Custom fields collect additional information and store it against users. To view this information:

Click User details then click the Details tab.
Under Other details, you can see the custom field information.

Custom fields can consist of one of the following field types:

Text.
Multi-line text.
Email.
Phone.
Number.
Radio.
Currency.
Date (single).
Date and time.
Date (period).
Rich text.
Drop-down list.

You can use a custom field to store external reference numbers and information against your users, allowing you to easily cross-reference them.

Examples of this could be to store the User IDs of your users from your CRM package. This allows you to search users using these values and update user details through the import process, by referencing those IDs.

You can configure a custom field to be collected during the application process or user creation. After which it remains with the user record as noted above on becoming a volunteer.

📌 Note: If the data isn't relevant beyond recruitment, consider using a Recruitment Question instead.

You can also restrict custom fields to specific roles, ensuring you only request the relevant data.

For example, for the role of Patient Driver, you may need to store the expiry date of a user’s drivers licence. However, this information may not be relevant for someone who has a role of Social media outreach.

Another example of custom fields would be to collect marketing or newsletter preferences of your users.

Add and modify custom fields

User custom field

Once you configure your custom field categories, you can add custom fields for each category.

From the right column, drag the relevant attribute field type.
Drop it into the appropriate category.
Enter a field name then select from the following options:
- Indexable: The values of the field are searchable using the Universal Search.
- Unique: The value of the field must be unique for each user. This option also makes the attribute as Indexable.
- Show on user creation: Managers can see the attribute on the user creation page. This won't be compulsory for managers, even if it's selected as compulsory on the application.
- Encrypted: This further encrypts the data in Assemble. We recommend using this for collecting sensitive data. Encrypted data can't also be Indexable.

Role profiles

Select the roles for this attribute to be associated with. If you don't select any roles, the attribute will be available for all roles.

It's good practice to ensure that you are only collecting data from the users that need to provide information. For example, if a certain role doesn't require the collection of driver licence expiry date, then that attribute should only be associated with those roles.

Application form

You normally collect custom fields from volunteers rather than users. This means that by default, they aren't displayed to users on their application form. However, there may be instances where you want to collect certain information as part of their application and need to transfer this information to their user record once they complete recruitment.

The options in this section allow you to decide if you want to do so and decide if they should be compulsory.

📌 Note: Custom field marked to be collected during the recruitment process must have the Write permission set to Self. Otherwise, the system won't record the applicant's answers.

We recommend you only collect information at the stage you need to process that information.

For example, it may not be relevant to collect certain custom fields against a user until they have been recruited. So, you should only collect custom field data from applicants if it is part of your decision-making process to recruit them.

You can link custom fields to a dropdown activity outcome. This means you can populate the activity outcome dropdown with the user attributes. You can use this functionality to provide a list of items to each volunteer, which they can then select from when filling out activity outcomes.

Permissions

For each attribute, you have to select what type of access each permission group has by assigning them one of the following access types:

Hidden: Not displayed
Read: Read-only
Write: Read and write

To do this:

Click the field next to the relevant access type.
Select the relevant permission group.

📌 Note: You can only assign a permission group to one access type.

Self

For each attribute, you also need to choose whether users can access that information through their own profile, by assigning a system permission group called Self to the appropriate access type.