Create and manage custom field

Create and manage custom fields to tailor the platform to your organization’s data needs across modules.

📝Overview

Purpose

Configure custom fields to capture additional, organization-specific data across modules
standardize how information is collected and displayed within the platform

Who is this for

Admins responsible for configuring platform structure and data fields

Pre‑requisites

Understanding of what data your organization needs

Permissions required

Manage access to the Admin panel

📹Demo walkthrough

💭How‑to guide

Step 1: Open the Admin Panel

As an admin, click the gear icon beside your profile name, this opens the Admin panel.

Step 2: Navigate to Entities

From the Admin panel navigation menu on the right, select Entities. Choose the module where you want to create custom fields, each module has its own tab and configurations.

💡 Note: For this example, we will create custom fields in the Projects module.

Step 3: Click on the "+ Add field" button

Under the Field Configuration section, you will see a list of existing fields and on the right of each section (Main & Context) is the "+Add field" button.

💡 Notes Fields with a lock icon are pre-configured by the platform and cannot be deleted.

Learn more about Main vs Context sections

These sections refer to the layout you see when opening a record’s details panel (e.g. opening a project details view).

Main section – the left, larger section used for primary details (key information about the project)
Context section – the right, smaller section used for supporting or additional information

Step 4: Create your field

From step 3, a dialog box should appear where you can choose the respective field type (e.g., Rich Text, Dropdown, etc..). For this example, we're creating a Dropdown field named Classification.

Once you're done with choosing the type and name input, click Add.

Step 5: Configure your custom field

A side panel should display with configuration options, such as the following:

General

Field name - The label that will be displayed to users
Field description - Additional context or guidance to help users understand what the field is for

Specifications (may vary depending on field type)

Multi-select - Allows selecting multiple options
Display as tag - Shows valkues as tags instead of plain text
Default value - preselect a value
Dropdown items - Add items/choices for the field and optionally assign colors to each item (useful for tags and visual clarity)

Step 6: Use the custom field

After configuring the custom field, return to Gembaa and navigate to the Projects module. In the right-most or last column on display, the new custom field will now be visible and you can start editing your records.

Step 7: Manage your fields

You can manage your fields by returning to the Field Configuration section.
From here, you can:

Arrange order – Drag and drop fields to change their order or move them between the Main and Context sections
Edit your field – Click the ">" icon on the right of a field name to update its general settings or specifications
Delete a field – Click the ellipsis (…) icon on the right of a field name to remove a field