---
title: How to add your own field to a supplier
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/workspace-admin/custom-fields
description: Add a box of your own, such as a freight minimum or an audit date, to every supplier from Settings › Custom fields.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to add your own field to a supplier



**Settings › Custom fields** is where an admin adds boxes of their own to Tideswell's suppliers.
Every business records something about its suppliers that no product ships a box for.

Add it here once, and a **Custom fields** section appears on every supplier's page in **Buying ›
Suppliers** for your team to fill in. See <Ref to="workspace-admin" /> for the rest of Settings.

Fairgreen Golf Co. adds a "Freight minimum" and a "Last factory audit" date, so Priya Raman can
see both on Portside Mills' page next to its terms.

Your workspace may use its own word for this; **Settings › Terminology** shows both.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

**Settings** sits at the foot of the menu for admins of the workspace, and this is one of its rows.
Adding and removing fields needs the **Define Objects** row in **Settings › Permissions**, which
admins have by default. See <Ref to="workspace-admin/permissions" />.

Filling the boxes in on a supplier's page needs the **Edit suppliers** row instead.

## How do you add a field? [#how-do-you-add-a-field]

Open **Settings › Custom fields**, click **Suppliers**, then press **Add custom field**. The row
for Suppliers reads "None yet" until you add one, then counts them, such as "2 of your own".

1. Open **Settings › Custom fields** and click **Suppliers**.
2. Press **Add custom field**.
3. Type a **Label**, up to 60 characters. This is the name your team reads on the supplier's page.
4. Open the **Type** menu and pick what the box holds. The types are listed below.
5. For an **Options list** or a **Multi-select**, type the choices in **Options**, separated by
   commas.
6. Leave **Required** unticked, because the suppliers you already have hold no value for a new
   field yet.
7. Press **Save field**, or **Cancel** to discard it.

The new field joins the list on the same page, with its **Field** name and **Type**.

Decide the label and the type before you press **Save field**, because both are fixed once it is
saved. Give each field a name the supplier page does not already use, so nobody
mistakes one box for another.

## Which types can you choose? [#which-types-can-you-choose]

Pick the type that matches what your team will type in.

* **Text** and **Long text**: a short answer, or a few lines such as a note on packing rules.
* **Number**, **Money** and **Percent**: a minimum order quantity, a freight minimum, a co-op
  percentage.
* **Date** and **Date and time**: a factory audit, a contract renewal.
* **Checkbox**: a yes or no, such as "Signed code of conduct".
* **Options list** and **Multi-select**: one choice, or several, from a list you write, such as
  the certifications a mill holds.
* **Website**, **Email** and **Phone**: a web address, an email address or a phone number, such
  as the mill's order desk.

Choosing **Money** shows the note "Values here are replaced, not adjusted." Use it for a figure
somebody types in, such as a minimum, rather than a balance that goes down as you spend it.

## Where do the values get filled in? [#where-do-the-values-get-filled-in]

On each supplier's page, in **Buying › Suppliers**. Once your workspace has at least one field, a
**Custom fields** section appears below the supplier's terms, with a box for each field and a
**Save** button.

Anyone with the **Edit suppliers** row can fill the boxes in and save. Everyone else who can open
the supplier sees the values without the boxes to change them. <Ref to="purchasing/add-a-supplier" />
covers the rest of a supplier's page.

The fields are seen by everyone in your workspace who can open suppliers, and by nobody outside
it.

## How do you remove a field? [#how-do-you-remove-a-field]

Press **Remove** on the field's row in **Settings › Custom fields › Suppliers**. Tideswell asks
you to confirm, because what your team typed into it stops showing on every supplier.

Make sure nobody still needs those values before you remove a field. Copy anything worth keeping
into the supplier's notes first.

## How is this different from a field on an Object? [#how-is-this-different-from-a-field-on-an-object]

A field here adds a box to a supplier, which Tideswell ships. A field on an **Object** belongs to a
kind of record your team defined itself, such as Repairs, and is added on that Object's **Fields**
tab instead.

<Ref to="objects/built-in-or-your-own" /> helps you decide which you need, and
<Ref to="objects/add-a-field" /> covers fields on your own Objects.