it applies to, and becomes filterable in the client list.

Where to find it

Values are entered on the client record itself, on the Overview tab.

Create a field

1. Go to Settings → Custom fields.
2. Add a field and give it a Name — for example, Referral source.
3. Pick a Type.
4. If the type is Select, enter the choices under Options (comma-separated) — for example, Referral, Website, Walk-in.
5. Set Applies to — all entities, or only certain entity types.
6. Save.

Field types

Five types are available:

• Text — free entry. Filterable by what it contains.
• Number — filterable by at-least and at-most.
• Date — filterable by on-or-after and on-or-before.
• Select — one value from a list you define. Filterable by choice.
• Checkbox — yes or no.

Choose deliberately. Select is almost always better than Text when the answer comes from a known set, because Text fields can't be reliably filtered once four people have spelled the same answer three ways.

Applies to

A field can apply to all entities or only to particular entity types. A field like S-Corp election date only makes sense on some clients, and restricting it keeps the other records clean.

Filtering by custom fields

Every custom field automatically becomes available as a filter on the client list, with operators matched to its type. This is the payoff for defining fields properly, and the reason a Select beats free text.

Notes and limits

• Custom fields are firm-wide. There's no per-office or per-staff-member set.
• Adding a field to an entity type doesn't backfill anything — existing clients simply have it empty.
• Removing an option from a Select doesn't clear it from clients that already hold that value.
• Fields with no values on any client show "No values available" when you try to filter on them.