3.12 Custom Fields vs. Custom Values Explained

(This section provides a brief recap for context within the Contacts chapter; see Chapter 1.1 Glossary and Chapter 22 for full details on creation/management).

Understanding the difference between Custom Fields and Custom Values is key to organizing your data effectively in Close Master.

  • Custom Fields:
    • Purpose: Store information that is specific to an individual record (like a Contact, Opportunity, or Company). The value can (and usually does) differ from one record to another.
    • Real Estate Examples: Property Type Preference (Contact A likes Condos, Contact B likes Single Family), Listing Price (Opportunity A is $500k, Opportunity B is $1.2M), Closing Date (differs per transaction), Buyer Agency Status (differs per buyer).
    • Use Cases: Essential for storing detailed client criteria, deal specifics, transaction milestones. Used heavily for filtering contacts/deals, personalizing communication ({{contact.custom.field_name}}), and driving logic in Workflows (If/Else conditions based on field values).
    • Managed: Settings → Custom Fields.
  • Custom Values:
    • Purpose: Store pieces of information that are global, consistent, and reusable across your entire account. Think of them as system-wide shortcuts or variables.
    • Real Estate Examples: Your Brokerage's main phone number, the web link (URL) to your standard Showing Request Calendar, your Brokerage Name, a standard email disclaimer, an agent's license number.
    • Use Cases: Inserted into Email templates, SMS messages, Website/Funnel pages, or Workflow actions using a placeholder format like {{custom_values.key_name}}. The key benefit is efficiency: if a global value changes (like your office phone number), you update it once in Settings → Custom Values, and it automatically reflects the change everywhere the placeholder is used. Avoids manually updating hundreds of templates or pages.
    • Managed: Settings → Custom Values.

In short: Custom Fields hold data unique to each contact/deal, while Custom Values hold data that's the same for everyone/everywhere in your system.