Zoho CRM custom fields: limits, types and what you cannot undo

Who can create fields and where they appear, per Zoho

• Custom fields are available to all users added to your organisation's CRM account.
• Creating fields needs administrative privileges: users with the Customize Zoho CRM permission in their profile can access the feature.
• You create a field in a module's layout editor by dragging a field type from the New Fields Tray into a section, naming it and setting its properties.
• Custom fields cannot be added to the Log a Call page, although existing fields there can be customised through page layout.
• Zoho says custom fields are not available in the Free edition, and that the maximum number of fields varies by edition, both in total and per field type. The article points to a feature availability page for exact numbers, which we have not reproduced.

Source: Zoho Help: Creating Custom Fields

Field type limits, per Zoho

• Text: maximum 255 characters.
• Integer: maximum 9 digits. Long Integer: maximum 18 characters, available from the Standard edition.
• Decimal and Currency: maximum 16 digits including decimal places.
• Text Area: small is 2000 characters, large is 32000 characters. Large text areas are unavailable in criteria and neither size can be used for sorting.
• Lookup is available from the Standard edition. Auto Number is configured with a prefix, starting number and suffix.

Source: Zoho Help: Creating Custom Fields

Choices that are hard or impossible to reverse, per Zoho

• You can rename a custom field and edit its properties, but you cannot change its field type once created.
• Removing a field from the layout moves it to Unused Fields, where its data is kept and it can be dragged back.
• Deleting a field from Unused Fields is permanent: Zoho says you cannot bring back the custom field and its data.
• Fields in Unused Fields still count toward your edition's field limit.
• Standard Zoho-defined fields can be moved to Unused Fields but not permanently deleted, and some, such as Last Name in Leads, are mandatory and cannot be deleted, renamed or made optional.

Source: Zoho Help: Creating Custom Fields

Required fields, unique fields and permissions, per Zoho

• A field can be marked required through its Settings icon.
• Marking a field unique prevents duplicate values. Only Text, Email, Phone, Integer, Long Integer and URL fields can be unique; values are not case sensitive.
• A module can have 2 unique fields; Leads, Contacts and custom modules can have three (email plus two), and Products three (product code plus two). Activities modules cannot have unique fields.
• Zoho says uniqueness is not enforced for CRM migration, MS Outlook and Google sync, Recycle Bin restoration or Zoho Sheet View, and that indexing can take a few minutes, so a duplicate may briefly be allowed.
• Field permissions per profile (for example Read Only or hidden) are available in the Professional edition and above.

Source: Zoho Help: Creating Custom Fields

Before you add a field (practical advice)

This section is advice from experience, not vendor documentation.

• Write down what decision or report each new field will feed. A field nobody reads or reports on is clutter.
• Pick the type carefully, because the type cannot change later: use a pick list instead of free text where you want reportable values.
• Prefer hiding or moving a field to Unused Fields before deleting it, and only delete permanently once you are sure.
• Try changes in a sandbox first and keep a short written data dictionary of what each custom field means.

Want a field audit?

Skyfall Labs reviews custom fields, layouts and reports in existing Zoho CRM accounts and tidies them. Because we are a Zoho Partner, treat our view with the interest we have disclosed.