Fields are one of the reasons why FreeAgent CRM is so customizable. They allow you to include all the bits of information you need during your process, to all the apps you have set up. Whether you want to save the birthday of your Contacts or if you want to add a specific ID to an Opportunity you can do so creating your own fields.
FreeAgent CRM includes 20 different field types, from currencies to dates all the way to calculated fields. You can create the fields you need for each of your apps to ensure you collect all the data you need.
In this tutorial, we will cover the following topics related to Fields:
- Access Level Needed to Manage Fields
- Custom Field types
- Navigating to Form Fields
- Creating New Fields
- Editing Fields
- Managing Fields
- Rearranging Fields
- Deleting Fields
- Reference
- Reference - Multi Select
- Choice List
- Choice List - Multi Select
- Reference Join
- Note
- Image
Access level Needed to Manage Fields
This feature is only available for Administrator users. If you would like to add a field and you can't see 'App Setup' on the menu, please contact your team's administrator for further information.
Custom Fields Types
There are several types of custom fields, depending on the type of data you want to save.
- Choice List. Recommended for information where you need to select a single element from a list of options. This field type is available on the filters. Note: You will need to create a Choice List first, under System Settings > Manage Choice Lists.
- Choice List - Multi Select. Especially useful for data where you want to select 2 or more options from those available on the list. This field type is available on the filters. Note: You will need to create a Choice List first, under System Settings > Manage Choice Lists.
- Currency. This is a numeric field type that separates groups of thousands with commas and adds the dollar sign '$' to the amount.
- Date. Creates an input field that allows the user to enter a date through a date picker. The resulting value includes the year, month, and day. When importing data to this field the format should be yyyy/mm/dd (2019/01/31).
- Date Time. Similar to the date field, it allows the user to enter a date through a date picker as well as the time. When importing data through a CSV file, the format should be yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss (2019-04-29T01:30:46.954Z). It is important to mention that the time should be expressed in UTC.
- Date Ago. It calculates a value from a given date. If the birthday is added as 'date', 'date ago' will calculate the age starting from the date of birth.
- Email. When this type is selected the field will expect a valid email address. The Email address added in this field type will be used as contact information, which means that when you click on the Email icon you will be able to select the desired Email from those available.
- Location. This field type suggests different options when typing in a location, based on existing addresses. It also becomes a Google maps URL for the address entered in the field.
- Number. This is a numeric-only value, which means that it won't accept letters nor special symbols.
- Percent. This field adds the % symbol to a given amount. It accepts decimal values.
- Phone. This type should be used when an additional phone field is required and it will be available once the phone call icon is clicked.
- Stage. You can add it to any App in the system, including your custom apps. Stage represents a process you expect a record in an App to follow. Within this field, you can create dependencies with other existing fields so that they default to other values based on stage changes.
- Text. This field type is alphanumeric. It is mostly used when adding both letters and numbers on the same field or for larger pieces of information. This field can be used as a 'Primary'.
- URL. As the name implies, this field accepts URLs. Using this field type to input URL will make the URLs clickable.
- Reference. This field type creates a link to existing information on FreeAgent CRM. It is mostly used when referencing to a Contact, Account, Deal, or other Apps.
- Reference Join. References the value of an existing field from another tab, and keeps it updated. Great to use when some fields have the same information on all the apps.
- Reference - Multi Select. Similar to the Reference field above. However, it allows you to select multiple values.
- Image. This field type is a great to have in your apps, especially when you have a product catalog or if you have the need to add some sort of visual to your records. The accepted file types are .png, .jpg. The maximum file size for each image is 2MB.
- Note. This is a really powerful rich text field that allows you to add notes for your records, but that is not all, you get access to our powerful text editor to give your notes that something special. Notes are handled as links when you click on them a pop-up window shows you the complete note.
There are some fields amongst those in the list that have the option to become Calculated Fields. This allows for complex operations within the system's fields. You can create operations and return numbers, percents, currencies, phones, emails, and many other results. To enable calculated fields, you will need to select the field type first and then check the 'Calculated' box. The field types, for which Calculated is available, are Currency, Date, Date Time, Email, Image, Number, Percent, Phone, Text, and URL.
To learn more about Calculated fields, please visit this tutorial.
Navigating to Form Fields
Open the menu and go to 'Settings', then click on 'System Settings' to display the available options. There click 'App Setup' and select the desired app. Make sure you are under 'Form fields'.
Creating New Fields
You can create additional Fields for your contacts, accounts, opportunities, or any of your Apps within FreeAgent CRM or edit the existing ones.
You will notice that the system includes a set of predefined fields, however, it is completely possible to edit, rearrange, deactivate, and even delete them.
At this time, you might want to consider creating your form sections, in order to keep your information card cleaner. Setting up sections is really simple, to learn more about them, visit this tutorial.
Adding a Field
To add your own Fields, click the 'Add Field' button. A small modal window will appear where you can give your Field a name and also select its type. There are different Field types: Choice List, Currency, Date, Email, Location, Number, Percent, Phone, Text, and URL. Some field types include the option to add a 'Default Value' when they are created. Also, when you create or edit a field you can decide whether that field should be required, by enabling the checkbox. You can also enable the 'Calculated' box to create a calculated field of the type you just selected. Please note that some field types don't have these three options.
All new fields are located at the bottom of the list.
Choice List
This field type will allow you to create different options from which to select from and the best of all the information of this field becomes filterable. The creation of this Field type involves a two-step process. First, create the Choice List under Manage Choice Lists, and then create the Choice List Field. To learn more about how to create Choice Lists, please visit this tutorial.
Default Value
As the name implies, it allows you to set a value that will be added to the record when it is created if no other information is added to the field. This is a great feature as it will save you time when you are creating new records.
This option is available in the following field types: Choice List, Choice List Multi-Select, Currency, Date, Date Time, Email, Location, Note, Number, Percent, Phone, Reference, Reference Multi-Select, Text, URL.
Note: This option becomes unavailable when the 'Calculated' checkbox is enabled.
Edit Fields
It is possible to edit your Custom Fields to give them a different name or in the case of the 'Choice List' to change the available choices.
Click on the circle to the left of the Custom Filed to enable the 'Edit' button and click on it.
You can give your Custom Field a different name. Once you are done click the 'Save' button.
Manage Fields
FreeAgent CRM gives you the option to manage your Fields so that you can activate or deactivate them as you need. You can also rearrange them at will.
Deactivate Fields
Click on the circle to the left of the field to select it. This will enable the 'deactivate' button so that you can click it.
You will need to confirm the decision before proceeding, by clicking on the 'Deactivate' button. The status of the Field will change after you confirm the deactivation and will be visible under the 'Active' column.
Activate Field
In order to Active a field, repeat the steps described above, just click the 'Activate' buttons instead. If you don't have the 'Show Deactivated' checkbox selected, you won't be able to see the deactivated fields. Make sure to enable it before searching for deactivated fields. You will need to confirm the decision before proceeding, by clicking on the 'Deactivate' button.
Rearrange Fields
It is possible to change the order of your fields. Just click the 'Reorder' button.
A new window will open with all the fields that belong to that app. In this window, you can just drag&drop the fields in the required order and click the 'Save' button.
Delete Fields
To delete them, simply click on the circle right next to the field name and click on the Delete button.
Then confirm that you wish to proceed with the process by clicking the 'Delete' button on the confirmation box. Once a field is deleted, all the information associated with the field will be deleted as well, take this into consideration as this can not be reverted.
If you are unsure about deleting a field, it is also possible to edit, deactivate and even rearrange them.
Now that we know all the basics about adding, editing, managing, and deleting fields, let's talk about some of those fields for which we have a little bit more to say.
Reference field
You can create reference fields for your all Apps. They are meant to create an additional relationship between them and other existing Contacts, Accounts, Deals, or any other Apps you have.
Here is an example. Let's say that in your line of business it is important that you know your Contact as well as the person they report to within their company. Out of the Box, there isn't a field called 'Boss' or 'Manager' that would allow you to choose from existing contacts within FreeAgent CRM to create such a relationship. However, you can always create your own Custom Fields.
To review the complete process to create them, jump to Create Fields. For the scenario described above, it is necessary that the data type is set to 'Reference' and the Reference object is set to 'Contacts'.
If you leave the 'Reference Qualifier' empty, you will be able to choose from your all existing contacts to define the manager of the selected contacts once you edit it.
Once you 'Save' the changes the contact selected as manager will become a link, which will allow you to move between contacts by clicking on the Contact name.
Reference Qualifiers
If you would like to limit the options available in the dropdown, you will need to define the 'Reference Qualifier'. *The options available will vary depending on the app you a referencing to. If you want to add a reference to the records that belong to a team member, for example, the 'Reference Qualifier' will be the record's owner and the 'Qualifier Value' will be the name of the team member.
In the fields list, you will be able to identify the value of the reference under the 'Reference Info' column.
When you create or edit a record, you will notice that the available options in the dropdown will be limited, only those records where TJ is the owner will be displayed in the dropdown. You can find other examples of Qualifiers in this tutorial.
Multi-Select Reference field
This field type is the way to go if you want to create a relationship between existing data, especially that belonging to contacts, accounts, and opportunities, and on top, select multiple elements.
They are meant to create an additional relationship between them and other Apps. This is a 'many-to-many' relationship that as its name implies will allow you to relate different elements. This type of field will also let you choose multiple elements.
When creating this field, under 'Type' select 'Reference - Multi Select'. Under 'Reference Object' choose from within your existing apps.
When editing contacts, you will be able to select one or more elements on the Reference - Multi-Select field. You will notice that your selections for this field type will be treated as 'tags', which means that you can filter using this data, and the best of all is that you can click on each tag to go to the referenced record..
But since the relationship is 'many-to-many' it doesn’t stop there. You can take a look at all the records you selected by clicking on the dropdown menu on the right side of the Rolodex view.
Reference Multi-Select Qualifiers
If you would like to limit the options available in the dropdown, you will need to define the 'Reference Qualifier'. *The options available will vary depending on the app you a referencing to. If you want a reference to the records that belong to a team member, for example, the 'Reference Qualifier' will be the record's owner and the 'Qualifier Value' will be the name of the team member.
In the fields list, you will be able to identify the value of the reference under the 'Reference Info' column.
When you create or edit a record, you will notice that the available options in the dropdown will be limited, only those records where TJ is the owner will be displayed in the dropdown.
That was easy! With the Reference custom field Multi-Select, you can also create new relationships between Contacts and multiple Deals, Accounts, and multiple Accounts, Contacts, and multiple Accounts, Accounts, and multiple Deals, Deals, and multiple other Deals, and many other different combinations within your Apps. You can also opt for limiting the available options for your references by setting the Reference Qualifier. The sky is the limit.
Choice List - Multi-Select field
You can create Multi-select Choice List fields for your Contacts, Accounts, Deals and other Apps. They are meant to provide additional information for them. Here is an example.
Let's say that in your line of business it is important that you know your Contact's favorite colors and you want to be able to select them from an existing list instead of typing each individual color. Out of the Box, there isn't such an option. However, you can always create your own Custom Fields.
For the scenario described above, it is necessary that the data type is set to 'Choice List - Multi Select'. First, it is necessary to create a Choice List, to learn how to create them, please visit this tutorial.
Once you save your custom field, you will need to add the actual choices, in this case, the colors, by editing your Custom Field.
Once you 'Save' the changes to your Custom Field, the next time you add or edit a Contact, you will see the 'Favorite Colors' field. It will show you all the available choices for you to choose from. You can select multiple elements.
One additional advantage of the Choice List custom fields is that they will be available on the filters. So if you would like to see the Contacts that like 'Green', just apply the filter and the system will do the rest.
And there you have it! With the Choice List Multi Select, you can add additional relevant information to your Apps, you can also filter this data and create as many custom fields as you need.
Reference Join field
You can create Reference join fields for all your Apps. They are great to help you prevent having to update the same field in different tabs as we know that there are some fields that are relevant in many areas, as they can be used for filtering, sorting and reporting. Here is an example.
The Industry field, a common data point used for Segmenting... Industry is useful in your Contact, Account, Opportunity, and possibly other apps. If you were to create individual regular fields in each app, you could end up with 3 or more Industry fields and what is worse, someone could edit that field for the Contact, but forget to do so for the rest of the Apps. What a mess!
Here is where the Reference Join field comes in handy. Now, when adding a field to a Form, you are empowered to reference a field value from a related record on a separate Tab. Yes, that means having the same data in two places.
So if we go back to the Industry field, it is directly tied to the Account or Company and should be the master record that other Tabs can reference. In other words, the actual industry field (a Choice List field in FreeAgent) would exist on the Account tab and other Tabs would reference that the value on that field using the new Reference Join field type. This is ONE of MANY use cases. Think about Headquarter location fields (Address, City, State, Zip). So how about we just enter this data once and refer to it everywhere else...? Yes, please!
Creating a Reference Join field is really simple as it is creating any custom field.
We want to create a Industry field witing the Deals tab that will reference to the Industry field that already exists within the Account information. This will help us keep the information updated. If someone updates the Industry field in the Accounts, it will also update that of the Deals once we are done creating the Reference Join. When creating your new custom field, make sure to select 'Reference Join' as the field type.
For the scenario described above, we will be referencing to the 'Industry' field from the 'Accounts' tab so we need to first select 'Account' as the Reference Field. This will get us all the existing fields in the Accounts for us to select as the 'field' we will be referencing, in this case, 'Industry'. Once you are done setting up your field click the 'Save' button.
And that is all! Whenever the Industry of an Account is updated, the Reference join field you just created under the deal will take the new value.
Note field
When you create or edit a record with a note field in it, you will be able to use the text editor to add all the style you need to your note. From changing the font to the size, even adding some emojis, power-up your notes!
Image field
Including an image field within your App will allow you to add an image when you create or edit a record. Images will be shown as thumbnails within the information card, however, you will be able to see a larger image, by hovering over it.