Custom fields in project management let you add the details your business actually tracks, such as budget, stage, client rating or reviewer, directly to each task. Without them, that information ends up in spreadsheets beside the tool, and the two drift apart. In AlianHub, custom fields sit on every task, show up as columns in the Table view, flow into reports, and can even be filled in by an AI agent you approve.
Key takeaways
- If you track it in a spreadsheet next to your tool, it should be a custom field.
- Fewer, well-named fields beat dozens nobody fills in.
- Pick the right field type: money, dropdown, people, rating, date.
- Fields are only useful if reports and views can use them.
- Let AI fill the fields, and let people approve what it filled.
Why default task fields are not enough
Every project tool ships with the basics: title, status, assignee, due date, priority, tags. That covers who and when. It rarely covers what your business cares about.
A sales team needs deal stage and value. A construction team needs site and inspection result. An agency needs client, budget and reviewer. Put those details in a comment and you can never filter, sort or report on them.
Custom fields fix that by turning a task into a structured record.
Choosing the right field types
AlianHub's site shows custom fields such as Budget as a money field, Client rating as a rating, Reviewer as a people field and Stage as a dropdown. Match the type to the data so it can be sorted and reported.
| What you track | Good field type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget or deal value | Money | Sums and comparisons work |
| Pipeline or workflow stage | Dropdown | Consistent values, easy filters |
| Reviewer or account owner | People | Links to a real member |
| Client satisfaction | Rating | Quick to scan in a table |
| Contract or renewal date | Date | Shows up on calendar views |
Tip: If two people would type the same value differently, use a dropdown. Free text is where reporting goes to die.
Designing fields that people actually fill in
The most common mistake is adding too many fields. People stop filling them in, and the data becomes useless.
Rules that keep fields healthy:
- Start with three to five fields per project type. Add more only when someone asks for a report that needs one.
- Name fields for the reader, not the database. "Client" beats "Acct_ref".
- Make one person the field owner for each project so changes are deliberate.
- Remove fields nobody has used in a month.
A field nobody fills in is worse than no field. It makes the data look complete when it is not.
Where custom fields show up in AlianHub
AlianHub is a free, open-source, self-hosted project management platform. Custom fields are part of the core, alongside custom roles and several companies in one instance.
Table view
Every project has six views: List, Board, Table, Calendar, Gantt and Workload. The Table view shows status, owner, priority, due date and custom fields in rows you can sort. The Sales team pack, for example, is described as a table with custom fields for stage, source and value.
Reports
The Custom Report lets you build your own report from a source (tasks or time logs), filters, a grouping and a measure, and show it as a table, bars, a line or a pie. You can save it and schedule it by email. See the reports on the workspace page.
Imports
Moving from another tool? Imports from ClickUp bring across custom fields along with tasks, subtasks, statuses and comments, and the import can be undone. The moving from ClickUp guide has the steps.
How AlianHub's AI helps with custom fields
Fields are only as good as the data in them, and filling them in is the boring part. This is where AI earns its place.
The Fill AI fields skill
AlianHub's skill library includes a Fill AI fields skill (fields.fill), rated medium risk. An agent can use it to propose values for fields based on the task. Because it is medium risk, it does not just write freely: proposals wait for a person in the AI Inbox, depending on the agent's autonomy level.
Ask for new fields with your own AI
If you connect Claude or ChatGPT over MCP, your AI can ask for new fields, saved views and project setups. These always wait for approval. It cannot create structure behind your back. Read the Connect your AI guide.
Query fields in plain words
The Ask box answers from the projects you can open. Once stage, value or reviewer are real fields, plain-word questions about them get grounded answers instead of guesses.
How to do this in AlianHub
- Open a project and switch to the Table view.
- Add three to five custom fields that match your process, choosing a type for each.
- Open AI, go to the Agents tab and pick an agent with the Fill AI fields skill.
- Set its autonomy level to L1 so it proposes every value and nothing is written until approved.
- Run the skill as a dry run first to preview what it would fill. Nothing is written.
- Review the proposals in the AI Inbox, approve the good ones and decline others with a reason the agent can see.
- Build a Custom Report grouped by your new field and schedule it by email.
A business scenario: a sales team with clean pipeline data
A small B2B sales team kept deal stage and value in a spreadsheet, updated whenever someone remembered. The weekly pipeline review started with ten minutes of "is this still right?"
They moved stage, source and value into custom fields in the Table view. An agent at L1 proposes missing values from task details, and the sales lead approves them in the AI Inbox. A Custom Report grouped by stage goes out by email each week.
The result: the pipeline review starts with numbers the team trusts, fewer deals stall unnoticed, and the lead spends the meeting on next steps rather than data cleanup.
Common custom field mistakes
- One giant shared field set for every project, whether it fits or not.
- Free-text fields for values that should be a dropdown.
- Fields that duplicate built-in ones, like a second "Owner".
- Letting AI write field values with no review step.
FAQ
What are custom fields in project management?
They are extra fields you add to tasks to track details specific to your business, such as budget, stage or client. They can be sorted, filtered and used in reports like built-in fields.
Does AlianHub support custom fields on every plan?
AlianHub is free and open source under AGPL-3.0, with no per-seat pricing when self-hosted. Custom fields are part of the product, not a paid tier.
Can AI fill in custom fields automatically?
Yes, with control. AlianHub's Fill AI fields skill lets an agent propose values, and at lower autonomy levels those proposals wait in the AI Inbox for a person to approve.
Will my custom fields come across from ClickUp?
Yes. A ClickUp CSV or Excel export imported under Settings, Import and export brings across custom fields along with tasks and comments, and the import can be undone.
Make your tasks match your business
Pick the three details you keep chasing in spreadsheets and turn them into fields this week. Try it in the live demo, explore the features, and self-host AlianHub free. Share this with whoever owns your weekly report.