A Record custom field holds a reference to another record that already exists in your account, rather than free text. Use one where a person or organisation needs to point at another contact — a person's employer, an organisation's key contacts, the delegates attached to a branch.
Creating a Record field
- Go to Settings → Data & records → Custom fields.
- Open the tab for the record type the field belongs to — for example People.
- In the section you want the field in, select Add Fields, then Record.
- Enter the Field label.
- Under Record Types, tick what the field is allowed to reference: People, Organisation, Users, or a combination.
- Set the behaviour options (below), then select Create.
Record Types
Ticking Organisation reveals a category dropdown beneath it. Use it to restrict the field to organisations of particular categories, so the person filling it in only sees relevant options. The categories available are the ones your account has configured, so yours will differ from the examples you see elsewhere.
Behaviour options
- Allow Multiple — let the field hold more than one record. On by default.
- Display Full Name — show the referenced record's full name.
- Allow create — let someone create a new record from within the field, instead of only picking an existing one. On by default.
Sync to relationship
Normally a Record field is just a reference: if a person's profile records that they are a finance contact of an organisation, that fact lives only on the person, and nothing appears on the organisation. The Contacts and Roles tab works the other way — roles created there are two-way and appear on both records.
Sync to relationship bridges the two. With it enabled, whatever you put in the Record field also creates a role on the Contacts and Roles tab, so the connection shows on both sides while you keep the benefits of a Record field.
To enable it, tick Organisation (on a People field) or People (on an Organisation field), then tick Sync to relationship. Two settings appear:
- Relationship job title — the job title given to every role this field creates. Set it once and each connection is titled automatically, rather than typing the same title repeatedly.
- Make primary when setting — makes the referenced organisation the contact's primary organisation as well as creating the role. Ticking this greys out Allow Multiple, because a contact can only have one primary organisation.
You can enable Sync to relationship on a Record field that already exists — open the field's settings cog and tick it there.
The sync runs one way
This matters, so it's worth being explicit:
- Setting or clearing the Record field does flow through to Contacts and Roles. Removing a record from the field ends the role it created.
- Editing or ending the role in Contacts and Roles does not flow back. The Record field keeps its value.
So treat the custom field as the source of truth for any relationship it manages, and make changes there rather than on the Contacts and Roles tab.
Why use a Record field rather than a plain relationship
- Forms. An Add/Update Contact block can expose a Record field, letting someone filling in your form search your existing organisations instead of typing a name you then have to match by hand.
- Linked fields. You can build a linked field off a Record field to pull details from the referenced record onto the profile — for example bringing an organisation's industry onto each of its people. See Linked fields on linked fields (chaining).
- Exports and lists. The value sits in a field on the profile, so it exports and filters like any other custom field.
Worked examples
A person's employer, with data flowing down. On People, create an Organisation Record field with Sync to relationship and Make primary when setting on. Setting someone's organisation now creates the role, marks that organisation primary, and gives you a Record field to hang linked fields off — so the organisation's details flow onto the person's profile.
Committee or board memberships. On People, create an Organisation Record field with Allow Multiple on and Make primary when setting off, and set Relationship job title to the title you want — for example Board member. Someone sitting on several boards can be recorded once in the field, each connection is titled automatically, and every one appears on the relevant organisation's Contacts and Roles tab.
An organisation's key contacts. On Organisations, create a People Record field with Sync to relationship on and Relationship job title set to, say, Finance contact. Adding a person to that field marks them as the organisation's finance contact and the role appears on their profile too, so the relationship reads correctly from either side.
Notes
- Record and Linked Field are separate field types. A Record field points at a record; a linked field pulls a value through from a record a Record field already points at.
- Record fields are available on People, Organisations, Cases and Posts, and as a Projects column.