Managing additional fields (field library)

What you'll learn#

• What the field library is and how it relates to document types
• How to create a new field, including the six field types
• Parent-child hierarchies and repeatable groups
• How to edit or delete existing fields — and the risks of changing a field in use

What "additional fields" are#

The Additional Fields page is your company's field library — the catalog of reusable field definitions that can be attached to any document type. One field is created once here, and then attached to as many document types as need it.

Example: a field called "Amount" (a number field) lives once in the library. It's attached to "Vacation Request" (to capture daily rate), "Supplier Invoice" (to capture total), and "Expense Claim" (to capture the reimbursement). All three document types share the same field definition — translating it once (see Adding translations to fields) translates it everywhere.

This article covers managing the library itself — creating new fields, editing existing ones, and deleting unused ones. For attaching a library field to a specific document type, see Adding fields to a document type.

The Additional Fields list#

Utilities → Additional Fields in the sidebar.

Page controls:

• Search — filters the list by field name.
• Type filter tabs — narrow down by field type (see types below).
• Create button — opens the Add Field dialog to create a new one.

The table:

Each row shows a field's name, type badge, status badge (Active / Inactive), and a three-dot menu for edit and delete. Parent fields appear at the top level; their children appear indented under them with a small arrow icon, so the hierarchy is obvious at a glance.

The six field types#

When creating a field, you pick one of six types. The type determines what kind of data the field captures and how it's displayed to users.

Dropdown (arr) vs. List (list):

• Use Dropdown when the options are a small, fixed set you can type yourself (Low / Medium / High).
• Use List when the options come from a larger dataset that might change (every employee, every supplier). Your implementation partner sets up the data source that powers the list.

Creating a field#

1. On the Additional Fields page, click Create.
2. The Add Field dialog opens. Fill in:
   • Name — what admins will see when attaching this field to a document type. Make it clear and reusable. "Amount" is better than "Vacation Amount" if the field is general-purpose.
   • Type — pick from the six types above. This choice is effectively permanent — see the warning below.
   • Parent — leave as None for a top-level field. Pick another field to make this a child of that parent (used for repeatable groups — see next section).
   • List Def (only for Dropdown and List types) — the options, comma-separated. E.g., "Low, Medium, High". The order matters — it's preserved across translations.
   • Allowed Rep — how many times this field can appear on a document:
     • 0 — unlimited (user can add as many copies as they need with an "Add another" button).
     • 1 — single instance (most common).
     • N — exactly N copies (rare; use when you want fixed structure, like exactly 3 approvers).
   • Status — Active (default) or Inactive. Inactive fields aren't shown when attaching to document types, but existing attachments keep working.
3. Click Create.

The field appears in the library immediately and is available to attach to any document type.

Parent-child hierarchies (repeatable groups)#

Fields can be nested in a parent-child relationship. This is how you model repeatable groups on a form — for example, a set of line items on an expense claim where each item has its own description, quantity, and unit price.

Setup#

1. Create the parent field first — typically a text field like "Line Item" with Allowed Rep = 0 (unlimited repetition).
2. Create each child field ("Description", "Quantity", "Unit Price"), setting their Parent to the line-item field.

When a user fills out the document, they'll see the parent field with an Add another button. Each time they click Add, a new block appears containing all the children in sequence, sharing the parent's repetition index.

How children repeat#

Children repeat with their parent, not independently. If the user adds a second "Line Item", they get a second set of Description / Quantity / Unit Price fields — one set per line. You can't reuse the same children across multiple parents, and children don't have their own independent repeat count.

Allowed Rep — what the numbers mean#

Editing a field#

1. On the Additional Fields page, click the field's row to open its detail page, or click the three-dot menu and choose Edit.
2. Update any of the settings.
3. Click Save.

Changes take effect immediately on every document type where the field is attached. That's the point of a library — one edit, many beneficiaries.

Safe changes (low risk):

• Renaming — the new name appears everywhere the field is used.
• Adding a translation — see Adding translations to fields.
• Adding a new option to a Dropdown's List Def at the end.
• Toggling status between Active and Inactive.

Risky changes (can affect existing data):

• Changing the type — stored values won't convert; may break documents.
• Removing or reordering options in a Dropdown's List Def — existing documents that used the removed/moved value will show blank or wrong.
• Changing Allowed Rep from unlimited to fixed — existing documents that have more repeats than the new limit may truncate or error.
• Changing Parent — moving a field in or out of a parent-child relationship affects existing documents that use it.

Deleting a field#

1. From the list page, click the three-dot menu on the field's row.
2. Choose Delete.
3. Confirm the dialog.

Common questions#