Custom fields are your brokerage's own columns on top of what BrokerPlus already tracks - a payroll code, a referral fee percentage, anything the standard record doesn't ask for. You build the catalog from any deal or contact page, not a settings screen, and once a field exists it appears on every record of that kind, ready for anyone to fill in.
When You'd Use This
Reach for this when a deal or contact needs a fact your team tracks but BrokerPlus has nowhere to put - a lender relationship code, an internal file number, where a referral came from. Building the catalog is an admin task, but once fields exist, anyone with write access can fill in values.
Where the Catalog Lives
There's one catalog for deals and a separate one for contacts. The same Custom Fields card renders on both, and adding a field from one never touches the other. Every field you add is brokerage-wide, not scoped to the record you're viewing: a payroll code added from one deal shows up, empty, on every other deal the moment you save it.
Adding, Editing, or Removing a Field
Open Custom Fields on a deal or contact overview and choose Add Field for Every Deal (or Every Contact). Name it, pick a type, and save - it lands on the record you're on and every other one at once. Manage, on the same card, opens the full catalog, where you can also add a field, rename or reorder a category, and move a field with the arrow buttons beside it. Removing a field takes it off the form only; entered values stay on the record and still appear in an export, and an archived field can be restored with its original name and type.
Field Types
Three kinds are on offer. Text takes several lines with bold, italics, and lists - good for a note or an outstanding-documents list. Number takes one figure, formatted with thousands separators and safe to total in a report. Dropdown takes one choice from a list you set, up to 50 options. Fields group into categories - a default "Custom Fields" bucket, or your own name - and that category is what an admin sees and reorders in Manage.
Why There Is No Separate Settings Page
This is deliberate, not a gap waiting to be filled. An admin discovers they need a field while looking at a deal or contact that has nowhere to put it, and a settings page for the same catalog would just be a second door onto one surface - a detour between noticing the gap and closing it. Building the field right there keeps the definition and its first use together, and the card renders nothing for anyone else until fields exist.
Common Gotchas
- Only an admin with write access can add, rename, reorder, or remove fields. Everyone else can fill in values once a field exists, but sees no Add or Manage button.
- A field is scoped to deals or contacts, never both. If you need the same fact on each kind of record, add it twice.
- Removing a field is reversible for the definition, not a way to blank out what people typed - the data stays and still exports.
What to Do Next
- What the CRM Page Shows to see where contact custom fields surface in your book.
- Use the Contact Profile for the rest of what lives on a contact record.
- Customize a Board's Stages for another brokerage-wide catalog controlled the same way.