# Custom properties

> Add your own fields to people, companies, opportunities, cases, project tasks, products and services.

Source: https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties
Last updated: 2026-10-02

A custom property is a field you add yourself, for anything the built-in fields do not cover. You
can add them to:

| Area | Managed at | See |
|---|---|---|
| People and companies | **Contacts → Properties** | [Contacts](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties#contacts) |
| Opportunities | **Sales → Properties** | [Sales](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties#sales) |
| Cases | **Case Management → Properties** | [Cases](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties#cases) |
| Project tasks | **Properties** in a project's top bar | [Projects](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties#projects) |
| Products and services | **Products & Services → Properties** | [Products and services](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties#products-and-services) |

Each area has its own set of properties. A property added to opportunities, for example, does not
appear on people. Who can manage each set is controlled by team permissions. See
[Teams and permissions](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/admin/teams).

The property form and the property types are the same everywhere. Where they are used, and how they
are arranged, differs by area.

## The property list

Each area lists its properties with their position, an icon for their type and their name. Click a
property to edit it, and drag it to change the order. The order is the order properties appear in
on records and forms, and it applies to every user as soon as you drop the property.

In Contacts, Sales and Products & Services, properties are arranged in **property groups**. Each group
is a labelled section on the record and the forms. A property must belong to a group, so add a group
before adding the first property.

When there are no properties yet, the list says **No Properties Found**.

## Adding a property group

1. Select **Add Property Group**.
2. Enter the **Property Group Name**, up to 100 characters. It is required.
3. Select **Save**.

New groups are added at the end of the list. Click a group's name to rename it. Drag a group to move
it, and its section, up or down. Drag a property onto another group to move it there.

## Adding a property

**Add Property** opens the property form.

![The New Property form](https://clockworkcrm.blob.core.windows.net/public-internal/docs/contacts/add-property-form.png?v=fe2911d9)

### General Details

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Property Name** | The label users see on the record and the form. Required, up to 50 characters |
| **Help Text** | Shown to users when they point at the property on a form. Up to 100 characters |
| **API Name** | The property's name in the API and in automation field replacements. Required, up to 100 characters |
| **Required** / **Not Required** | When set to **Required**, the record cannot be saved without a value for this property |
| **Property Type** | What kind of value the property holds. See [Property types](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/general/custom-properties#property-types). Defaults to **Text** |

The **API Name** is filled in for you as you type the **Property Name**: the name in lower case,
with spaces and punctuation turned into underscores. You can replace it with your own. It may
contain only lower-case letters, numbers and underscores, and must be unique within its area.
Clockwork CRM checks it as you type, shows a green tick when it is free, and shows **API name is
already in use** when it is not.

For a checkbox, **Required** means the checkbox must be switched on before the form can be saved.

### Type Specific Fields

Some types have extra settings, shown under **Type Specific Fields** once the type is chosen.

| Type | Settings |
|---|---|
| **Text** and **Multi Line** | **Minimum Length** and **Maximum Length**, in characters |
| **Number** | **Minimum Value** and **Maximum Value** |
| **Radio**, **Select** and **Multiple Selection** | **Options**, the choices users pick from |

Minimum and maximum values must be whole numbers. Leave them empty for no limit. When a maximum
length is set, the form shows a character count as users type.

To add options, type into **Add an option...** and press Enter, or type a comma or semicolon. Each
option appears as a chip.

- Drag a chip to change the order the options are listed in.
- Double-click a chip to rename it. Records that already hold the old name are updated to the new
  one.
- The cross on a chip removes it.

### Property Group Details

In areas with property groups, choose the group the property appears in. The property is added at
the end of that group.

Select **Save** to create the property. **Save** stays unavailable while any field on the form has
an error, and the message **One or more errors on this form are preventing the save action** is
shown.

## Property types

| Type | What users enter |
|---|---|
| **Text** | A single line of text |
| **Multi Line** | Several lines of text, in a box that grows as they type |
| **Number** | A number |
| **Currency** | An amount of money, formatted when they leave the field |
| **Date** | A date, typed or picked from a calendar |
| **Email** | An email address. It must be a valid address |
| **Phone** | A phone number. It must include the international dialling code, such as +44 |
| **Url** | A web address. It must include the protocol, such as https:// |
| **Checkbox** | An on or off switch |
| **Radio** | One choice, from a set of buttons showing every option |
| **Select** | One choice, from a drop-down list. A list of more than five options has a filter box |
| **Multiple Selection** | Any number of choices, from a drop-down list |
| **User** | A user of Clockwork CRM, found by searching |
| **Company** | A company record, found by searching |
| **Person** | A person record, found by searching |

## Editing a property

Click a property in the list to open it. You can change everything except the **Property Type**
and the **API Name**, which are fixed once the property has been created. Select **Save** to apply
the changes.

## Deleting a property or a group

1. Point at the property or group and select the bin icon.
2. Confirm the deletion.

A deleted property is removed from records, forms and the property list. A group can be deleted only
when it is empty: move its properties to another group, or delete them, first.

## Contacts

**Contacts → Properties** offers **View Company Properties** and **View Person Properties**. The two
sets are separate: a person property appears only on people, and a company property only on
companies. They share one set of API names, so a person property and a company property cannot have
the same API name. The API name of a deleted contact property cannot be used again.

![The person property list, with properties arranged into groups](https://clockworkcrm.blob.core.windows.net/public-internal/docs/contacts/person-properties.png?v=302f15b6)

A contact property appears:

- on the contact record, in its group's section
- on the add and edit forms for that contact type
- in the column mapping when importing contacts. See [Importing contacts](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/contacts/importing)
- as a filter and a column in the advanced search. See [Searching contacts](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/contacts/searching)
- through the API, under its API Name

## Sales

A property is collected on an opportunity only once it is attached to a pipeline or a stage at
**Sales → Pipelines**:

- attached to **a pipeline**, it appears on every opportunity in that pipeline, whatever its stage
- attached to **a stage**, it appears when an opportunity reaches that stage, and at every later
  stage

A required property must be filled in before an opportunity can be added in, or moved into, a stage
that uses it. Every property, attached or not, can be used as a filter and a column in
**Sales → Advanced Search**. See [Opportunity properties](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/sales/properties).

## Cases

Case properties have no property groups. **Type** at the top of the list chooses which properties you
are working on:

- **General Details** properties appear on every case, whatever its type
- a case type's properties appear only on cases of that type

A required case property must be filled in before you can move on to the next step when adding a
case. See [Case types](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/cases/case-types#properties).

## Projects

Task properties are managed from **Properties** in a project's top bar, which needs the
**Project Task Properties** team permission. There are two kinds:

- **Universal** properties apply to every task in every project
- **Project** properties apply only to the tasks in one project

They appear on the task forms, in the task panel, and as filters and columns in the project's task
search. See [Task properties](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/projects/task-properties).

## Products and services

Products and services share one set of properties, arranged in property groups. A group shows on a
product or service only when it is one of its category's **Default Property Groups**. See
[Product and service settings](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/products/settings#properties).

## Related

- [Teams and permissions](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/admin/teams), who can manage properties
- [API keys and webhooks](https://help.clockworkcrm.com/admin/api-and-webhooks), reading and writing properties through the API