A preview of this functionality is available as of version 4.16. If you are interested in getting access let us know.
Overview
User Defined Fields (UDFs) provide a code-free way to extend the CIMcloud platform with additional data fields. UDFs allow administrators to add custom fields to key tables — such as Products, Accounts, Contacts, Orders, and more — directly from the Worker Portal, without any development work.
UDFs are useful in a variety of scenarios:
- Collecting additional data — Capture supplemental information about products, customers, accounts, or orders that goes beyond the standard platform fields.
- Syncing extra fields with your ERP — When your ERP system stores data in custom or user-defined fields, UDFs let you bring that data into CIMcloud (and send it back) using ERP Custom Field Mappings.
- Extending products with searchable attributes — Add custom product attributes that can optionally be included in catalog keyword search results, and displayed on product list and detail pages.
- Carrying product data through checkout — Product UDF values can be automatically copied to order line items during checkout, so the information is preserved on the order and visible throughout the cart, payment, and confirmation pages.
UDFs are available starting in release 2026.06 (version 4.16.0) and requires the “User Defined Fields (UDFs)” bundle.
Common Scenarios
Scenario: Sync Extra Fields to/from ERP
If your ERP system has custom or user-defined fields that you want to display in CIMcloud — or you want to send CIMcloud data back to those fields — you can pair UDFs with ERP Custom Field Mappings:
- Create the UDF in CIMcloud on the appropriate table (e.g., Products, Accounts).
- Configure the corresponding ERP Custom Field Mapping to map the ERP field to/from the CIMcloud UDF.
Scenario: Additional Product Information
To display extra product attributes — such as a material type, color, or certification — on the product catalog:
- Create a UDF on the Products table.
- Choose whether to make the field searchable (so customers can find products by this value) and where it is shown (list page, detail page, or both).
- Optionally, configure the field to copy its value to an Online Order Details UDF during checkout, so the information carries through to the order.
Scenario: Additional Customer and Account Information
To track extra data about customers, accounts, or shipping addresses:
- Create a UDF on the Accounts, Contacts, or Addresses table.
- Choose where the field should appear — on the admin edit page, during checkout billing/shipping, or both.
Supported Tables
UDFs can be added to the following tables. Availability of some tables depends on which platform bundles are active on your site.
| Table | Database Name | Where UDFs Appear | Auto-Copy to Orders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products | products |
Worker Portal: Product Add/Edit, Product List. Customer Portal: Product catalog list page, product detail page. | Yes — product UDF values can be automatically copied to order line items during add-to-cart. |
| Categories | product_categories |
Worker Portal: Category Add/Edit, Category List. | No |
| Accounts | accounts |
Worker Portal: Account Add/Edit, Account List, Address List. Customer Portal: Account management page, checkout billing/shipping page. | No |
| Contacts | customers |
Worker Portal: Contact Add/Edit, Contact List. Customer Portal: Checkout billing/shipping page. | No |
| Addresses | shipping_addresses |
Worker Portal: Address Edit. Customer Portal: Checkout billing/shipping page. | No |
| Online Orders | orders |
Worker Portal: Order List. Customer Portal: checkout payment/review page (“Additional Information” section), order confirmation email. | N/A |
| Online Order Details | order_detail |
Worker Portal: (via order management). Customer Portal: Shopping cart page, checkout payment/review page, order confirmation email. | N/A (receives copied values from product UDFs) |
| Passthrough Orders | s_orders |
Worker Portal: Passthrough Order Add/Edit, Passthrough Order List. | No |
| Passthrough Order Details | s_order_details |
Worker Portal: Passthrough Order Details List. | No |
| Content Pages | pages |
Worker Portal: Page Edit, Pages List. | No |
| Page Sections | page_sections |
Worker Portal: Page Section Add/Edit, Page Sections List. | No |
| Notifications | notifications |
Worker Portal: Notification List. | No |
| Invoices | external_order_invoice_header |
Worker Portal: Invoice List. | No |
| Invoice Details | external_order_invoice_detail |
Worker Portal: Invoice Detail, Products Invoiced Detail. | No |
| Sales Orders | external_order_sales_order_header |
Worker Portal: Sales Order List. | No |
| Sales Order Details | external_order_sales_order_detail |
Worker Portal: Sales Order Detail, Product History Detail. | No |
| Payments | external_order_payments |
Worker Portal: Payment List. | No |
| Shipments | external_order_shipments |
Worker Portal: Shipment List. | No |
What a Customer Sees
Customer-facing users see UDF values in several areas, depending on how each field is configured by the site administrator.
Product Catalog
When a UDF on the Products table is configured to display on the catalog, customers see the field value on the product list page, the product detail page, or both. These values are read-only and appear alongside standard product information.
If a product UDF is included in search fields, customers can find products by typing the UDF value into the catalog keyword search. Note: Sitefront Search is not yet available for sites using the Search Service.
Shopping Cart
When a product UDF is configured to copy its value to an Online Order Details UDF, and that Online Order Details UDF is set to display on the cart page, customers see the copied value on each line item in the shopping cart.
Checkout
During checkout, UDFs can appear in several places:
- Billing/Shipping page — UDFs on the Accounts, Contacts, and Addresses tables can be shown and edited during the billing and shipping step if configured to display on the bill/ship page or checkout page.
- Payment/Review page — Online Order Details UDFs configured to display on the checkout page appear as read-only values on each line item during payment review.
- Payment/Review page — Additional Information — Online Orders (order-header) UDFs configured to display on the checkout page are presented in an “Additional Information” section. Unlike the read-only line-item values, these are editable inputs the customer completes for the order as a whole; the entered values are saved to the order. Supported input types include text, multi-line text, dropdown, checkboxes, true/false, date, whole number, and decimal.
- Order Confirmation — UDF values that are part of the order are included in the order confirmation display and confirmation email.
What a CRM Worker Sees
Workers using the Worker Portal see UDFs on edit forms and data tables throughout the platform.
Edit Forms
When editing a record — such as a product, account, contact, or order — UDFs configured to display on the add/edit page appear as editable fields in a dedicated “User Defined Fields” section of the form. Workers can enter or update values just like any other form field.
Data Tables
When viewing a list of records (e.g., the Products list, Accounts list, or Orders list), UDFs configured to show on the manage page appear as additional columns in the data table. This allows workers to see UDF values at a glance without opening each record.
Order and ERP Record Detail
UDF columns also appear on detail-level data tables for invoices, sales orders, shipments, and payments when configured. This is particularly useful for displaying ERP-synced data alongside standard order information.
What an Admin Worker Sees
Enabling UDFs
The UDF feature must be enabled before it can be used. Navigate to Settings > System-Wide Settings > Application Settings > Features > General, then find the User Defined Fields (UDFs) section and enable Display and Access User Defined Fields (UDFs)?.
Managing UDFs
Navigate to Settings > System-Wide Settings > User Defined Fields to configure UDFs. The UDF management page lists all defined fields and allows creating new ones. From this page, an admin can:
- View all existing UDFs, including their table, data type, and status.
- Create a new UDF by selecting a table, choosing a data type, and entering field details.
- Edit an existing UDF to change its labels, visibility settings, or behavior.
Creating or Editing a UDF
When creating or editing a UDF, settings are organized into three sections. The settings shown depend on which table is selected — not all settings apply to every table.
General Information
- Enabled — Activates or deactivates the UDF. Disabled UDFs are hidden throughout the platform.
- Reference ID — A system-generated unique identifier for the UDF. Read-only after creation.
- Description — Optional internal notes about the field. This text is also used as the help tip shown to users on the front end.
Field Information
- Table Name — The table this field belongs to (e.g., Products, Accounts). This determines where the field appears and which visibility options are available. Cannot be changed after creation.
- Field Name — The internal identifier for the field, prefixed automatically with
udf_. Must contain only letters, numbers, and underscores, and must start with a letter. Cannot be changed after creation.
Display Settings
- Field Sort Order — Controls the display order of this field relative to other UDFs on the same table.
- External Label — The label shown to customer-facing users on the storefront.
- Internal Label — The label shown to workers in the Worker Portal.
- Question Type — The input control used for the field. Determines the SQL data type stored.
- Text — Single-line text input. Stores up to 4,000 characters.
- Textarea — Multi-line text input. Stores unlimited text.
- HTML — Rich text editor (WYSIWYG). Stores unlimited HTML content.
- Dropdown — Single-select dropdown. Requires an Answers list. Stores the selected value.
- Checkbox — Multi-select checkboxes. Requires an Answers list. Stores all selected values as a delimited string.
- True/False — A yes/no toggle. Stores a boolean bit value.
- Date — Date picker input. Stores a datetime value.
- Whole Number — Integer input. Stores a whole number (int).
- Decimal — Decimal number input. Stores a decimal value with configurable precision and scale.
- Data Type — The SQL column type automatically assigned based on the selected Question Type. Read-only.
- Answers — (Dropdown type only) The list of selectable values.
- Include this field in the product catalog’s keyword search logic — (Products only) Includes this field’s value in the product catalog keyword search index.
- Show on Catalog List Page — (Products only) Shows the field value on the product catalog list page.
- Show on Catalog Detail Page — (Products only) Shows the field value on the product detail page.
- Pass value to Order Detail when adding product to cart? — (Products only) When enabled, the product’s UDF value is automatically copied to a specified Online Order Details UDF when a customer adds the product to their cart.
- Order Detail Field — (Products only, when pass-to-cart is enabled) Selects which Online Order Details UDF receives the copied value.
- Show on Cart Page — (Online Order Details only) Shows the field value on the shopping cart page.
- Show on Checkout Billing / Shipping Page — (Accounts, Contacts, Addresses) Shows the field during the billing and shipping step of checkout.
- Show on Checkout Payment Page — (Accounts, Contacts, Addresses, Online Orders, Online Order Details) Shows the field on the checkout payment/review page. For Online Orders UDFs, the field is presented as an editable input in an “Additional Information” section where the customer enters a value that is saved to the order header.
Worker Portal Settings
- Show on Add-Edit Page — Shows the field on the worker portal add/edit form for the selected table.
- Show on Manage Page — Adds the field as a column in the worker portal data table for the selected table.
UDFs in Report Builder
UDF fields are automatically available as selectable columns in Report Builder reports. When building or editing a report that queries a table with UDFs defined, the UDF fields appear in the available fields list alongside standard columns.
UDF fields are referenced using the table alias followed by udf_ and the field name assigned during UDF setup. For example, a Products UDF with the field name color would appear as p.udf_color when the Products table alias is p. An Accounts UDF named region would appear as a.udf_region.
This allows UDF data to be included in report output, used in filters, and incorporated into data exports without any additional configuration.
For more information on building reports, see Report Builder.
UDFs in ERP Custom Field Mappings
UDF field values can be referenced in ERP Custom Field Mappings to sync data between CIMcloud and your ERP.
Syncing from ERP to CIMcloud (To-Website configs): To populate a CIMcloud UDF from an ERP field, alias the ERP field value as udf_<field_name> in the SQL query. For example, to populate a Products UDF named warranty_type, alias the ERP source column as udf_warranty_type. The sync will write the value into the corresponding UDF column on the target table.
Syncing from CIMcloud to ERP (From-Website configs): To send a CIMcloud UDF value to the ERP during order export, reference the UDF column in the SQL query using the table alias and udf_ prefix. For example, to send a Products UDF named color as a Sage 100 order detail UDF, reference it as p.udf_color in the Value expression of the custom field mapping.
For full details on ERP Custom Field Mapping syntax, see ERP Custom Field Mappings.
UDFs in Data Imports
UDF fields can be populated via CSV data import using the same field name convention used in the database: udf_ followed by the field name assigned during UDF setup. For example, a Products UDF with the field name color is imported using the column header udf_color in the CSV file.
When mapping import columns on the import configuration page, UDF fields appear in the column list alongside standard fields, labeled with their internal label and field name.