Custom Fields

In Zoho Payroll, you can create additional fields called Custom Fields. These fields can be used to store additional information in a module’s records based on a business’s requirements. Let’s understand this better with the help of a scenario.

Scenario Zylker Technologies has employees working in different modes, such as remote and on-site. To track each employee’s work arrangement, Patricia, the HR Manager, creates a custom field called Remote/On-site Category under Employee Preferences in their Zoho Payroll organisation.

Patricia can then select the appropriate work arrangement for each employee while adding a new employee or updating an existing employee’s profile.

Once recorded, this information can be viewed in the employee details page and used to filter reports based on remote or on-site employees.

You can create custom fields for:

Employees and Contractors
Loans
Custom Modules

Create Custom Field

To create new custom fields:

Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
Select the module for which you want to add the custom field.
Go to the Custom Fields tab.
Click Create New in the top right corner.
Select an appropriate name for your custom field. This field will be displayed when entering data in the records of the respective module.
Choose the data type for the data that you will enter or store in the custom field. Learn more about the data types available in Zoho Payroll.
Provide some text to help users understand the purpose of this custom field.
Select whether the custom field will be used to store sensitive information that can be used to identify individuals.
Choose whether the value entered in the custom field should be unique. This field will not be available if you’ve enabled Data Privacy for the custom field.
Add data in a custom field and validate them using the Input Format field. You can specify the type of characters that can be entered and the length as well.

For example, many countries use the National Insurance Number (NIN) to track citizens. The NIN is 9 characters long, consisting of two letters, six digits, and one letter. If you want to store the NIN for users in your organisation, you can set it up using a custom field. The Input Format ensures that any data entered in this custom field matches the correct NIN format. In this case, you need to enter the value ^[A-Z]{2}[0-9]{6}[A-Z]{1}$.

If you choose the Text Box (Single Line) or Text Box (Multi-line) data type, you can either enter the input format directly by clicking Configure Custom Format or choose from the available input formats by clicking Use Standard Formats.

If you select Use Standard Formats, you can choose from the following options:

Format	Description
Numbers	Accepts only numeric characters (0–9). Example: 123
Alphanumeric Characters Without Spaces	Accepts lowercase letters (a–z), uppercase letters (A–Z), and numbers (0–9), without spaces. Example: customField123
Alphanumeric Characters With Spaces	Accepts lowercase letters (a–z), uppercase letters (A–Z), numbers (0–9), and spaces. Example: custom Field 123
Alphanumeric Characters With Hyphens and Underscores	Accepts lowercase letters (a–z), uppercase letters (A–Z), numbers (0–9), hyphens (`-`), and underscores (`_`). Example: custom-Field_123
Alphabets Without Spaces	Accepts lowercase (a–z) and uppercase (A–Z) letters only, without spaces. Example: customField
Alphabets With Spaces	Accepts lowercase (a–z) and uppercase (A–Z) letters and spaces only. Example: custom Field

If you select Configure Custom Format, you can directly enter the input format in the custom field. For example, ^[A-Z]{2}[0-9]{6}[A-Z]{1}$.
Next, The value you enter will be the default value of the custom field. For example, if you create a custom field for the Loans module and set the Default Value as 1, it will automatically fill the custom field with value 1 when you create a loan without providing any value for the custom field. A preview of the field and the data will be shown on the same page.

Note This field will not be available if you’ve enabled Data Privacy for the custom field.If you enable Prevent Duplicate Values for a custom field and set a Default Value, ensure you provide a unique value for the custom field while creating records.

Choose whether this custom field should be a mandatory field. If you select Yes, users can save or update records only after entering a value in this field. If you select No, they can save or update records even without entering a value.
Choose whether the custom field should be shown to employees in the Employee Portal. Select Yes to display it, or No to hide it.
Click Save after you’ve provided the required details.

Edit Custom Fields

You can change the details of a custom field created in Zoho Payroll. Here’s how:

Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
Select the module containing the custom field.
Go to the Custom Fields tab.
Hover over the custom field that you want to edit.
Click the Dropdown icon next to the custom field and select Edit.
Make the required changes and click Save.

The custom field will be updated.

Note If you enable Prevent Duplicate Values for an existing custom field and if there are more than 10,000 records in that module, it will take some time to update the custom field’s details in all the records. You’ll receive an in-app notification once the process is completed.

Mark Custom Fields as Inactive

If you don’t want to enter data in any custom field temporarily, you can choose to mark it as inactive. Here’s how:

Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
Select the module containing the custom field.
Go to the Custom Fields tab.
Hover over the custom field you want to mark inactive.
Click the Dropdown icon next to the custom field and select Mark as Inactive.

The custom field will be marked inactive.

Mark Custom Fields as Active

If you have marked a custom field as inactive, you can make it active again. Here’s how:

Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
Select the module containing the custom field.
Go to the Custom Fields tab.
Hover over the inactive custom field you want to mark inactive.
Click the Dropdown icon next to the custom field and select Mark as Active.

The custom field will be marked active.

Delete Custom Fields

You can delete the custom fields created in Zoho Payroll. Here’s how:

Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
Select the module containing the custom field.
Go to the Custom Fields tab.
Hover over the inactive custom field you want to delete.
Click the Dropdown icon and select Delete.
Click Yes in the pop-up to confirm your action.

If this custom field has data associated with existing records, the Force Delete pop-up will appear. You must either delete the associated transactions and then delete the custom field, or force delete the custom field. Click Force Delete in the pop-up to proceed. This will permanently remove the custom field and all data stored in it.