Guide
Customize fields & statuses
Shape deliverables around how your team actually works. Settings, Workflow, Fields lists every field on a deliverable in one place, built-in and custom together: set which are shown, which are required, which one is the primary, and the order they appear in. Statuses and tags live on the same page, and you can rename what a deliverable is called (Settings, Organization) so the whole app uses your term.
Before you start
- You need the Admin role. Customizing fields and statuses is an admin-only task.
- It all lives under Settings, in Workflow: the Fields tab for fields, and its own tabs for Statuses and Tags.
- The Fields tab has a Deliverables / Projects switch. Deliverables is the full surface; Projects lists a project’s own built-in fields, where you can reorder and hide them.
Settings › Workflow: fields, statuses, and tags in one place.
One list: your built-in and custom fields together
Everything a deliverable has, in the order it appears
The Fields tab lists Title, Description, Status, Priority, Estimated Hours, the dates and the PDM path alongside every custom field you have added. The built-in ones carry a Built-in marker. Drag any row to reorder it, built-in or custom, and the create and edit drawers render their fields in exactly that order.
Pick the primary field
The primary field is the must-fill one, and it is what quick-add asks for. Title is the primary by default. Pick any text-like field instead (Description, or one of your own) and the create form asks for that one, marks it with the asterisk, and refuses to save it empty. The primary field is always shown and always required, so its own toggles sit on and locked.
Require a field
The asterisk toggle makes a field required for NEW deliverables. Turning it on tells you first how many existing deliverables have no value for it. They stay valid; nothing is blocked retroactively. Turning it off applies straight away.
Hide a field you do not use
The eye toggle hides a built-in from the create and edit forms. Status and the dates are structural and have no eye. Custom fields are not hidden but archived, from their own row.
Hiding a field never loses anything
Hiding a built-in takes it out of the create and edit forms. It does not delete a single value, and it does not take the field away from you: in the Table column picker, the Board card fields and the Tree row fields it moves to a Hidden in Settings › Fields group, switched off but still switchable whenever you want it back.
A title or computed formula can still use a hidden field. Its chip is marked in the formula builder and stays fully usable; hiding a field removes the box people type into, not the value. That is the point for a team running a computed title: nobody fills in the raw Title, and the composed name still shows everywhere.
Estimated hours is the same one setting in two places: the eye here, and Show estimated hours under Settings, Organization. Change either and both follow.
Add a custom field
Open Workflow
Go to Settings, then Workflow, then the Fields tab.
Start a new field
Click New Field, then choose a field type: text, number, date, checkbox, dropdown, multi-select, person, image, or computed. An image field holds a single uploaded picture, shown as a thumbnail on the deliverable that opens full screen when you click it. A computed field builds its value automatically from your other fields; it has its own section below.
Name it and set the rules
Give the field a name and turn on Required if every deliverable must have a value. For dropdown and multi-select fields, add your options, each with an optional color.
Save and arrange
Click Create. Drag the handle on any field to change the order it appears on a deliverable.
Add a computed field
Choose the Computed type
A computed field does not hold a value you type. It builds one automatically from your other fields, using a formula you compose. Start a new field as above and pick Computed as the type.
Compose the formula
Click Field to drop in a piece: a deliverable field like Title or Status, a project field like Project Code, City, or Job No, the Client, or any of your other custom fields. Type the text you want between the pieces, for example a dash or an underscore, straight into the slots. Drag a piece to reorder it, and watch the live Preview build your value as you go.
Pad numbers to a fixed width
Under Number padding, zero-pad any piece to a set number of digits, so 7 padded to 3 shows as 007. A number field that already displays padded starts with its own width filled in. Leave it blank for no padding.
Save
Click Create. The value fills in on every deliverable and updates itself whenever the fields it draws from change. There is nothing to type into a computed field, on any deliverable.
How a computed field behaves
A computed field is always read-only. WorkWiser works out the value on the server every time it loads a deliverable, so it is never edited by hand and never drifts out of date.
It can draw from your normal fields but not from another computed field, so a formula always resolves in one step. A formula needs at least one field to compute a value.
A worked example: a Drawing No field of Project Code, then _, then an Item No number field padded to 3 renders E03965_007. Change the item number and the drawing number follows.
Show a field on some projects, not all
Open the field’s project visibility
Each custom field shows a small pill: All projects (a global field, the default), a count like “3 of 8 projects” (scoped to some), or No projects. Click it to choose where the field appears.
Turn off “Show on all projects”
With the toggle on, the field is global and appears on every project. Turn it off to make the field project-scoped, then tick the projects it should show on in the checklist.
A field added from a project starts scoped to it
When you add a custom field straight from a project’s deliverables view, it starts scoped to that project only, so it does not clutter every other project. Widen it to more projects, or back to all, from this same pill.
Scoped fields never hide your data
A project that already has a value for a scoped field always shows that field, even if the project is not ticked. Scoping never hides data you have already entered.
Choosing where a field appears is controlled by the “Scope custom fields to projects” permission. Admins have it by default and can grant it to a manager under Settings, Permissions.
Templates, imports and exports follow scoping too: applying a template turns a field on for that project instead of adding it to every project, an import offers and an export includes only the fields a project actually shows, and a brand-new column you import becomes a field scoped to that project.
Define a status
Open the Statuses section
On the same page, switch to Statuses.
Create the status
Click New Status and give it a name. Pick a category (Not Started, In Progress, Completed, or Cancelled), choose a color, and set it as the default if new deliverables should start there.
Order and tune
Drag statuses to reorder them within a category. Use the star to change the default, and archive any status you no longer use.
Pipeline or free-form
At the top of Statuses you can turn on Pipeline mode. With it on, your statuses read as one logical progression; with it off, they can sit in any order. Pick whichever matches how your team thinks about a piece of work moving along.
Good to know
A field’s type is fixed once it is created. To change a type, archive the old field and add a new one.
The default status cannot be archived. Set a different default first, then archive it.
Custom fields can be global (shown on every project) or scoped to specific projects; statuses and tags stay organization-wide. Archiving hides any of them without touching existing data.
Deliverables come with a built-in Description. Show or hide it as a column from the Table view like any other column; there is no need to create a custom field for it.
An import and a project template never block on a required field. Both tell you how many rows have no value for it before you go ahead, and then bring the rows in as they are.
Ready to see it on your own work?
WorkWiser is in early access. Tell us where to reach you and we will send an invite when it is your turn.