Helpdesk Concepts

Custom Fields

Definition

Custom fields are configurable data fields you add to help-desk tickets, users, or organizations to capture information beyond the built-in defaults — such as order number, product version, subscription tier, or affected region.

Also known as: ticket fieldscustom ticket fieldscustom attributes

How it works

An admin defines a field with a type — text, number, dropdown, checkbox, date — and where it appears (on the agent view, the customer form, or both). Values can be filled in by the customer at submission, by an agent during handling, or automatically by an integration or automation.

Because custom fields are structured (a dropdown has a fixed set of options, a number is always a number), they're reliable inputs for routing rules, SLA policies, reporting, and AI agents that need clean data to act on.

Why it matters

Custom fields adapt a generic help desk to how your business actually works. They let you route by subscription tier, report by product line, or set SLAs by customer segment — and they give an AI agent structured context (like an order number) it can use to look up records and resolve the ticket rather than asking the customer to repeat themselves.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between a custom field and a tag?

A custom field is a defined, structured input (a named field with a type and value); a tag is a loose keyword label. Use custom fields for specific attributes you'll report or automate on, and tags for lightweight topical flags.

Can customers fill in custom fields?

Yes — custom fields can appear on the customer-facing submission form, on the agent view, or both, depending on how you configure them.

Related terms

Tags (Helpdesk)

Tags are short keyword labels attached to support tickets to categorize them by topic, product, issue type, or any custom dimension — making tickets easy to filter, report on, and trigger automations from..

Ticket Routing

Ticket routing is the process of directing incoming support tickets to the right agent, team, or queue based on rules like topic, channel, language, priority, or customer tier..

SLA Policy

An SLA policy is the configured set of rules inside a help desk that assigns service-level targets — like first-response and resolution times — to tickets based on conditions such as priority, channel, or customer tier..

Support Ticket

A support ticket is a single trackable record of a customer's request or issue, holding the full conversation and metadata — status, priority, assignee, tags — from when it's opened until it's resolved..

Entity Extraction

Entity extraction is the process of pulling specific pieces of structured information — like names, order numbers, dates, products, or amounts — out of unstructured text so a system can act on them..

Put these ideas to work

Macha is an AI agent layer that sits on top of the help desk you already run — Zendesk, Freshdesk, Front, Intercom, or Gorgias.

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