NetSuite forms serve as an excellent foundation for organising your records, offering a seamless way to customise them according to your business requirements by incorporating custom fields.
Dive into this blog to discover the ins and outs of creating and modifying custom fields to elevate the functionality of your records.
1. Custom Field Types
Custom fields are fields that you add to records and transactions to record information that is specific to your business. Depending on your business needs, you can create different types of custom records and transaction fields in NetSuite.
Custom CRM Fields. Used for records including Activity, Marketing, and Support records, such as tasks, events, campaigns, or cases.
Custom Entity Fields. Used for records including Relationship and Employee records, such as customers, vendors, employees, contacts, partners, or groups.
Custom Item Fields. Used for records including Accounting and Website Item records, such as inventory, non-inventory, service, other charge, group, kit/package, and assembly/bill of materials item records.
Custom Transaction Body Fields. Used for records including, for example, purchase, sale, journal entry, and expense report records, such as sales orders, invoices, purchase orders, opportunities, web store transactions, or item receipts.
Custom Transaction Line Fields. These fields display the line-item columns of transaction records and include fields such as expense items, purchase items, sales items, store items, or opportunity items.
Custom Transaction Item Fields. Used to add fields to the line items of your transaction records, such as purchase items, sales items, and web store items. When adding a custom field to the line items of a transaction, you apply the field to the type of line item.
Custom Item Number Fields. Used to add fields to serial- and lot-numbered inventory records to track information specific to each item or workflow unique to your business. For example, quality control procedures or recall information could be tracked.
Other Custom Fields. Used to add fields to custom records not defined by the preceding categories, including campaign events, classes, competitors, departments, and locations.
2. Creating a Custom Field
To record information specific to your business needs, you can create various types of custom record and transaction fields.
Custom fields can be created by navigating to Customization > Lists, Records & Fields > [Custom Field] > New. [Custom Field] is the required field type. The Custom Field page will be displayed for the selected type. Options available vary depending on the custom field type selected. The table on the next page shows instructions for filling out this Custom Field.
| Field | Action | |
| Step 1 | Customisation Tab | Go to Customization > Lists, Records & Fields > [Custom Field] > New. Options on this page will vary depending on the type of field you want to create. |
| Step 2 | Label Field | Enter a name or short description that is meaningful to your users. |
| Step 3 | ID Field | Enter a unique alphanumeric ID that is meaningful to your users. Consider the purpose of the custom object and the location where it will be used. If you leave the ID or Script ID field empty, the system automatically creates an ID when you save the custom object. As a best practice, you should enter a unique ID name that begins with an underscore. Including the underscore provides a separation between the prepended string of text and your ID. Example: “_gift_wrap” |
| Step 4 | Field Owner | Select the owner of the custom field if you do not want the default option. Only the owners of custom fields can modify the record, in addition to the Administrator. |
| Step 5 | Description Field | Enter a description of the field you are editing. |
| Step 6 | Field Type | Select the type of custom field you want to create, such as a currency or date field. Depending on what you select, you will see different options on the page. |
| Step 7 | Selected List/Record | Select the list or record in the List/Record field that contains the items for the list field. |
| Step 8 | Store Value Checkbox | By default, the Store Value option is enabled so that custom field values are stored in your NetSuite account. If you do not want any changes entered stored in the custom field, clear the Store Value box. |
| Step 9 | Use Encrypted Format Checkbox | Some custom field data types provide a Use Encrypted Format option. To encrypt the field values stored in the database, check the box. After a custom field has been saved, the Use Encrypted Format setting cannot be changed. When you specify that a field be encrypted, any value in the encrypted field displays as ENCRYPTED in all accounts except the account where the value was first created. |
| Step 10 | Show in List Checkbox | Check this box to have the field automatically show in the list of records to which the field is applied. The list the custom field appears in depends on the field type. For example, entity fields appear in applicable entity lists, CRM fields appear in CRM record lists, and so on. |
| Step 11 | Store Value Checkbox | To index a custom field for global search in NetSuite, check this box. Available for these field types: Currency, Decimal Number, Email Address, Free-Form Text, Help, Hyperlink, Inline HTML, Integer Number, Percent, Phone Number, and Text Area. |
| Step 12 | Record is Parent Checkbox |
If you are creating a List/Record custom field, and the record type selected is a parent record, check the Record is Parent box. |
| Step 13 | Inactive Checkbox | If you want to inactivate the field after it is created, check the Inactive box. Note: You cannot clear the Inactive box if the custom field is used for criteria in duplicate detection. |
| Step 14 | Assign to Subtab | After you have created a custom field, you should define which record types the field can be used in. See Assigning Custom Fields to Specific Record Types. |
| Step 15 | Display Subtab | Use the Display subtab to determine where your field will appear on forms in relation to other custom fields. Use the help field on this subtab to enter information to help users understand the purpose of a field and the kind of information it holds. It is a best practice to at least have basic field-level help text. |
| Step 16 | Validation and Defaulting Subtab |
Use the Validation and Defaulting Subtab to control the information that is entered in a field. You can enter a default value, make a field mandatory, and more. Options on this tab will vary depending on the type of field. |
| Step 17 | Sourcing and Filtering Subtab |
Use the Sourcing and Filtering subtab to automatically source information from another record in your account. |
| Step 18 | Access Subtab | Use the Access subtab to set up the group of users who can access the values of the fields on records. Set access levels for classifications such as class, department, or location. |
| Step 19 | Translations | Use the Translations subtab for simple translations to other languages, for the field itself and for the field-level help description that was added on the Display subtab. |
3. Modifying Existing Custom Fields
If you view a form and want to know if a field is custom, open the field-level help and find the field ID. If the field ID is not visible, you need to show the Internal IDs in your account. You can set this preference by going to Home > Set Preference.
If the field ID begins with one of the following, the field is a custom field. Note: If no forms are listed, the Display Type field may be set to Hidden; hidden fields are not shown on any form.
- custevent (CRM)
- custentity (entities)
- custitem (items)
- custbody (transaction body)
To modify custom fields, go to Customization > Lists, Records & Fields > Custom Field Type. On the Custom Field page, each custom field is listed, with columns providing detailed information about the field and which records the field has been applied to.
Click the field name in the Description column, and then modify the field definition as needed. The instructions to modify custom fields are the same for each field type.
Complete fields on the Custom Field page as needed, and then click Save.
As an important note, when you change the name of a custom field, the name is not automatically updated on custom forms that contain the field. To apply the new name to custom forms, after making changes to your custom field, click Apply to Forms. On the Apply Custom Field to Forms page, change the field label for each form where you want to reflect the change.
4. Inactivating or Deleting a Custom Field
You can make a custom field inactive, remove a custom field from a specific record type, or delete the field completely.
Making a custom field inactive. You can make a custom field inactive on the record page for the custom field or in a list of custom fields:
- On a Custom Field record, check the Inactive box to make a custom field inactive.
- A Show Inactives box is also available on all custom field list pages. By default, the Show Inactives box is cleared, so that inactive custom fields are filtered out of lists. When Show Inactives is checked, the list displays both inactive and active custom fields, and each custom field in the list has an Inactive box next to it. You can check the box and submit to make a custom field inactive. You can clear the box and submit to reactivate an inactive custom field. When a custom field is inactive, the field no longer appears on any forms, is not available in searches, and is not available to SuiteScript or SuiteAnalytics Connect. Making a field inactive rather than deleting is recommended in cases where you may need to use a custom field again or if you simply want to preserve custom field data in the system.
Tip! When you try to inactivate a custom field that has dependencies, you’ll receive an error message. The message contains a link to a Dependent Records page, where you can review details about these dependencies.
Note: You cannot make a custom field inactive if any of the following conditions apply:
- It is sourced by another custom field.
- It is used in lead conversion mapping.
- It is used in the Parameter, Values section for a workflow action.
- It is used in a workflow definition condition.
- It is used in a filter or a condition for a saved search.
Deleting a Custom Field. From the records page, use the Actions dropdown menu. The dropdown menu may include various options, such as Download or Delete. These options depend on the record you are editing. You will not be able to see certain options if the record is locked.
Before deleting a custom field, note that instances of the deleted field will be removed from forms and lists, and all associated data will be deleted. Reports and searches containing the deleted field will either have the field removed or may error out, depending on how the field is used. If you inactivate the field, the data is retained in NetSuite. Also note that changing the data type or permissions associated with a custom field can result in errors for reports and searches containing that field.
5. Assigning Custom Fields to Specific Record Types
You can assign custom fields to display on specific record types. When you assign the field to a record type, it is automatically available as a possible field when creating a custom form for that record type. The field will also be available on all standard forms.
For custom entity fields, you must select the record types where the field is available. If you select a record type, the field automatically displays on all forms of that record type, including any custom forms. You can then edit custom forms to not show the new custom field.
Conversely, all custom transaction fields are automatically available in form customization, regardless of what you select on the Applies To subtab.
For example, if you apply a custom transaction field to sales transaction forms, the field is also available when you customise purchase transaction forms.
To apply a custom field to a record type, click the Applies To subtab on the custom field setup page.
Supporting You with NetSuite
Custom fields in NetSuite offer a versatile way to tailor your account to your specific needs. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can create, modify, and manage custom fields efficiently. Whether you need to encrypt data, show fields in lists, or assign fields to specific record types, NetSuite provides robust customisation options.
Remember to consider inactivating rather than deleting fields to preserve data and avoid errors. For further assistance or guidance with NetSuite, our team is here to support you every step of the way.
