Custom fields can be configured against a role — the record of how a person relates to an organisation — rather than against the person or the organisation itself. Because the values sit on the role assignment, the same person can carry different values for each organisation they are linked to, and the same role type can hold different values on every assignment that uses it.
A registration number that belongs to someone's position at one employer, rather than to them personally, is the kind of thing these fields are for.
Set up role custom fields
Role fields are managed alongside every other kind of custom field.
- Go to Settings → Data & records → Custom fields.
- Choose the Roles tab, which sits alongside People, Organisations, Cases, Posts and Events.
- Use Add new section to group your fields, then Add Fields within a section to create them.
- Reorder Fields and Move Fields work as they do on the other tabs.
The field types available on roles are auto-incrementing values, dates, numbers, records, URLs, text and file uploads.
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Role fields are configured on their own tab, separately from the roles themselves. Creating a role title in Settings → Data & records → Default roles & titles and creating a role custom field are two different jobs.
Enter values on a profile
Role custom fields are filled in from the role card, on either side of the relationship.
- Open a person's or an organisation's profile and go to the Contacts & Roles tab.
- Find the role you want and open its action menu.
- Choose Edit Custom Fields.
- Enter the values and save.
A field appears on a role card only where a value has been set, so cards stay clean on the roles that do not use them. Where no role fields have been configured at all, the option does nothing.
What role custom fields are not for
Role custom fields cannot be used as filters. They are there to show information on a profile, not to segment your database. You cannot build a list on them, and they are not available as List Builder criteria — unlike People and Organisation custom fields, which are.
This is the most common surprise with these fields, because custom fields on People and Organisations can be filtered on. (File upload fields are the other exception — they hold an attachment rather than a value, wherever they are used.) If you need to segment by something about a relationship, look at the options in Roles lists (one row per relationship), which can filter on a role's position and organisation. Note that a role's start and end dates come through as columns there rather than as filters.
Frequently asked questions
Do role fields show on the person or the organisation?
Both. The role card is reachable from either side of the relationship, and the values are the same because they belong to the assignment rather than to either record.
What happens to the values when a role ends?
They stay with the assignment, so an ended role keeps the values it held.
Are these the same as record custom fields that sync to a relationship?
No. A record custom field lives on the person or organisation, and with Sync to relationship enabled it creates a role when a record is added to it, using the job title configured on the field — see Record custom fields (linking people & organisations). It does not put a value onto an existing role. A role custom field is the other way round: it has no existence outside the role it sits on.