Custom fields let you collect information that is not included in Desk’s standard voucher fields, such as dietary requirements, experience level, or guest height and weight. Create a reusable text question, assign it to one or more products, and choose whether an answer is required or optional for each product.
Custom fields appear when your team creates or edits vouchers in Desk. They also appear during checkout when customers book assigned products through your online storefront.
Note: You need permission to edit Maintenance settings to create or change custom fields.
Overview
Custom fields accept text answers. Other field types are not currently supported.
A custom field can be assigned to multiple products. The required or optional setting applies separately to each product assignment. For example, the same “Dietary requirements” field can be required for a food tour and optional for a boat tour.
If a custom field is not assigned to a product, it does not appear on that product’s vouchers or storefront bookings.
When a custom field is assigned to a product:
- Desk displays it when your team creates or edits a voucher for that product.
- Your online storefront displays it in the Additional information section during checkout when the product is available for sale on that storefront.
- Required fields must be completed before a voucher can be saved or a storefront checkout can be completed.
- Optional fields can be left blank.
- Saved answers become part of the voucher.
- For FareHarbor connected bookings, custom field data is sent to FareHarbor as booking notes.
When a product has more than three custom fields, Desk initially displays up to three fields and provides a View additional fields button for the remaining fields.
Custom field answers can be included when a voucher is printed or emailed, depending on your company’s voucher template settings. Voucher PDFs downloaded from the storefront include custom field answers.
Create a custom field
To create and assign a custom field:
- In Desk, go to Manage > Custom fields.
- Click the + New custom field button.
- Enter the Custom field name. Use the question or label that staff and customers should see, such as “Dietary requirements”.
- Select Select products.
- Find and select the products, then select Assign products. Newly assigned products are optional by default.
- To require an answer for one or more products, select the products, then choose Mark as required.
- Save the custom field.
You can also save a custom field without assigning products. The field remains available under Manage > Custom fields until you are ready to use it.
Assign products from a custom field
To manage product assignments from a custom field:
- Go to Manage > Custom fields.
- Select the custom field you want to edit.
- Select Select products.
- Search for products or filter them by vendor.
- Select the products, then choose Assign products.
- In the assigned-products table, select one or more products and choose Mark as required, Mark as optional, or Unassign.
- Save your changes.
Changing the required or optional setting for one product does not affect the field’s assignments to other products.
Assign custom fields from a product
To manage custom fields from a product:
- Go to Manage > Products and open the product.
- Open the product’s settings.
- In the Custom fields section, select Assign more custom fields.
- Select the fields you want to assign.
- For each field, use Actions to mark it as required or optional, or to unassign it.
- Save the product.
Edit a custom field
To rename a custom field or change its product assignments:
- Go to Manage > Custom fields.
- Select the custom field you want to edit.
- Rename the field or update its product assignments.
- Save your changes.
Renaming a custom field updates the label on new vouchers, existing vouchers, and future storefront checkouts. Use clear, customer-friendly wording because the same label is visible to your team and online customers.
Assignment changes can also affect existing vouchers. Assigning a field makes it appear when users edit existing vouchers for that product. If you change an assignment from optional to required, users must provide an answer the next time they edit and save an affected voucher.
If you unassign a field, it no longer appears on new vouchers or future storefront checkouts for that product. Existing answers remain on affected vouchers as read-only, while blank unassigned fields are hidden. Archiving a product also archives its custom field assignments while retaining existing answers as read-only. If the product is unarchived later, the custom field assignment will also be unarchived.
Custom fields on the online storefront
You do not need to configure custom fields separately for each storefront. A field automatically appears when it is assigned to a product that is available for sale on that storefront.
During checkout, assigned fields appear in the Additional information section before the customer selects Book and pay. If the cart contains multiple activities, Desk groups the questions by activity and scheduled date and time.
Answers are saved to the specific cart item, so separate bookings for the same product can contain different answers.
Best practices
- Use short, direct labels, such as Guest heights or Hotel room number.
- Make a field required only when the answer is essential to fulfilling the booking.
- Avoid requesting payment details, passwords, government identification numbers, or other sensitive information.
- Reuse a field when you need the same question across multiple products.
- Before publishing a new required field, preview the online booking flow to confirm that the question is clear to customers.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn’t a custom field appear for a product?
Confirm that the custom field is assigned to the product. If the problem occurs only on the online storefront, also confirm that the product is available for sale on that storefront.
Why can I see an old answer but not edit it?
The field was unassigned from the product, or the product was archived after the answer was saved. Desk retains the historical answer as read-only.