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Contact Records: Creating Custom Field Groups and Custom Fields
Authored by:
on 12/6/2024 4:54:00 PM

Introduction

While CharityEngine hosts a variety of fields within a contact record, your organization may find a need to create a custom field. Creating a custom field in CharityEngine allows the organization to enter and track information about their contacts that is important to their organization’s reporting and operations. Prior to creating a custom field, you will need to create a Custom Field Group(s) which will allow you to group custom fields on the contact summary page. This will allow you to group certain fields that are similar or contain data that coincides with other data in the group. 

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

  1. You will need to create a custom field group prior to creating a custom field.
  2. If a custom field group does not have any fields associated with it, it will not be displayed on the contact summary screen
  3. Structuring Your Custom Fields: When establishing custom fields, the order in which a custom field is entered into the Configuration > Contacts > Custom Fields will be reflective of the way in which your end-user visually sees the custom field. Please plan accordingly as you enter custom fields considering the easiest method for your end-user.
  4. Critical Notation: Deleting Custom Fields: If a custom field or custom group is deleted, please be aware that all associated values will be deleted from the constituent's record. Please take care to review data exports to ensure data can be deleted prior to removal of the custom field.
  5. Option - Rich Text vs. Text Box: If you have a field that allows free-form text capture by your end-user and/or constituent, leverage Rich Text to capture dynamic information.
  6.  Consider the structure of your custom fields prior to entering your new fields; use the following guidance for the type of available custom fields:

Required Assignment Options Data Type Display Options Advanced
Check Box Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household Datetime, Decimal, ID list, Integer, Text, True/False, ZipCode Show in Group and/or Show on Summary Option Name, Option Value, Default Option (yes/no) N/A
Computed N/A Organization, People, and/or Household Datetime, Decimal, ID list, Integer, Text, True/False, ZipCode Show in Group and/or Show on Summary N/A Data Source (Query), Column (from query), Computed Value Column (from query)
Date Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household N/A Show in Group and/or Show on Summary N/A N/A
Date Time Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household N/A Show in Group and/or Show on Summary N/A N/A
Drop Down Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household Datetime, Decimal, ID list, Integer, Text, True/False, ZipCode Show in Group and/or Show on Summary Option Name, Option Value, Default Option (yes/no) N/A
Radio Button Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household Datetime, Decimal, ID list, Integer, Text, True/False, ZipCode Show in Group and/or Show on Summary Option Name, Option Value, Default Option (yes/no) N/A
Read Only Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household Datetime, Decimal, ID list, Integer, Text, True/False, ZipCode Show in Group and/or Show on Summary N/A N/A
Rich Text Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household N/A Show in Group and/or Show on Summary N/A N/A
Text Box Yes/No Organization, People, and/or Household Datetime, Decimal, ID list, Integer, Text, True/False, ZipCode Show in Group and/or Show on Summary N/A N/A



Instructions - How to Create a Custom Field Group 

Step 1: To create a custom field group, navigate to the Configuration App > Contacts > Custom Field Groups and click Create New.

Step 2: Enter the Name of the group, toggle the group Active = Yes, and identify the type of contact that the group applies.
    1. Use the check boxes to make the custom field group available on organizations, person, and/or household records. 
Step 3: Click SAVE to secure your changes.



Instructions - How to Create a Custom Field 

Step 1: To begin creating your custom field(s), navigate to the Fields tab and click Create New

Step 2: You will need to Name the field, select the Type of field, the Assignment of contact the field applies to (organization, person, and/or household), the custom field Group the field will belong to, the data type, and decide if the field will be Required for all contacts.
  1. Note: only select that the custom field is required if it is TRULY required, otherwise this may lead to frustration when editing and creating contacts if it is not filled in. Click SAVE to secure your changes.
Step 3: Once your general configurations have been made, you will need to configure the display options on the Display Tab. Use the toggles to decide if the field will Show In Group (custom field group) and Show On Summary page of the contact record.
    1. Show in Group: You can display like fields within a Custom Field Group to improve the ease of use for the end-user. Simply toggle the option to On. And ensure you have associated the field with your assigned Custom Field Group value.
    2. Show on Summary: You can display your custom field in the contact's Summary Panel by selecting the Show on Summary toggle. You can select up to 5 custom fields to display on the contact's Summary Panel.



Step 4: If your type of field requires options, such as a check box, radio button, or dropdown, once you save a third tab will appear for you to add the options.

Step 5: Click Add New to add options.

For example, if the field was type of secondary education, your options could be University, community college, or trade school. Enter the name of the option, the option value, and if you want the option to be the default check the Default Option box.

Step 6: Once you have created all your options, they will be displayed on the Options tab. Click SAVE to secure your changes.

Note: The options will be displayed in the order shown on the screen. If you would like to reorder the options, click up or down to move the option in the list.


Instructions - How to Leverage Calculated Custom Fields

Calculated Custom Fields are a great way to automatically collect and show  information from your contacts that would otherwise be difficult to maintain. For example, by creating a calculated custom field, you could find out how many volunteer hours a contact has over a period of time very easily. CharityEngine will be able to pull information from the database and provide you with an answer.

Important Note: Calculated Custom Fields will take overnight for update to the contact record.

Step 1: Create a query for your the calculated field - in this example, displaying a Team Name on the contact record based upon Peer to Peer participation. Navigate to Automation & Workflow > General > Queries > Create New > Filter > Select > CONTINUE 

Step 2: The query must contain Contact ID and then add the additional field to be added to the calculated custom field

Step 3: Click SAVE and Name the query

Example:

Step 4: To create a calculated custom field, navigate to the Configuration App > Contacts > Custom Fields > Create New

Step 5: Enter the:

  1. Name (required)
  2. Select the Type = Computed
  3. Assignment selecting Organization, Person, and/or Household
  4. The custom field Group name
  5. Data Type
    1. This selection is dependent on the type of data you are collecting, for example, if you are collecting numerical data from queries, integer would be the best option. If you are collecting data about giving history or money, then decimal is the best option.

Step 6: Click SAVE to continue creating the calculated custom field.

Step 7: Navigate to the Display tab and determine if the field should Show in Group and/or Show on Summary

Step 8: Once you have set the configurations on the General tab, navigate to the Advanced tab to select the query you wish to pull data from. Use the data source drop-down to search for the query created in Step 1.

  1. Contact Id Column select the query data field which contains the Contact Id
  2. Computed Value Column select the value to be displayed in the custom field when present on a Contact Id



Example: Outcome in Custom Field Group

Example: Outcome based upon Show on Summary

Note: Custom fields are updated daily based upon the results of the query.

Other ways to use this computed field: set Chapters automatically based on contact location, calculate a type of giving like in-kind or towards a specific fund or campaign. These computed fields can then be used in queries to create a highly customized report for your users.

FAQs & Further Reading

Q. Where do I edit a custom field?
A. From the Contact App > Organization & People > locate your contact record > Edit

 
From the General tab, scroll down to locate your Custom Field Group name
Click on the arrow to expose your Custom Field(s) - click SAVE to secure your values. 
Q. What is the "Show on Summary" option?
A. For ease of use for your end users, you can promote a custom field directly below the Summary panel of a contact record. Here, Custom Field Name - Demo is presented immediately below giving summary. 
 

In addition, the custom field and it's custom field group name will also continue to present within the custom group section further on the contact record:

Q. Can I map a custom field from a web form to a contact record?
A. Yes. Once you have established your custom fields, follow this article to create a custom field on your web form to be mapped to this new field. 
Q. Can I search in Advanced Search from the contact listing screen to query on custom field values?
A. Yes, you can access Organization & People > Search & Manage> navigate to the Advanced Segmentation tab and use the drop down to locate your custom field.  
Q. Can I leverage the query tool to 
A. Yes - access Workflow & Automation > General > Query > Create New > Contact > Contact. Navigate under Contact to locate the Custom Fields option to see all custom groups and associated field names. Drag & drop into the SELECT and/or FILTER section to use within a query.  
 



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