In addition to the many data fields that are available for you to use on your leads, contacts, and deals details pages, you can also create custom fields to store additional information. For example, you can add a Skype name or an anniversary date to the contact card. Use the Sell interface to add custom fields; you can't add them via the API.
After you have added custom fields, you can also use them to filter your leads, contacts, and deals by information specific to your business. To do this, set your custom fields as filterable.
This article covers the following topics:
Adding custom fields
You must have admin rights to create custom fields. Admins create and add custom fields separately for leads, contacts, prospects and customers, and deals. Admins can define custom fields, that appear as additional fields, for Sell users to add if they choose to.
After they’ve been added to the account, custom fields can be applied by all Sell users.
Admins can create the following types of custom fields:
- Single Line Text
- Paragraph Text
- Number
- Checkbox
- Drop-down
- Multi-select
- Date
- Phone
- Address
- URL
To add a custom field for leads
- On the Sell sidebar, click the Settings (
) icon, then select Customize > Leads.
- Under Custom fields, click Add Field.
- Add the Field Label.
- Select the Field Type.
Be careful when you select the Field Type. You cannot edit it later, instead you must delete and recreate the custom field.
- Set the following options:
-
Filterable: When selected, you can use this field as a filter
to view leads.Note: This filter only applies to reports, not smart lists.
- Value editable only by admin : When selected, only admins can change the value of this field.
- Upon conversion transfer to deal - Checking this box transfers the custom field to the deal card if a deal is created as part of the lead conversion process.
- Upon conversion transfer to person - Checking this box transfers the custom field to the individual contact card if an individual contact's first and last name are present on the lead.
- Upon conversion transfer to company - Checking this box transfers the custom field to the company contact card if a company name is present on the lead.
-
Filterable: When selected, you can use this field as a filter
to view leads.
- Click Save.
To add a custom field for contacts
- On the Sell sidebar, click the Settings (
) icon, then select Customize > Contacts.
- Under Custom fields, click Add Field.
- Add the Field Label.
- Select the Field Type.
Be careful when you select the Field Type. You cannot edit it later, instead you must delete and recreate the custom field.
- Set the following options:
- Filterable: When selected, you can use this field as a filter to view contacts.
- Value editable only by admin : When selected, only admins can change the value of this field.
- Show on person cards - Select this option if you want the custom field to appear on person cards.
- Show on company cards - Select this option if you want the custom field to appear on company cards.
- Click Save.
To add a custom field for prospects and customers
- On the Sell sidebar, click the Settings (
) icon, then select Customize > Prospects and Customers.
- Under Custom fields, click Add Field.
- Add the Field Label.
- Select the Field Type.
Be careful when you select the Field Type. You cannot edit it later, instead you must delete and recreate the custom field.
The Multi-select field type is not an option for custom fields that are in the Prospects and Customers section of Sell.
- Set the following option:
Filterable: When selected, you can use this field as a filter to view prospects and customers.
- Click Save.
To add a custom field for deals
- On the Sell sidebar, click the Settings (
) icon, then select Customize > Deals.
- Under Custom fields, click Add Field.
- Add the Field Label.
- Select the Field Type.
Be careful when you select the Field Type. You cannot edit it later, instead you must delete and recreate the custom field.
- Set the following options:
- Filterable: When selected, you can use this field as a filter to view deals.
- Value editable only by admin : When selected, only admins can change the value of this field.
- Click Save.
Setting the order of custom fields
When creating multiple custom fields, users with admin rights can also set the order in which they are displayed on the lead, contact, prospect, customer, and deal cards, as well as the fields in add or edit forms.
To set the order of custom fields in the add or edit form
- In your list of custom fields, click the sort arrows (up or down) to change the order of the custom fields.
- (Alternatively) You can drag the custom fields up and down the list using the
sort handle that appears when you move your cursor over the custom field (the
handle is located on the right edge). Click the handle and drag the custom field
to the position you want in the list.
Your sort order is saved automatically and updated on the corresponding forms immediately.
To set the order of custom fields on details cards
- On the Sell sidebar, click the Settings (
) icon.
- Click Layouts.
- Click the appropriate tab for the record type that you want to customize the layout for (Leads, People (Contacts), Companies (Contacts), or Deals).
- In the fields column, click Edit.
Editing and deleting custom fields
Admins can edit custom fields. However, if a custom field has been used and populated with data, you cannot change it to a different type. To change the Field Type of a custom field, you must delete and recreate the custom field.
To edit a custom field
- On the Sell sidebar, click the Settings (
) icon.
- Navigate to Customize > Leads or Customize > Contacts, then click either Customize > Prospects and Customers, or Customize > Deals.
- In your list of custom fields, click Edit for the fields you want to change.
- Update your custom fields as needed, then click Save.
You can also delete custom fields, but keep in mind that when you delete a custom field, you also delete all data that has been stored in that custom field.
To delete a custom field
- In your list of custom fields, click the Trashcan (
) icon for the fields you want to delete.
- You are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the field. Click Remove to delete the field.
22 comments
banhi.ratha
Hi @Sophie
Can we create the custom fields for deal/contact through API or through requirements.json file?
Not able to find any documentation on that.
Thanks
0
Ivan
Hello! Can I use these custom fields in Explore chart based on Sell dataset? I created them in Sell, use them in Sell Reports, but they doesn't appear in Explore charts!
0
Dave Dyson
[EDIT: at the time Ivan asked their question, reporting on custom fields in Sell was not yet available, but it has been added since then. See Reporting with custom fields]
0
VIVOTEK Admin
Does it possible to fulfill this Sell request? Or in the future development road-map.
1.Product category functionality is too simple, cost can't share to sales user is really unreasonable.
2.We need add customized field in Product category, e.g., product characteristic, product item, product hierarchy.... It is really unreasonable without this feasibility in customization.
3.We need the customized field can be refer to other field. For example, margin can be calculated by the (deal values- total cost)/deal values. Even just a simple calculation , Field A= Field B+Field C. It is really ridiculous without this simple functionality and need to through outside third party and update back to Sell , even customer have been highlight this wish many times. Not to mention no formula function setting in the customized field.
1
Sam Livingstone
I need to create Custom Fields in Zendesk SELL via API. How do I do that?
0
Shar Shar
1
0
VIVOTEK Admin
I also need to create Custom Fields in Zendesk SELL via API. Is it support drop-down to add item via API?
0
Lea Jane Hug
What are the chances to get conditional Fields?
The option to hide the fields till certain conditions are met would be perfect.
For example, we are tracking over 50 different custom fields, and not for all contacts are all 50 displayed or needed, so we would like to have an option to display only certain fields for certain agents or all together have an option to hide fields till certain conditions are met.
2
Ludwick Marishane
CRITICAL BUG!
Lead custom field not carrying forward when converting to Contact or Deal. Custom field is disappearing.
When I create a custom field set to convert to Contacts and Deals:
A very anxious experience
1
Jess R
Hi, can I choose to hide or display custom fields by the different level of user access?
1
dianakurth
Hi
what about conditional fields as in Support?
meaning for example on deals:
if CF=1 show field x
if CF=2 show field y
?? for bigger companies with complexe structure this would be great instead of having an endless list of custom fields on the cards...
thanks! :)
0
Hans Walter
My Zendesk no longer shows the trash bin next to any custom fields and I have a number of them i need to delete as the fields are obsolete. Now what?
0
Dainne Kiara Lucena-Laxamana
Hi Hans Walter
I went ahead & created a ticket as the team might need to investigate further as to why you are not seeing the 'delete function'.
Please keep an eye out for our update on the ticket!
0
Kate Woollard
Hi there,
Can contact custom fields be transferred when a deal is created, or is it only lead fields that can be transferred to a deal?
2
Dane
It's only for leads to deals. As a workaround, you can just create it manually for contacts.
0
James Correa
Requests:
1
Dane
As per this article:
For custom fields, I have a similar setup on my account. The discount values are numbers custom field.
Here is the formula I used for it:
0
Charlotte Jamnadass
Is it not possible to make a custom field mandatory? We've added plenty of them but Associates are not completing them because they have the option not to but the information is then missing
0
Elaine
Hi Charlotte, you should be able to make a custom field (except for the Checkbox custom field type) mandatory to be filled out by your associates in Settings > Business Rules > Field Rules. For more information, please check out our other article Working with mandatory fields – Configuring required fields. Hope this helps! :)
0
Chad Susa (Gravity CX - Zendesk Partner)
Hi All
Wondering what the character limit is for a Single Line Text field as well as the Paragraph Text field?
Many thanks
0
Noly Maron Unson
Hi Chad Susa,
The character limit for any text field is 65,536.
Hope this helps.
0
Tia Takara
I dont have delete option once I select a field to delete. How do I go about deleting fields I dont need?
0