Custom fields and reminders
Custom fields are your own fields on contacts, companies and deals: an MC number on a carrier, a gate code on a household, a renewal date on an agreement. Owners and admins set them up once in Settings → Custom fields; everyone then fills them in on the records' forms. A date field can also remind the record's owner before the date comes round.
Who can do it:
| Task | Owner | Admin | Member |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add and change custom fields | Yes | Yes | No |
| Archive, unarchive and delete custom fields | Yes | Yes | No |
| Fill in custom fields on a record | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Filter lists by a custom field, export it | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Members don't see Settings → Custom fields. Deal fields show only while Deals is on.
Add a field
- Open Settings → Custom fields and pick the tab for the record type: your contacts, companies or deals.
- Click Add field.
- Give it a Label (up to 60 characters). It can't be the name of a built-in column, such as "Email" or "Phone".
- Pick a Type:
- Text: one line, up to 255 characters.
- Long text: several lines, up to 2,000 characters.
- Number: up to 4 decimals.
- Date: a calendar day.
- Choice: one of a list you set (up to 50 options).
- Checkbox: yes, or nothing.
- Link: a web address (http or https).
- Check the Key. Fifi makes it from the label ("MC number" becomes
mc_number); you can change it now, but not after saving. Imports, exports and the API use it. - Optionally add Help text: it shows under the field on forms.
- For a choice, type its options. Use Add option for more, and the arrows to put them in order.
- Click Add field. The preview at the bottom shows what people will see on the form.
A record type can have up to 25 fields, archived ones included. The counter ("7 of 25") shows where you are. On the Free plan the limit is 5.
Change a field
Click Edit next to it. You can change the label, the help text and a choice's options at any time.
- Renaming an option keeps every record's choice: records store the option, not its name.
- Retire an option you no longer use. It disappears from the forms; records that have it keep it and show "Dry van (retired)". Restore brings it back.
- A field's type can't change, except Text to Long text (tick Allow several lines). To change a type, add a new field and archive the old one.
Put fields in order
Drag a field by its handle, or use the Move up and Move down arrows (they work from the keyboard too). The order is the same on forms, record pages, exports and the API.
Archive, unarchive or delete a field
- Archive hides a field everywhere (forms, record pages, filters, imports, exports and the API) but keeps every record's value. It still counts toward the 25. Unarchive brings it all back.
- Delete is only for an archived field. Type its label to confirm. The field disappears at once and its key can be used again; Fifi then removes its values from every record, including those in the Trash. This can't be undone.
Fill in custom fields
Open a contact, company or deal and click Edit (or New). The fields are under More fields, in your order, with their help text. Leave a field empty, or clear it, to remove its value.
The record's page lists its fields under Details. Fields with no value are collapsed under Show N empty fields.
Filter a list
Contacts, Companies and the Deals list view have a Field filter: pick a field, a condition and a value, then Filter.
| Type | Conditions |
|---|---|
| Text | is set, is empty, is, contains |
| Long text, Link | is set, is empty, contains |
| Number | is set, is empty, is, ≥, ≤ |
| Date | is set, is empty, on, before, after, in the next N days, in the past |
| Choice | is set, is empty, is |
| Checkbox | yes, no |
While the filter is on, the list shows the field's value in its own column (on a phone, as a second line). Export CSV exports just what you filtered. The filter is saved in the page's address, so you can bookmark it. If you see "Filter not applied", the field was archived or the value doesn't fit its type.
Remind the record's owner before a date
A date field can remind the record's owner before its date: an insurance certificate running out, an agreement renewing.
- Edit a Date field and turn on Remind the record's owner.
- Set how many days before (1 to 365; 30 by default).
- Click Save changes. If some records' dates are already that close, Fifi says how many tasks it will add; click Save anyway to go ahead.
Every morning, for each record whose date is within that many days, Fifi adds one task for the record's owner: "Insurance expiry on Nov 30, 2026: Prairie Wind Trucking", due that day and linked to the record. It shows in My tasks, the calendar, the daily digest and on the record. A date that's already past never raises one.
- Once per date. Completing or deleting the task doesn't bring it back. Change the date, and a new reminder comes when the new date is close.
- Who gets it: the record's owner. If they've left the workspace, the longest-standing owner of the workspace.
- Made by Fifi. The activity log shows these tasks as made by Fifi, and "a task becomes overdue" automations don't fire for them.
- The field list shows a bell with "30 days before", and the record's page shows a bell next to the date: "Owner reminded 30 days before".
Import, export and the API
- Import: custom fields appear in the column mapping, matched by label or key. Choices match an option's name in any case; checkboxes take yes, no, true, false, 1, 0 or x; numbers may have thousands separators; dates are 2026-11-30 or 11/30/2026. When updating existing records, an empty cell leaves a field as it is.
- List exports add one column per field after the built-in ones. A choice exports its name and a checkbox "Yes".
- Export everything (Settings → Workspace) also has archived fields' columns ("Label (archived)") and a
custom_fields.csvdescribing every field. - The API and webhooks carry custom fields by key. See the API guide.
What custom fields don't do (yet)
- They aren't in Reports or Ask Fifi: no custom field value is ever sent to Ask Fifi.
- Forms and automations don't fill in or check custom fields.
- Lists can't be sorted by a custom field, and ⌘K search doesn't look in them.
Troubleshooting
- "That's the name of a built-in column." Pick another label: the import needs to tell your field from Fifi's own.
- "Another field already uses that key." Keys are unique per record type; choose another.
- "A record type can have up to 25 custom fields." Delete an archived field to make room.
- "This field is archived" when saving through the API: unarchive it, or leave it out.
- A reminder didn't come. Check the field is a Date with its reminder on and not archived, the record isn't in the Trash, and the date is within the days you set. Reminders arrive in the morning (around 11:00 UTC).