
Administrators and Enterprise agents with permission can create and edit custom fields for organizations. Custom org fields are visible to agents, but not end-users. Custom organization fields are not available on the Essential plan.
You can also add custom fields to users (see Adding custom fields to users) and tickets (see Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request forms).
Adding custom organization fields
Administrators and Enterprise agents with permission can create the following types of custom organization fields:
- Drop-down list
- Text
- Multi-line text
- Numeric
- Decimal
- Checkbox
- Regular expression
- Date
You can also watch this short video.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Organization Fields.
- Select a custom field type on the right, then drag it to the active fields area and place it where you want it to appear. Alternatively, click the Plus sign (+) beside the field type you want to add.
The order of your active custom fields here is the same order they will appear in each organization profile.
For more information about the field types, see About custom field types.
When you add the field type, the properties panel opens.
- Enter a Field title shown to agents and a Field key in the properties panel on the right.
When you enter data in one of these fields, the other field automatically populates. You can edit either field, however, if you want them to be different.
You cannot change the field key after you create the custom org field. The field key is used by the API and Liquid placeholders, and it is the only field setting that is not editable after it is set.
- Set other properties for your field.
Options vary depending on the type of field you are adding.
If you are adding a drop-down list, you can have up to six levels of organization (see Organizing drop-down list options).
- Click Create field.
New organization fields are active by default and are added to all organizations.
- Triggers and automations (see Automatically tagging tickets from specific users and organizations)
- Placeholders in macros, ticket comments, and notification messages (see Using placeholders for custom fields)
- Search (see Zendesk Support search reference)
- (Professional and Enterprise) Reporting (see Reporting with custom fields for Explore or Reporting on custom fields in Insights for Insights).
Managing custom organization fields
You can manage your custom organization fields in the Organization Fields admin page. You can edit, delete, activate, deactivate, and clone custom organization fields as needed.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Organization Fields.
- Click the name of the custom org field you want to edit.
- Edit settings in the properties panel on the right.
- Click Update field.
- lick the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Organization Fields.
- Click the name of the custom org field you want to delete.
- Click Delete in the properties panel on the right.
When you delete a custom organization field, that field and any associated data is removed from all organizations. The data is preserved only if the custom field also adds a tag to the organization. The two custom fields that add tags are the drop-down list and the checkbox. If you delete one of these custom fields, then the data in organizations persist as tags.
- Click OK to confirm that you want to delete the custom organization field.
The custom org field and any associated data is removed from all organizations.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Organization Fields.
- Hover over the custom org field you want to clone, then select Activate or Deactivate.
The field moves to the active or inactive section depending on the action you selected.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Organization Fields.
- Hover over the custom org field you want to clone, then select Clone.
A duplicate organization field is created, and the properties panel opens on the right so that you can edit the settings.
33 Comments
I added custom organizational fields however I do not want my agents to have the ability to change the data in those fields. Is there a way to lock custom fields to prevent accidental changes made?
Hi Jackie,
I did some testing and the custom organization fields are only visible to your agents but they are not editable. Only admins can create and edit them. However, if you are on the Enterprise plan, depending on the permissions set on your agents' role, they can also edit and create these organization fields. You can find more information on Custom agent roles here.
Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have other questions.
Is there a way to change the order of these fields once they are established?
Hi Casey, you can just click and drag them up and down the list.
Hi. I have set some Organization and User fields as a drop box, and installed the User Data App, but the information shown on tickets are the tags, and not the Title.
Is there a way to show also the Titles?
For example: I created the Option with Title: "Level 1 client", but what's shown at this app on the ticket is the tag:
Thanks.
Can I change the field type of an organization field that was added? Another system change switched an ID field from only numeric to alpha numeric, so I need to change the corresponding field in Zendesk to be the same. Thanks...
Hi Andy!
Regretfully there's not a way to edit the type of organization field once it's been created; you would need to create and add a new organization field.
If you like, you can use the organization fields API endpoints to help automate this task:
https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/core/organization_fields
Hope this helps!
Can I define a default value for a create organization field? to be set by default for any new organization.
Hey Yael -
I'm not sure I understand your question; could you give an example of what you're trying to do?
Sure, e.g. SLA dropdown - to be set to Basic by default, when a new org is created. Then changed manually to Silver or Gold as relevant.
Hey Yael, sorry for the delayed response. Do you want this field in a ticket or in the Organization profile?
Organization profile.
Thanks for clarifying, Yael!
Organization fields are subject to business rules like Triggers or Automations, so all your Org fields will default to "-" when the Org is created. You'll need to set each of them manually at the time the Org is created.
Can custom fields be used as a primary key?
My use case would have the client's unique identifier as the PK in custom_field.ID, this would never change. Right now, we're using the name field to house ClientName / ID (e.g. Frank's Taxidermy / 12345). There are occasions where Frank will change his business to Frank's Tree Service and right now, my imports are creating a new organization record, rather than appending the existing record.
Hi Frank!
Thanks for your comment!
Perhaps what you're looking for is something like an external ID? If that's the case, I believe this article will help:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231495187-Setting-and-finding-user-s-external-IDs
Take a look and please post back on your findings!
Hi ZD Support,
I'm on the Team Plan and, as a new user, really enjoying the experience thus far.
Can I ask why it is that you offer multi-select field definition for tickets but not for organisations [no 'z's for me as I'm from the UK] please? I have a requirement to define an organisation with a field where I can multi-select from a set of our products to indicate what they're using. Why is this not offered on organisations (or indeed on the user fields) when it is available for a ticket field. Seems odd given the functionality is plainly there.
Are you planning to offer this custom field type to organisations and users in the near future. If not can I request for these to be provided as my current alternative is to simply list this out in a delineated text field. Nasty!
Thanks for your time.
Gary D.
Is there any way to add a custom field that can display a clickable URL?
Hi Joe,
Circling back. I ran an import that added an external ID for my organizations. Now when I import organizations, the name changes as part of the import, NO MORE MANUAL ORGANIZATION UPDATES!!!!!!!
Can you bulk import Drop down values for Organization Drop Down fields?
Hi Søren,
There isn't a way that I'm aware of natively in the UI, but you can use the API to bulk update options for organization drop down fields.
Hi there, it seems the link is missing here:
"Placeholders in macros, ticket comments, and notification messages (see )"
Thanks
I want to add a field that allows multiple values, which i can then access on a ticket via drop down / check-boxes etc.
I.e. each customer has a number of gizmos, and I want each org to have a list of gizmos. Then, for each ticket, you will select the gizmo(/s) that's broken.
Hi,
It would be very useful to have a hyperlink field type. When will this be added?
(it is virtually a text field rendered in an a-tag. You have it here
Hi everyone! I've added the two links that were missing in "To add a custom organization field." Thanks for letting us know!
We are importing organization field drop downs via API. Is there a limit to the number of characters in the tag that we might run into?
Hi Lou,
There is no official limit, but you might see performance issues if the characters were over 2,500 or so.
Please let us know if we can help further!
Hi ZD Support,
I am adding a request for an update on my submission 2 years ago relating to the lack of availability, within Organisation fields, for a multi-select field. It continues to frustrate that I am unable to define a field for the organisations we support where I can document all the products they are licenced to use.
Not all drop down fields are going to be single select - this is why you offer multi-select fields for tickets. So why not organisations?
Is this on any roadmap to be provided at present? An update on this issue, which from the above comments is a concern for others here, would be appreciated.
Kindest Regards
Gary Donoghue
We had one that had about 2800. We tested it in the sandbox, and the only performance issue we experienced was in accessing the values within the settings. When selecting the drop-down from within the organization, no performance issues were detected.
Hi Lou,
I'm glad to hear it! It isn't an official limit, but 2500 is where some of our team has identified that problems could start.
Please let us know if we can offer any further assistance.
Hi, I'd like to set up different brand layouts on the ticket level (ticket fields) so that each brand will have its own dedicated fields. How can this be done? Thanks!
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