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Client fields help you easily collect, organize, and maintain your client data. Whether you're collecting intake information from a new lead to create a new client profile or updating a long-time client's profile, client fields allow you to customize where you see information appear in the app and whether your clients are prompted to submit it.

In this article we'll cover:

• Creating a client field
• Setting up client fields on desktop
• Updating a client profile
• How often clients have to complete a field
• What a field looks like
• Common setups, including internal fields
• Client record field, booking record field, or form?
• Booking checkout, product order checkout, and other checkout

Before setting up, it's important to ensure that client fields are right for you. Have information that you collect only with certain services? In that case, you should use Forms rather than Client fields. Likewise, do you collect information only from a select number of clients, or information that doesn't need to clutter up your client's profile? Again, you should use Forms rather than client fields. Generally, client fields should be used for information that applies to most clients and applies to all your services.

Creating a Client Field

First, we'll start with the basic setup. To begin, head to Settings > Client fields. If you're an existing Pro, you may have previously created fields appearing here under Settings > Online leads > Questions or Settings > Online booking > Edit checkout > Questions. The new Client fields section of Settings simplifies the setup of fields and provides more options to customize where they appear and when.

Tap the plus button in the upper right corner to create a new client field. Here, you can add the field name or question, field type, labels if a single or multiple choice field, and determine whether the field is required.

Next, tap "Show field" to determine where you can view the field and where clients will be prompted to complete the field.

Choosing Where You See the Field

First, you'll see "Show field on" which determines where in PocketSuite you, as the Pro, and your team members will see the completed field. The options are:

• Client record: When toggled on, the field will appear on the client profile once completed. As the Pro, you can edit this field by heading to a client's profile and tapping Edit > More details. You can complete this field when creating a client profile by tapping on "More details." Fields on the client record are specific to the client generally and do not change from booking to booking, such as birthday, allergies, or vaccination date. Once completed, the field can be edited but a response will not be needed again.
• Booking record: When toggled on, the field will appear on the booking detail screen when you access an appointment, class, or reservation booking from a dashboard or the calendar. As the Pro, you can edit this field by heading to an appointment and tapping Edit > More details. You can also complete this field for the client when you're scheduling an appointment by tapping "More details" near the bottom of the scheduling screen. Fields on the booking record are specific to one appointment and can change from appointment to appointment, such as what the client wants to work on in their session. Unless client record is also toggled on, the client will need to respond to these fields at each booking if shown.
• Product order record: When toggled on, the field will appear on the order detail screen when you view an order from the Orders dashboard or from the calendar. You can edit this field by heading to an order and tapping Edit > More details. You can complete this field when creating a new order by tapping on "More details" near the bottom of the order screen. Fields on the product order record are specific to one order and can change from order to order, such as whether the order is for a gift. Unless client record is also toggled on, the client will need to respond to these fields at each order if shown.

If you have the sub-accounts feature turned on, you will see an additional option for the sub-account record. Depending on your industry, this will be called the pet, child, property, vehicle, or horse record. When toggled on, the field will appear on the sub-account record. Sub-account record fields function exactly like client record fields, but are specific to one sub-account.

Choosing When Clients See the Field

Once you select where the field will appear, you will see a new section called "Show during checkout" where you can determine where your clients will see and complete these fields. Depending on which options you toggled in the previous section, only some "Show during checkout" options may appear. The options work as follows:

• Lead checkout: When toggled on, the field will appear on your Online lead form.
• Booking checkout: When toggled on, the client will see and be able to complete this field during online booking. Likewise, when you schedule an appointment, the client will see and be able to complete this field when confirming the appointment.
• Product order checkout: Similar to booking checkout, when toggled on the client will see and be able to complete this field when ordering a product online. Likewise, when you create an order, the client will see and be able to complete this field when paying for the order.
• Other checkout: When toggled on, the client will see and be able to complete the field whenever they are purchasing a package, subscription, or gift certificate online, or when they are paying for a package, subscription, gift certificate, invoice, or estimate that you create and send to them for payment.

Pro tip: Leave all checkout options toggled off to create an internal field. Internal fields can be completed by you and your team and will never be seen by the client.

Setting Up Client Fields on Desktop

Everything above can also be done from your computer. Log in at desktop.pocketsuite.io and go to Settings > Client fields.

Use the handle on the left of any row to drag a field into a new position, and select a row to edit it. The All fields menu filters the list by record or checkout type and includes an Internal only option. Any field set up for internal use is also labeled Internal use only underneath its name.

Select Add a field in the top right. You can either Create a client field from scratch or Add field from defaults to start from one of PocketSuite's ready made fields.

The desktop field editor puts every setting for the field on one screen.

• Field title is the question your client sees, and Field type sets the kind of answer they can give.
• Required means anyone who sees the field has to answer it. When the field is on the Booking record, Required becomes a dropdown with three choices: Not required, Required, and Required at check-in, which requires the field to be filled out at check-in.
• Show field on record is where you and your team will view the field. The choices are Client, Booking, Product order, and your sub-account record, which is named for your industry and appears here as Pet. Anything you select here is also included when you export client, booking, or order information.
• Show on covers anywhere the field appears outside records and checkouts. Run card printing adds the field to your printed run cards.
• Show during checkout is where your clients see the field: Lead checkout, Booking checkout, Product order checkout, and Other checkout.

Note: "Show during checkout" only appears once you have chosen at least one record under "Show field on record," and selecting Client turns Lead checkout on for you automatically. Set your records first, then adjust the checkouts, because clearing a record also clears the checkout that goes with it.

Field Types

There are thirteen field types: Text, Integer, Single choice, Multiple choice, Checkbox, Date, Decimal number, Currency, Long text, Email, Phone number, Image, and File upload. Image accepts JPEG, PNG, and HEIF (the standard iPhone photo file type) files up to 10 MB. File upload accepts PDF and DOCX documents along with those same image formats, also up to 10 MB.

Updating a Client Profile

Once a field exists, you and your team fill it in from the record it belongs to. For client record fields, that is the client's profile.

On your computer

• Open the client from Clients. Completed fields appear in the Other details card on their profile, including any document you have uploaded and its expiration date.

• To change an answer, select Edit in the top right of the profile, scroll down to the More details section, and select Edit next to the More details row. That row also tells you how many fields are already filled out.

• Fill in or update the fields, select Done, then select Save on the client. Any field you set up for internal use is marked Internal use only here.

• When you create a new client, the same row reads Add more details instead. Select Add to complete the fields before you save the client.

In the app

• Open the client's profile and tap Edit, then More details. You can also complete these fields while creating a client profile by tapping More details before you save.

How Often Clients Have to Complete a Field

For fields that appear on only the Client or Sub-account record, the field will only need to be completed once by the client and they will not see the field again during subsequent checkouts.

For fields that appear only on the Booking or Product Order record, the field will need to be completed every time the client creates a booking (service, class, or reservation) or an order online, confirms a booking you create, or pays for an order you create.

Fields that appear in some combination of both, for example appearing on both the client and booking record, will only need to be completed once, but clients will see the completed fields during subsequent online bookings and be able to adjust their response for that particular booking. They will not see the field in subsequent appointment confirmations. Keep in mind that if you complete a field with this setup (Client record, Booking record, and Booking checkout), your clients will be able to see what you wrote.

Whether or not the field is required is also extremely important to where and when the field appears. If the field appears on the booking record, even if in combination with other records, the field will always appear during online booking and appointment confirmation. The same is true for the Product Order Record.

Fields that appear only on the Client or Sub-account record, however, are different. If there's at least one field that is incomplete and required, the client will see all incomplete fields, including those that are not required, in the appropriate checkout flow, depending on your "Show during checkout" setup.

Here's an example. You have three client record fields, two are required, one is optional, and all are set to appear during booking checkout and other checkout:

• Height (required)
• Weight (required)
• Allergies (optional)

The first time the client confirms an appointment you create, they see all of these fields because they are all incomplete. Since Height and Weight are required, they enter that information and continue without adding Allergies because it's optional. The next time they confirm an appointment, they do not see any fields because they've completed all of the required fields.

This same logic would apply to packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, invoices, and estimated payments. If you send a new client an invoice, they would see all three fields, because you selected Other checkout, and be required to complete Height and Weight. If the client does not add any allergies, the next time you send them an invoice they would not see any fields, including the Allergies field, because all required fields have been completed. This is to ensure that once you've collected the most important information, your clients can complete subsequent transactions as quickly as possible, preserving the ability for clients to pay via SMS if they've stored payment information on file and making sure you get paid as quickly as possible.

Clients will always see these fields and be able to edit their previous responses, but they will only need to complete them the first time. The exception to this is fields that appear on the booking record. Since these are specific to a single appointment, the client will need to complete them with each booking, if set to required.

What a Field Looks Like

Here is an example of how a field looks on the Client record: "Do you have other pets in the house?"

Here is an example of how a field looks on the Booking record: "Was your dog a rescue?"

Pro tip: You can use client fields to collect images and documents using the "Image" or "File upload" field types. When these fields appear on the Client or Sub-account record, you can track their expiration and set up rules around how the expiration date is set, enabling your clients to update their information as needed. Check out our article on Document Expiration Tracking to learn how to set up expiration tracking.

Common Setups

Here are some common cases of how fields are used and how to set them up.

I Want Every Client to Fill This Out, but Not Every Time

First, be sure the field is set to Required, so when the field appears, the client will not be able to skip it. Next, under "Show field on," toggle "Client record" on. Fields on the client record can be edited, but are used for information that does not change from booking to booking, so once toggled on, the client will not be required to complete the field again. Next, to ensure the field is completed, toggle all "Show during checkout" options on.

With this setup, when a client books you, confirms an appointment you create, purchases a product from you, pays an invoice or estimate you send them, or completes an Online Lead form, they will see the field and be required to complete it. Once completed, they will not see the field again or be required to complete it. You can edit these fields at any time directly from the client’s profile.

Optionally, if you want to also see this field on booking and order records, you can toggle those options on as well. So long as the client record is toggled on, the client will only be required to complete it once. If you do add it to the Booking or Product order records, your clients will see and be able to edit their response for that particular booking when they check out online or confirm an appointment or order you send them. Likewise, if the field only pertains to clients but not leads, you can toggle Lead checkout off to only show the field during checkout and confirmation flows.

I Need This Filled Out With Every Booking

Again, be sure the field is set to Required, so when the field appears, the client will not be able to skip it. Next, under "Show field on," toggle "Booking record" on, but leave "Client record" toggled off. Booking fields are specific to each appointment booking and will be required each time so long as "Client record" remains toggled off. Next, under "Show during checkout," toggle "Booking checkout" on so that the client will see the field when booking online or confirming a booking you create.

With this setup, each time the client books or confirms a booking, they will be required to complete this field and it will appear on their booking record.

I Want a Field Only My Team Can See

To create an internal custom field, first determine where you want the field to appear under "Show field on." As previously mentioned, toggling "Client record" on makes the field editable through the client profile and makes the field always appear with the client. If you also select "Booking record" or "Product order record," the field will appear on all booking and order records. If you select only "Booking record" or "Product order record", but do not select "Client record," the field will only apply to one specific booking or order, and will need to be completed separately on each booking or order.

To ensure the field is internal only, toggle off all "Show during checkout" options. This ensures that the field will not appear during any client checkout or confirmation flows, allowing you to edit the field, but never allowing the client to see what you've written or add their own response.

I Only Want This on My Online Lead Form

First, under "Show field on," toggle "Client record" on so the response is stored with the client. Then, under "Show during checkout," toggle "Lead checkout" on and toggle all other options off. This will add the field to your online lead form, but it will not be shown anywhere else.

Client Record Field, Booking Record Field, or Form?

Client record fields should be used to collect important information that applies to almost every client and every service you offer and does not change from appointment to appointment. Booking record fields should be used to collect information that also applies to almost every client and service you offer, but changes from appointment to appointment and should be filled out with each booking. Forms are best used to collect information that is specific to a certain service, or that only applies to a few clients, in which case you would attach the form to the transaction you're sending the client, to specific items on your booking site, or send it directly to the client.

Booking Checkout, Product Order Checkout, and Other Checkout

Booking checkout is specific to services, classes, and reservations, both during online booking and appointment confirmation, meaning when you create the appointment. Think of bookings as the transactions where an event is being created on your calendar.

Product order checkout is specific to standalone product orders created during online ordering or order confirmation, meaning when you create the order.

Other checkout covers packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, invoices, and estimates. Fields with Other checkout toggled on will appear when clients purchase packages, subscriptions, and gift certificates through your online booking site, and when clients complete the payment for a package, subscription, gift certificate, invoice, or estimate. Think of other checkout as all the things clients pay for which do not create an event on your calendar.