Plan custom fields
Separate data storage from findability.
Purpose
When to Use This SOP
Use this SOP when:
- Building a new CRM structure
- Planning forms or surveys
- Preparing imports
- Creating smart lists or segments
- Personalizing emails or SMS
- Cleaning up tags that should have been fields
- Workflows need to branch based on stored contact data
- The team has too many unused fields
Before You Start
- Do not create custom fields reactively.
- Start by listing the information the business truly needs to store.
You should have:
- A tag naming convention
- A list of forms or lead capture assets
- A list of data needed by workflows
- A list of data needed by the team
- A list of data needed for reporting
- A plan for who will maintain the fields
Step-by-Step Procedure
- 1Identify what data needs to be stored
List the information the CRM should remember about a contact.
Examples:
- Company name
- Industry
- Budget range
- Preferred contact time
- Service interest
- Referred by
- Number of employees
- Appointment notes
- Current provider
- Start date
- Renewal date
- Lead qualification answer
If the answer is a value, it probably belongs in a field, not a tag.
- 2Separate fields from tags
Use this rule:
If the contact either has it or does not have it, it may be a tag.
If the answer has a value, it should usually be a field.
Examples:
Use a tag:
- source-facebook
- interest-crm
- status-client
- campaign-14day-nurture
Use a field:
- Budget range
- Industry
- Preferred contact time
- Referred by
- Company size
- Appointment notes
Do not create tags like budget-5000 or industry-construction if those values should be stored in fields.
- 3Choose the right field type
Select the field type based on how the information should be entered and used.
Common field types may include:
- Text
- Number
- Dropdown
- Multi-select
- Date
- Phone
- Checkbox
- Long text
- URL
Use dropdowns when you want consistent choices.
Use text fields only when answers will vary and do not need strict reporting.
Use date fields for dates that may drive reminders or follow-up.
Use long text only when a team member will actually read the information.
- 4Plan dropdown options carefully
Dropdowns are useful when the allowed answers should be controlled.
Examples:
Industry dropdown:
- Construction
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Professional Services
- Restaurant
- Nonprofit
- Other
Budget range dropdown:
- Under 1,000
- 1,000 to 5,000
- 5,000 to 10,000
- 10,000 plus
Avoid dropdown options that overlap or create confusion.
Do not confuse dropdown options with custom values. Dropdown options belong to the field. Custom values are reusable account-level placeholders.
- 5Decide which fields should be required
Be careful with required fields.
Required fields can improve data quality, but they can also slow down intake or reduce form completion.
Make a field required only when:
- The team cannot proceed without it
- The workflow needs it
- Reporting depends on it
- The form or process truly requires it
Do not make fields required just because the information would be nice to have.
- 6Use clear field names
Field names should be readable and specific.
Good examples:
- Business Name
- Preferred Contact Time
- Service Interest
- Budget Range
- Referred By
- Renewal Date
Weak examples:
Info
Type
Notes 2
Misc
Lead Data
Question 1
A future team member should understand the field without opening a separate explanation.
- 7Identify fields needed for forms
Review each form or survey.
For every field, ask:
- Does the team need this before follow-up?
- Does the workflow use this field?
- Does this field affect routing?
- Does this field affect reporting?
- Will asking this question reduce form completion?
Only collect what is needed at that step.
- 8Identify fields needed for workflows
Some fields help workflows branch or personalize.
Examples:
- Service Interest controls which follow-up path starts.
- Preferred Contact Method controls whether the team calls or emails first.
- Appointment Type controls reminder language.
- Lead Source Detail supports reporting.
- Renewal Date supports future reminders.
Do not build workflow branches around fields that are not reliably collected.
- 9Identify fields needed for smart lists and reporting
Custom fields can support useful saved views.
Examples:
- Contacts with Industry = Construction
- Contacts with Budget Range = 10,000 plus
- Contacts with Renewal Date in next 60 days
- Contacts with Preferred Contact Method = Phone
- Contacts with Service Interest = CRM Setup
If the field will never be used for filtering, reporting, personalization, or team context, question whether it should exist.
- 10Remove or archive one-off fields
Review existing custom fields.
Look for:
- Fields created for one contact only
- Duplicate fields
- Fields with unclear names
- Fields no one updates
- Fields no workflow or form uses
- Fields that should be tags
- Fields that contain messy notes
Do not delete fields without checking whether forms, workflows, campaigns, or reports depend on them.
- 11Document the field plan
Create a field map.
For each field, document:
- Field name
- Field type
- Purpose
- Where it is collected
- Whether it is required
- Where it is used
- Related workflow, form, report, or smart list
- Owner for future changes
The field map prevents the same field from being recreated later under another name.
Checks Before You Finish
- ✓Before this SOP is complete, confirm:
- ✓Data needs are listed
- ✓Tags and fields are separated correctly
- ✓Field types are chosen intentionally
- ✓Dropdown options are clear
- ✓Required fields are justified
- ✓Field names are readable
- ✓Form fields are reviewed
- ✓Workflow-dependent fields are identified
- ✓Smart list and reporting fields are identified
- ✓One-off fields are flagged for cleanup
- ✓The field map is documented
Common Mistakes
Avoid these mistakes:
- Creating custom fields while building forms without a plan
- Using tags for data that belongs in fields
- Creating text fields when dropdowns would keep data cleaner
- Making too many fields required
- Creating fields no one uses
- Naming fields vaguely
- Creating duplicate fields with slightly different names
- Deleting fields before checking dependencies
- Confusing custom fields with custom values