If you're an admin, Settings → Deal Page Layout lets you add fields your team needs to track and reorganize the four sections on a deal's Deal Info tab — Contract Facts, Property Facts, Deal Facts, and Close. Everyone else sees the page read-only. Anyone who can build automators can also create a new custom field from inside the automator builder (see "Using custom fields in automators" below), and an admin can ask Ask TED to create one ("add a Financing Type dropdown with Cash and Hard money") — editing and archiving fields stays here, admin-only.
Adding a custom field
Select Add Custom Field and fill in:
- Label — what the field is called. A preview of its internal key shows underneath as you type.
- Type — Text, Long Text, Number, Currency, Date, Dropdown, Multi-Select, Checkbox, URL, Email, or Phone. This can't be changed once the field is created. Dropdown and Multi-Select need at least one option.
- Where it lives — Deal (one value per deal, the default) or Buyer side (one value per buyer contract — see "Buyer-side fields" below). This can't be changed once the field is created.
- Applies to — which of your team's deal types show this field (the list is your team's own deal types, from Settings → Deals → Deal Types). Leave everything unchecked to apply it to all deal types. On a deal of any other type the field doesn't show and can't be filled in. If a deal's type changes, a value it already had is kept — it just can't be edited until you clear it or change the type back. A deal type your team has since turned off stays in the list, marked (archived), while a field still uses it.
- Help text — an optional tip shown under the field on the deal page.
- Required — for deal fields, shows a reminder on the deal page when the field is empty. It never blocks saving a deal.
A new deal field lands in a Custom Fields section at the bottom of the tab. A buyer-side field lands in the Buyer side section of this settings page; on the deal itself it shows in the Buyer fields group of the Dispo tab's Sale section, not on the Deal Info tab.
Buyer-side fields
Choose Buyer side for details that belong to a particular buyer's contract rather than the deal itself — the buyer's lender, title company, or loan terms. Each buyer contract keeps its own values: when a contract falls through and a new buyer signs, the new contract starts blank, and the fallen-through contract keeps the values it had. Fill them in on the Dispo tab's Sale section, in the Buyer fields group (see Tracking buyer offers); a fallen-through contract's values show read-only in its Fell-through history line. The order you set under Buyer side here is the order they appear in.
Buyer-side fields are listed under Buyer side in Settings → Deal Page Layout. They stay in that section — Move to… isn't offered for them, and deal fields can't be moved into it. A deal field's show-when rule can't be based on a buyer-side field; a buyer-side field's rule can use either kind.
Automators can ask, set, and branch on buyer-side fields like any other custom field (see "Using custom fields in automators" below). They always work with the deal's current buyer contract. When a deal has no active buyer contract, a form shows the question greyed out with "No active buyer contract on this deal." and doesn't require it, and a step that sets the field skips it and carries on. Buyer-side fields work as merge fields in automator emails and texts — they fill in from the deal's active buyer contract and count as missing when there isn't one — but they aren't sent in emails to a buyer list (see Automator email templates). They can't be used as the "relative to" date for a task or Wait step.
Organizing the layout
Each section has a menu for renaming it (even the default ones) or deleting it — deleting only works once every field has been moved or hidden out of it. Drag a section's grip handle to reorder sections, or a field's grip handle to reorder it within its section. A native field shows a Default badge, a pencil icon for adding or editing a help tip (see below), and an eye icon for hiding it from the deal page — select it again to bring the field back. A custom field's menu also has Move to…, for relocating it into a different section.
Adding a help tip to a built-in field
Built-in fields can carry the same kind of help tip a custom field's Help text offers. Select the pencil icon on any built-in field, type up to 500 characters, and Save. Everyone on your team sees the tip as a small note under that field on the deal page. A field with a tip set shows a Tip badge in the layout editor so you can see which ones are annotated; Clear removes it.
Showing a field only sometimes
Turn on Only show this field conditionally while adding or editing a custom field to set a show-when rule: pick another field on your team, a condition ("equals," "is any of," "is on," or "is off" depending on that field's type), and which value(s) trigger it. A sentence like "Shown when Property Type is any of: Land, Lot" confirms the rule as you build it.
Archiving a field you no longer use
Fields can't be deleted, only archived — from the field's menu on Settings → Deal Page Layout. Archiving stops the field being offered on new work, but it never throws away what you already collected:
- On deals where the field was never filled in, it simply stops appearing.
- On deals where it does have a value, it keeps showing — labelled "(archived)" and read-only — so nothing anyone recorded ever becomes unreachable.
Restore from the same menu puts it back in normal use, with every saved value intact.
When an automator uses a field
You can't archive a field, or remove or rename one of a dropdown's
options, while an automator depends on it. That means a published
automator that asks the field in a form, sets it, checks it in a
condition, uses it to date a task or wait, or uses it as a merge field
(like {{custom.access_notes}}) in a text or in the template an email
step sends, or a run still in progress on an older version that does.
A field used as a merge field in any of your team's email templates
can't be archived either. Instead, TED shows a message
such as "Can't archive Roof Age yet" (for an option, it names the
option in quotes — Can't remove "Metal" yet — puts the option back into
the list, and keeps the edit open), explains
"It's used by automators. Update them, or wait for the runs to finish,
then try again.", and lists:
- Automators — each name opens that automator in the builder, with the steps that use the field listed underneath.
- Runs in progress — each deal opens on its Automators tab with that run selected.
- Email templates — templates that use the field as a merge field; each opens Settings → Email Templates. When templates are listed, the message reads "It's still in use. Update what uses it, or wait for the runs to finish, then try again."
When no runs are in progress, the message leaves out "or wait for the runs to finish" — there's nothing to wait for.
Update those automators and republish them, remove the field from those templates, or wait for the runs to finish (or cancel them), then try again. Select Got it to close the message. A field or option nothing uses archives straight away, as before.
Starting over
Reset to default restores the original sections (Contract Facts, Property Facts, Deal Facts, Close, and Buyer side) in their original order. Custom fields aren't deleted — deal fields move into a fresh Custom Fields section and buyer-side fields into Buyer side.
Using custom fields in automators
Anywhere an automator works with data on a deal, it can also work with your team's own custom fields, not just the built-in ones:
Creating — anyone who can build automators (not just admins) can pick New custom field… in the builder's field lists to add a field without leaving the automator. It lands in the Custom Fields section of the Deal Info tab like any other. See Automator step types.
Asking — a Form step can ask for a custom field instead of (or alongside) its own fields, reusing that field's label, options, and help text. Leaving a pre-filled answer blank clears the field on the deal. A question whose field doesn't apply to the deal's type isn't shown and isn't required. See Automator step types.
Setting — an Action step can set a custom field's value directly, with the same per-type editor (a dropdown picker, a currency field rounded to cents, and so on). If the field doesn't apply to the deal's type, the step skips it and the run carries on.
Branching — a Condition step can branch on a custom field's current value, the same way it branches on a built-in one.
Anchoring dates — a custom Date deal field can be picked as the "relative to" date for a task's due date or a Wait step's target date. If that date changes later, anything already anchored to it recalculates automatically.
See Building an automator and Running an automator on a deal for the rest of how automators work.