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Settings → Data & customization → Record layouts decides which fields the forms your team fills in show, in what order, and which of them must be filled in. There is one layout for each kind of record: People, Organizations and Animals. Your own custom fields sit in the same list as the built-in ones, so the field that matters most to you can come first. For what each built-in animal field is for, see Animal fields.

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Who can change a layout

You see a tab only for the kinds of record you can arrange. With none, the page says “Nothing to arrange”.

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The record, and the form that creates one

Under the tabs, two buttons choose which arrangement you are changing:
  • The record: what a record shows once it exists, its panels, in this order.
  • The form that creates one: what is asked when one is added. Until you arrange this, it follows The record.
The forms your team uses to add a record and to edit one (Edit on the record) follow The form that creates one, or The record while the form has not been arranged. Public forms do the same when they decide which fields to offer. So a rescue that never arranges the form has one list doing both jobs; arranging the form lets the add form be shorter without changing anything else.

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Arranging the fields

The card shows every field in order, and a count: how many fields, how many are shown, how many are hidden, and how many are required. Beside each field: A field of your own is marked your field. One of the person record’s built-in role fields is marked built in, with the section it belongs to. Nothing changes until you press Save layout. Discard throws away what you have changed since the last save. Each field keeps a set width on the form (a whole row, half a row or a third), so fields of a third or a half sit side by side and moving one never leaves a gap. Your own fields always take a whole row.

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Fields that cannot be hidden

Some fields are always shown, and their Shown box is greyed out: A field of your own that is required by its own definition is also always shown and always required: “One of your own fields, required by its definition, so always shown.” To change that, untick Required on the field under Settings → Data & customization → Custom fields.

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New fields

A custom field added after you saved a layout, or a new built-in field, appears at the end of the list, shown. Move it where you want it and save.

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Fields in a role section

On People, Shown on decides where a field is drawn on a person’s record:
  • The main form: with the person’s name and contact details. This is where your own fields start.
  • Its sections: for a built-in role field, the role sections it belongs to by default, such as Adopter and Foster for the housing questions.
  • Volunteer, Foster, Adopter or Donor: only in that role’s section of the record.
A question like “Fenced yard?” then appears for adopters and fosters, not on every donor’s record. Name, and the other built-in fields such as email and phone, belong to the record itself and cannot be moved into a role.

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What Required means

Required applies to your team’s form. Records created by a public form, an import or a volunteer sign-up are not held to it, so tidying this page never breaks those.
A required custom field is different: it is checked whenever a record is created, from anywhere. See Custom fields.

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How a layout reaches your public forms

A public form asks only for fields the record keeps, so the layout shapes it too. See Settings → Operations & forms → Forms.
  • A field hidden on the layout is not offered when you add a question to a form.
  • A field required on the layout is offered as required.
  • A new form starts with every field the layout requires.
  • The public form is laid out like the layout, in its order and at its widths. Arrange like the record on a form puts its questions back in the layout’s order.