This tutorial will help you understand how to manage and use Custom Fields in Tightly. Custom fields allow you to bring in extra data from your external integrations or create your own unique labels to better organize your products and variants.
How to Find Custom Fields
To get started, navigate to the Custom Fields section following this path:
Go to Settings in the main menu.
Select Organization, then click the Data Management tab.
Select the Custom Fields subtab.
Inside, you will see two main categories: Available External Fields and Tightly Specific Fields.
1. Available External Fields
These are fields that Tightly automatically fetches from your connected integrations, such as your 3PL, WMS, ERP, or OMS.
How to use them:
The Table: You will see a list of all available fields, their data type (e.g., String, Integer), their source, and their access type.
Activation: By default, these fields are Inactive. To see them on your Product or Inventory pages, simply switch the toggle to Active.
Choosing Your Access Type: You can control how you interact with external data using the dropdown in the Access Type column:
Read-Only: The data is managed strictly by your external system. When you update information in your ERP or WMS, Tightly will automatically refresh it during the next sync.
Read-and-Write: This allows you to edit the data directly within Tightly. This is ideal if you need to make quick adjustments to product details without waiting to update your master system.
Pro Tip: If you want to ensure your "Source of Truth" (like your ERP) always dictates the value, keep the field as Read-Only. If you need your team to be able to override or add data on the fly within Tightly, switch it to Read-and-Write.
2. Tightly Specific Fields
Unlike external fields, these are fields you create and manage entirely within Tightly. These are perfect for internal labels or tracking information that doesn't exist in your other software.
How to create one:
Click the "Create first custom field" button.
Field Key: Give your field a name (e.g., "Season" or "Priority Level").
Description: Add a brief note about what this field tracks.
Field Type: Choose from one of five types:
String: For plain text.
Integer: For whole numbers.
Decimal: For numbers with decimals.
Boolean: For True/False or Yes/No toggles.
Date: For specific calendar dates.
Why use Tightly Specific Fields?
Read-Write Access: Unlike external fields, these are fully editable. You can update them directly on the variant or product pages.
Filtering: You can use these custom fields as filters on your tables, making it much easier to sort through your inventory based on your own unique criteria.