We all know that NetSuite is a powerful tool out of the box. However, for it to be truly effective for your business, it does require customization. One of the most common customizations within NetSuite is the custom field. This blog post will be going over what they are and how you can create them.
What is a Custom Field?
In short, a custom field is a field that can store information specific to your business. For example, let’s say that you want to include a contact method preference on a customer record. A common way to do this would be adding a custom field that has a list of contact methods.
Types of Custom Fields in NetSuite:
- Custom CRM Fields: Adds custom fields to CRM records.
- Custom Entity Fields: Adds fields to entity records such as customers or vendors.
- Custom Item Fields: Adds fields to item records.
- Custom Transaction Body Fields: Adds fields to the body of a transaction record.
- Custom Transaction Line Fields: Adds fields to the line level of a transaction record.
- Custom Transaction Item Fields: Adds fields to the line items of a transaction record.
- Custom Item Number Fields: Adds fields to serial or lot numbered inventory records.
- Other Custom Fields: Adds fields to other records such as classes or departments.
- Other Sublist Fields: Adds fields to the columns of a custom sublist.
What is a Custom Field?
Unlike other ERP systems, adding custom fields in NetSuite is one of the easiest things you can do. For this example, we will be creating a new entity field, although this process is almost identical for the rest of the custom field types.
Navigate to Customization > Lists, Records, & Fields > Entity Fields and click New.
Once you’re on the custom field record, its best practice to follow the following guidelines to ensure the custom field is created properly within NetSuite.
- Create a Label. This is what shows up on the record that the custom field will apply to. If you change the name of a custom field later, the name will not automatically change on the forms that the field is already applied to.
- Create an ID: The best practice is to choose your own ID for the custom field. This allows you to use the custom field in things like SuiteScripts. If this is left blank, NetSuite will assign it its own ID, but you can change it later by clicking Change ID on the custom field record after it’s been created.
- In the Description field, enter a description of what the field does. This will help other NetSuite users determine how to use this field.
- Select which record types the custom field applies to under the Applies To
- Select a custom field type in the Type
Field Types Include:
- Checkbox: Records a true or false value in the custom field.
- Currency: Displays numerical data in a currency amount format (ex 999,999,999.99)
- Date: Allows the user to enter or select a date.
- Date/Time: Allows the user to combine date and time values in one field.
- Decimal Number: Allows the user to store numerical data in a decimal format.
- Document: Allows the user to display or download a document from the file cabinet.
- Entity: displays a link to an existing entity within the system (ex: customer, vendor, employee, etc.)
- Email Address: Stores an email address in the custom field that links to the users’ default email client.
- Free-Form Text: Stores up to 300 characters in the custom field.
- Help: Places helpful text on record pages where users enter information
- Hyperlink: Stores a URL that links to a webpage.
- Image: Stores an image within the custom field.
- Inline HTML: Allows the use of HTML within the record.
- Integer Number: Allows the user to store numerical as an integer.
- List/Record: Allows the user to attach a list or record to the custom field (ex: Attaching the employee list to the sales order form to track who created it).
- Long Text: Allows the user to hold up to 1,000,000 characters within the custom field.
- Multiple Select: Allows the user to make multiple selections from a list or record.
- Password: Allows the user to create a field that is encrypted within the system.
- Percent: Allows the user to store data as a percentage
- Phone Number: Allows the user to store a phone number within the custom field.
- Rich Text: Allows the user to enter up to 1,000,000 characters of text with formatting options.
- Text Area: Allows the user to store up to 4,000 characters of text in the custom field.
- Time of Day: Allows the user to store time of day in the custom field.
- Beneath the Type field, if the List/Record or Multiple Select options were selected, you can select a List/Record.
- Store Value allows the user to store the data within the custom field in NetSuite.
The Display tab houses options for how and where the custom field is displayed on the record.
- Use the Insert Before and Subtab fields to select where the custom field will show up on the record.
- Use the Display Type field to select how the field should be displayed. If set to Normal, the field will be editable by users, if its set to Inline, the field will be inaccessible via the user interface but will still display information.
The Validation & Defaulting tab will display different options depending on the selected Type.
- Commonly used options within the validation & defaulting tab include:
- Mandatory: Check this field to ensure that the custom field is mandatory on the record
- Default Value: this field stores data that will show up in the custom field by default.
- Once everything is set and the custom field is ready to be deployed, hover over the dropdown symbol next to the Save button and click Save & Apply to Forms.
- This will save the custom field and bring up the Apply Custom Field to Forms This allows you to choose which forms you want the field to appear on as well as set options like Display Type and custom Labels on a form-by-form basis.
- Once you’re done choosing the forms, click Save.
Custom Fields are a vital part of any successful NetSuite Deployment. TAC Solutions Group has experts ready to make custom fields work for you.
How TAC Can Help
Custom fields are essential to making NetSuite work for your business. Misconfigured fields can lead to data issues, broken workflows, and user frustration. TAC Solutions Group helps you design and implement custom fields the right way—aligned with your processes and optimized for performance.
As a NetSuite Alliance Partner and Avalara Certified Implementation Partner, we ensure your customizations are built to scale and support your business needs. If you need help creating, managing, or troubleshooting custom fields, TAC is ready to assist.
