Custom Fields
Last updated: September 17, 2026
Every record type in Lextree ships with a sensible default set of fields, but your organization can tailor them. Account admins customize fields in Settings → Field Settings. There you can adapt any dataset to the way your team tracks information.
What you can customize
Every record type’s fields come in two kinds:
- System fields are built in and locked — they can’t be removed, renamed, or reordered. The one exception: some system dropdowns marked configurable let you edit their option list.
- Custom fields are yours: add, edit, reorder, and delete them freely to match how your team works.
A few labels are already spoken for. Lextree won’t let a custom field reuse Status (reserved for the timeline), a related-item column name such as Parties, Inventors, or Authors, or a column name the importer generates for another field — you’ll hit a naming error if you try.
Group Fields into Sections
Group a record type’s custom fields into labelled sections — Governance, Filing, Insurance — that carry through to the record’s detail page and edit form:
- New Section creates one, with a label and optional description.
- Reorder moves whole sections or individual fields between them.
- Delete removes a section but never its fields — they move back to ungrouped and keep their data.
System fields can’t be sectioned; they lead every record in their built-in order.
Field types
When you add a field, you choose its type. Lextree supports:
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Text | Short, single-line text — names, identifiers |
| Text box | Long, multi-line text — notes, descriptions |
| Select | A single choice from a defined list |
| Multi-select | Several choices from a defined list |
| Date | A date with no time — due dates, filing dates |
| Date & time | A date with a time — meetings, timestamps |
| Number | Quantities and counts — choose Grouped (thousands separators) or Plain display, so a year or identifier like 2026 doesn’t read as 2,026 |
| Percent | Rates and percentages |
| Currency | Money amounts, with a currency code |
| A validated email address | |
| Phone | A phone number |
| URL | A validated web address |
| Yes / No | A boolean or tri-state (Yes / No / Unknown) |
| Country | A country selection |
| Country + subdivision | A country with a state or province |
| Jurisdiction & form | A legal jurisdiction and entity form — admins can set a default jurisdiction for the field |
For Select and Multi-select fields, you define the list of options.
Deleting Fields and Options
You can’t delete a dropdown option while records still carry it. The workaround: create the new option, bulk-update the records that use the old one, then delete the old option.
Deleting a field itself is permanent and only available on custom fields that are not currently in use — system fields can’t be deleted.
Who can configure fields
Field configuration is an account-admin task done in Settings. It changes the fields for everyone in your organization. Day-to-day, people fill in those fields on records according to their Editor or Viewer access to each module.