> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Record layouts

> Choosing which fields your team's forms show for people, organizations and animals, in what order, and which must be filled in.

**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](/settings/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](/animals/fields).

## Who can change a layout

| Tab               | Needs                      |
| ----------------- | -------------------------- |
| **People**        | **admin** on People        |
| **Organizations** | **admin** on Organizations |
| **Animals**       | **admin** on Animals       |

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

## 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.

## 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:

| Control      | What it does                                                                                                              |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Shown**    | Untick to leave the field off the form. Hiding a field does not delete anything already in it.                            |
| **Required** | The form will not save while this field is empty. Only offered on a field that is shown.                                  |
| The arrows   | Move the field up or down.                                                                                                |
| **Shown on** | People only, for your own fields and the built-in role fields: see [Fields in a role section](#fields-in-a-role-section). |

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.

### Fields that cannot be hidden

Some fields are always shown, and their **Shown** box is greyed out:

| Layout            | Always shown         |
| ----------------- | -------------------- |
| **People**        | Name                 |
| **Organizations** | Name                 |
| **Animals**       | Species, Intake date |

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](/settings/custom-fields).

### 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.

### 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.

## What Required means

<Note>
  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.
</Note>

A required custom field is different: it is checked whenever a record is created, from anywhere. See [Custom fields](/settings/custom-fields#required).

## 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](/settings/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.