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Custom User Fields

Adding Custom Fields to User Profiles

The default user profile captures the essentials — name, email, phone — but your business almost always needs more. Custom user fields let you extend the profile without forking the schema or writing migrations.

Custom user field builder showing field rows: Department (dropdown), Job Title (text), Office Location (dropdown), Date of Birth (date), Emergency Contact (group), each with edit and delete actions

Common Custom Fields

  • Department — dropdown of HR-defined departments.
  • Office location — dropdown for multi-site organisations.
  • Date of birth — for age-restricted features or birthday automations.
  • Emergency contact — a group containing name, relationship, phone.
  • Dietary requirements — multi-select used by event booking.
  • External CRM ID — hidden text field linking to Salesforce / HubSpot.

Step-by-Step

  1. Open Architect Panel → Custom User Fields.
  2. Click Add Field.
  3. Choose a field type (text, dropdown, date, multi-select, group, etc.).
  4. Set whether it's visible on the public profile, on the internal staff view, or both.
  5. Optionally tick “Required” for new account creation.
  6. Save. Existing users get the field with an empty value; new users see it in their registration form.

Visibility Rules

  • Self-edit: User can change their own value.
  • Admin-only: User sees the field but cannot change it.
  • Hidden from user: Only admins ever see the field.
Tip: Use the field group type when you need related sub-fields (e.g. an emergency contact's name + phone + relationship). It keeps the data structured and the UI compact.

Editing Custom User Field Values

Once custom fields are defined, the values need a place to live and a workflow for updates. ActiveManage exposes three editing surfaces: self-service, admin bulk edit, and CSV import.

User profile screen with the standard fields at top and a 'Custom Fields' section below showing Department, Office, DOB and an emergency contact group, all editable

Self-Service Editing

Users open their profile page; visible-and-editable custom fields appear in a “More about you” section beneath the standard fields. Changes save immediately or on click of a Save button, depending on the form's configuration.

Admin Editing

Administrators can edit any user's custom fields from the user record page. Field-level audit trail captures who changed what and when.

Bulk Editing

For an HR migration or annual review, bulk edit is fastest:

  1. Open Users, filter to the target set, and select all.
  2. Click Bulk Edit and choose the custom field(s) to update.
  3. Set the new value(s) and apply.

CSV Import

For a complete refresh from an HRIS, export the user list, edit in a spreadsheet, and re-import with the “Update custom fields by user_id” option.

Worked Examples

  • Office move: 200 users transferred from “London Bridge” to “Liverpool Street”. Filter by current office, bulk edit, change value.
  • HR onboarding: New hire fills in their date of birth and dietary requirements on first login. Custom fields are marked required so they cannot skip.
  • CRM sync: A nightly task imports the external CRM ID for all users into a hidden custom field so reports can join across systems.
Note: Editing a custom field with a validation rule (e.g. regex on a postcode) re-runs the rule on save. Bulk imports can fail per-row — review the error report after each import.