Custom Fields Overview

Custom fields allow you to capture specific information for requisitions, candidates, and offer letters in ClearCompany.

• Requisition custom fields appear during requisition creation.
• Candidate custom fields appear at the bottom of the candidate profile and can be completed by your recruiting team.
• Offer letter custom fields capture key offer details during the offer creation process.

In this article:
Navigating to Custom Fields
Custom Fields Options
Requisition Custom Fields
Candidate Custom  Fields
Offer Letter Custom Fields
Reporting and Custom Fields
Best Practices for Managing Custom Fields & Reporting
Additional Resources

Note:

Changes to custom fields may affect reports. If your reports rely on custom fields, contact your account team before making updates.

Navigating to Custom Fields

1. Select Tools and then Setup. (click image to enlarge)

   

2. Click Custom Fields under Recruiting Setup.

   

3. Use the drop-down menu to select the custom field you would like to add, remove, or edit. You will have the option for Requisition Custom Fields, Candidate Custom Fields, and Offer Letter Custom Fields.
   

Custom Field Options

When creating a custom field, fill out the following:

1. Field Name: Enter the text of the question, such as "Employee type".
2. Category/Order:
   • Category: Determines if the question is required or optional.
   • Order: Sets the sequence in which questions appear. “1” is first.
3. Include in Reporting: Selecting this option will trigger this custom field to appear in the reports that can show this value. Refer to the Reporting and Custom Fields section below. When including custom fields in reports, there is a maximum of 20 custom fields per category. This limit applies separately to each of the following categories: Requisitions, Candidate, Offer Letter, and Application Questions.
4. Single Field: A single field is a short text field, designed for a few words or a sentence.
5. Text Field: A text field is for longer responses, up to several sentences in length.
6. Single Select: Single select allows the candidate to select one choice of a multiple-choice question. You will enter all possible choices when you create the question.
7. Multiple Select: The multiple-select option is just like a single select, except the candidate may select more than one answer. Use the radio button to the right of the possible answers to select the default answer.

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Note:

Updates to custom fields automatically apply to any open requisitions, offer letters, and candidate profiles that use those fields. For example, adding a new option to a Single Select or Multiple Select field (such as inserting “CHOOSE ONE” at the top of a picklist) will shift all existing selections down one position.

Requisition Custom Fields

Requisition custom fields appear at the bottom of the Budget tab in a requisition. These fields capture information for reporting or internal approvals.

 

Requisition Custom Field Setup

1. Use the drop-down menu to select requisition custom fields.
2. Once on this page, you can Edit a custom field by clicking the Pencil Icon on the left or create a New one by clicking the New Requisition Field button at the top.
3. Fill out the information on the requisition custom field creation menu that opens on your screen below:
   

Candidate Custom Fields

Candidate custom fields appear on the candidate profile and can be edited by users with recruiter or hiring manager permissions (depending on your organization’s settings).

Candidate Custom Field

1. Use the drop-down menu to select Candidate Custom Fields.
2. Click the “New Candidate Field” button.
3. Fill out the information on the candidate custom field creation menu that opens on your screen.
    

Offer Letter Custom Fields

Offer letter custom fields capture key offer details for approval. Examples include Vacation Time, Medical Benefits, and Start Date.

Offer Letter

1. Use the drop-down menu to select Offer Letter Custom Fields.
2. Select New Offer Letter Field.
3. Here you may enter the:
   
   1. Field name: enter a term that might be included in an offer letter. Examples: Vacation Time, Medical Benefits, Start Date, etc. You may then describe the field name, if necessary.
   2. A description: This refers to a description of your field. It is not necessary to add a description in order to add a custom field.
   3. Required: You can make a field required; this will be useful when sending information to your Payroll Provider.
   4. Include in Reporting: This allows you to include this field in reports that allow offer letter custom fields.
   5. Answer Type: You can assign a default value to these fields as well - so if you have a standard set of medical benefits, you could include these as a default for the Medical Benefits field. This will save you some time down the road when you are filling out the details of an offer. For the radio button and check box answers, you may select an answer to make it a default answer.

Reporting and Custom Fields

When creating a custom field, you will notice a check box, "Include in Reporting." Selecting this option will trigger this custom field to appear in the reports that can show this value. To understand which reports can show the custom fields, refer to: ClearInsights: Recruiting Prebuilt Liveboards. 

When including custom fields in reports, there is a maximum of 20 custom fields per category. This limit applies separately to each of the following categories: Requisitions, Candidate, Offer Letter, and Application Questions.

 

At this time, Multi-Select custom fields are not supported.

Include in Reporting

1. If you have already created a custom field and would like to edit it, make sure the field is included in reporting, and navigate back to Custom Fields.

2. For the field you would like to include, select the pencil icon.

    

3. Make sure Include in Reporting is checked.

    

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Best Practices for Managing Custom Fields & Reporting

When to Update a Custom Field vs. Create a New One

Update Existing Custom Field 

Update existing custom field if you are: 

• Changing whether the custom field is included in reporting. 
• Changing whether the custom field is required or not required. 
• Renaming the text labels associated with the custom field. 
• Changing the order in which the options appear in the custom field.

These changes do not impact the underlying data structure.

Create a New Custom Field

Create a new custom field if you are: 

• Changing the type of custom field question (e.g., single text → drop-down).
• Removing all existing drop-down options and adding entirely new options.
• Renaming any existing drop-down options and changing the order in which they are listed.

These changes alter the underlying data structure or reporting logic and require a new field to preserve historical accuracy.

If a New Field Needs to Be Included in Reporting

1. Create the new custom field. 
2. Check the “Include in Reporting” box. 
3. Add the custom field to any existing reports 

Note: Any blank data fields will display as “Null” in reporting if the custom field is not populated on the corresponding requisition, offer letter, or candidate record.

If an Existing Custom Field Is Being Deleted

1. Remove the old custom field from all reports before deleting it. 
2. Add the new custom field to the appropriate reports. 

This prevents report errors and broken report columns.

Timing of Changes & Reporting Impact

• Changes to reporting settings require reprocessing. Reports may appear temporarily blank or inaccurate during this time.
• The reports will correct themselves once processing is complete. 
  • Processing time depends on data volume and the number of recent changes.
  • Additionally, a delay is built in to account for multiple changes being made within a short timeframe. 
• New fields only collect data going forward. Historical records display as Null unless backfilled.
• Remove old fields from reports before deleting them to prevent broken columns.

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Additional Resources

Adding and Editing Application Questions
Custom Reports
ClearInsights: Prebuilt Liveboards & Custom Fields