Many existing Outfield customers who already have custom fields set up may want to convert those Custom Fields into Default Fields. This is a guide on how to properly make the switch. For general information about what Default Fields are and how they work, check out the Default Custom Fields article for details!

The first step in converting your Custom Fields to Default Fields is to create your Default Field Names. This can be done within Team Preferences under the Custom Fields tab with the following process:

1. Click “Setup Default Fields”
2. Click “Add Default Field”
3. Enter the Name of your Field and choose the Field Type, either Text Field or Choice List
4. If you’re using a Choice List, you’ll need to enter the list of choices into the choice box.
5. Click the red “Save Default Field” button to save your new Default Field.

After your Default Field Names are created, you’ll notice that the newly created Default Fields do not have any values. To fix this, we need to copy the information from the existing custom fields and put it into the values of our new Default Fields. The fastest way to get this accomplished is with an update import.

Updating your Default Fields with an Update Import:

1. Run an export of your Accounts and make sure to include the Account ID as well as the Custom Fields you are converting to Default Fields (Our suggestion is to only export the Account ID and Custom Fields for these purposes)

2. Once you have your file open in Excel, rename the Custom Field column headers to whatever you named your Default Fields.

3. After that’s complete, you can import your file back into Outfield with an Update Import. (How to do Update Imports) When you are mapping your column headers, rather than mapping them to their original custom field name, use the new default field name instead. Default Fields will appear right above the Custom Field section of your column header dropdowns. Submit the update import for processing.

4. After the file is finished processing you’ll have your new Default Fields set up with their appropriate values.

Deleting Old Custom Fields:

Now that your default fields are all set up, you will have both Default Fields and Custom Fields with the same information, which will appear as duplicated data and could be problematic. In order to overcome this, you’ll need to delete the Custom Fields you are no longer using. This can be done from the Places page with the following process:

1. Navigate to the Places page and click the Select Action Dropdown underneath the map

2. From the Dropdown, click “Remove Custom Field”

3. In the “Name” box, input the name of the custom field you want to delete. What you type into this box needs to be an exact match in order to properly delete the fields. If you open the Export Accounts Page in a new tab, you’ll be able to copy and paste the names of your custom fields you want to delete for better accuracy.

4. Once you have the name of your field inputted, click the red “Remove” button to get rid of that custom field across your accounts.

5. Do that process for as many custom fields as you’d like to delete. (Note: this will not delete your Default Fields)

After deleting your Custom Fields, you will have successfully converted your Custom Fields into Default Fields.

If you found this article to be helpful, let us know! If you have any questions, please reach out to the Outfield Support team at support@outfieldapp.com