Custom fields on contacts
Add your own fields and relations to Contacts, then fill them in on the contact record, the table and the New contact dialog.
Contacts is a built-in object, so it comes with fields of its own: Name, Company, Stage, Value, Owner and Channels. You can add your own next to them, such as a region, an account tier or a contract renewal date, and relate contacts to your other objects, such as orders. Your fields show on every contact record, as optional columns in the Contacts table and in the New contact dialog, and agents read them as context.
- Who can use it: Owners and admins add, change and remove custom fields and relations. Filling them in on a contact takes the Edit records permission, and in the New contact dialog the Create records permission; owners, admins and members have both by default. Without them, the values are read only, and the New contact dialog says “Custom fields are left out.” with the reason. See Roles and permissions.
- Before you start: To relate contacts to another object, that object must exist. See Create a custom object.
Add a field to Contacts
Open the Contacts sheet
Go to Setup → Objects, open the ⋯ menu on the Contacts row and click Edit object. The sheet says the object is built in; it has no Name or Agents section, and its six standard fields each carry a lock.
Add your field
Click Add field, name it and pick its type, exactly as for any object (see Create a custom object and Field types). For example, a Region field of type Single choice with the options APAC, EMEA and Americas.
Save
Click Save changes. A notice confirms it (Saved Contacts), and every contact now has the field, empty to start with.
The standard fields can't be renamed, retyped or removed. Your own fields can, as on any object; removing one deletes its values from every contact.
Relate contacts to another object
Under Relations in the Contacts sheet, click Add relation, pick the object and how they link, and save. You can also add the relation from the other object's sheet, picking Contacts under Relate to: it's the same relation either way. See Relate objects.
Fill in custom fields on a contact
Open the contact
Open a contact from the Contacts page. Beside the activity, the Custom fields panel lists your fields, and each relation has its own panel, such as Orders.
Click a value
Click a value to edit it in place, the same way as in any records table (see Work with records). A notice confirms the change. To link records, click Link on the relation's panel (see Relate objects).
Show custom fields in the Contacts table
Custom fields and relations are hidden in the Contacts table until you turn them on.
Open Columns
On the Contacts page, click Columns. Your fields and relations are listed after the standard columns, unticked.
Tick the ones you want
Each one you tick becomes a column. A relation column shows the first linked record and + the number of others, or None.
Fill them in on a new contact
When you add a contact with New contact, the dialog ends with a Custom fields and related records section: one input per custom field (required ones first, the rest marked (optional)) and a picker per relation. See Add and import contacts.
See them beside a conversation
In the inbox, the contact panel beside a conversation has a Related records section for each relation that has links: the relation's name and count, up to three linked records, View all when there are more, and Open record to go to the contact.
