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Store additional data by creating custom fields
Store additional data by creating custom fields

Create your own text boxes, tick boxes, date pickers, and other fields on a variety of screens to store information for your business.

Matthew James Finkel avatar
Written by Matthew James Finkel
Updated over a week ago

Current RMS is used by businesses across the world in a variety of different industries, so we set up the essential fields. Every business is different, so you can set up custom fields to store additional data that’s important for your business.

What is a custom field?

Custom fields let you add things like text boxes, tick boxes, drop-down lists, date pickers, and other fields to any screen in the system so you can store additional information.

Custom fields can also be pulled through to your document layouts and discussion templates.

Types of field you can add

  • String
    a single line text box

  • Text
    a paragraph-size text box

  • Number
    a text box that only accepts number input

  • Boolean
    a tick box

  • Date & Time
    a date picker with an option to choose the time

  • Date
    a date picker

  • Time
    a time picker

  • Email
    a text box that only accepts correctly formatted email addresses

  • Website
    a text box that accepts website addresses

  • List of values
    a drop-down list of options, you can select only one

  • Multi list of values
    a list of tick boxes, choose multiple options

  • Auto-number
    a number fields that counts up each time you create a new record with this field

  • Currency
    a field prefixed with your currency symbol that accepts only number input

  • Telephone
    a field that allows you to input a telephone number

Why create custom fields?

Looking for inspiration? We’ve got a guide that runs through common use cases for custom fields, see: Example custom fields

Get started

Creating a custom field is a two step process:

  1. First, create a custom field group. A custom field group is a sub-heading that a custom field sits under.

  2. Then, create a custom field. This is your text box, date picker, drop-down box, tick box, or other field.

If you want to create a drop-down box or list of tick boxes, you’ll want to set up a list of values first. See: Add list of values and manage existing list options

Create custom field group

Go to System Setup > Custom field groups and click the add custom field group button.

Enter the name for your custom field, then hit the blue Create button.

Create custom field

Go to System Setup > Custom fields and click the green add custom field button. 

You’ll see the “Create Custom Field” screen, just fill out the fields:

  • Name
    Type a name for your custom field, e.g. “Organization type”.

  • Description
    Enter a description of the field for your reference. If you’re using document approval, the description is displayed instead of the name – handy for creating customer-friendly names for some of your internal fields, e.g. “Source Information” might be “Please let us know how you heard about us from the options below”.

  • Module
    Where do you want to create this custom field? Choose from the list.

  • Order
    If you’re working with multiple custom fields, set a number as an order to determine where it appears within the group. 0 is at the top of the list.

  • Field Type
    What kind of field do you want to add? Choose from the list above. Refer to the section above for information.

List of values and multi list of values

When choosing “List of values” and “Multi list of values”, a drop-down box appears so you can choose from a list of values.

You can choose one of the system default list of values, or choose a list that you’ve created. To create lists, go to System Setup > List of values, see: Add list of values and manage existing list options

Auto-number

When you select “Auto number”, a new section appears where you can configure how your auto-number field works:

  • Prefix
    Some text that appears before the number.

  • Number starts at
    Where should your number start? E.g. type “100" here to count up from 100.

  • Suffix
    Some text that appears after the number.

  • Update existing records
    Your auto-number will apply to any new records you create, toggle to YES to apply to existing records too.

Show in index

If you’re creating a custom field for a stock level, toggle “Show in index” to YES to display the custom field as a column in the Stock Level section against a product. For example, you can see “PAT Test Date” has been added below.

When you’re done, hit the blue Create Custom Field button.

Review your custom fields

Create or edit a record in the module you chose to see your custom field! It will show towards the bottom of the page, with a cog icon next to it.

Shared fields on opportunities, invoices, and purchase orders

Current will automatically copy the information in your custom fields over to an invoice or a purchase order when they have the same custom field. This happens when your custom field has the same name and type on both your opportunity and your invoice or purchase order.

If you need to ask a question about anything in this article, feel free to start a conversation using the green help bubble at the bottom-right! ↘️

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