Every business tracks different data. A SaaS company cares about ARR potential and tech stack. An agency cares about project budget and decision timeline. A consultant cares about engagement type and hourly rate. Standard CRM fields don't cover all of this — that's where custom fields come in.

What Are Custom Fields?

Custom fields are user-defined data points attached to each lead. In PerksMate's CRM, custom fields are stored as a JSONB column on the crm_leads table, meaning you can add any key-value pair without schema changes.

Custom Field Examples by Business Type

For Agencies

• project_budget — Estimated project value
• decision_timeline — When they plan to start
• current_agency — Who they're working with now
• pain_with_current — What's not working
• referral_source — Who referred them

For SaaS Companies

• arr_potential — Estimated annual contract value
• tech_stack — Technologies they use
• competitor_using — Which competitor they currently use
• contract_renewal — When their current contract expires
• champion_name — Internal advocate for your product

For Consultants

• engagement_type — Retainer, project, advisory
• hourly_budget — Budget per hour or per project
• start_date — When they want to begin
• previous_consultant — Who they worked with before

Adding Custom Fields in PerksMate

Open any lead's contact detail modal, scroll to Custom Fields, and click Add. Enter a field name and value, press Enter. The field is saved to the lead's custom_fields JSONB column. You can edit any field inline by clicking the pencil icon, or delete it with the trash icon.

Using Custom Fields in Templates

Custom fields can be referenced in agent templates using the {{cf_fieldname}} format. For example, if you add a custom field called project_budget, you can use {{cf_project_budget}} in your email templates.