How can I manage Custom Fields?

Custom fields are how you record the information your organisation cares about on every contract. This article shows how to create a field in the field builder („Feldbaukasten"), give it an AI prompt, assign it to a category, and which field types are available.

What's in it for you

Custom fields turn ContractHero from a standard contract archive into your contract database. Whatever is written in the PDF can be evaluated as a structured field from the very first upload — filterable, exportable, automatable. Add an AI prompt per field and ContractHero fills it in for you as well: described once, recognised automatically, done. That saves several minutes of manual data entry per contract.

How it works

1. Open the contract field builder

Go to Settings → Field builder → Contract field builder („Einstellungen → Feldbaukasten → Vertragsfeldbaukasten").
You will see a three-column layout:

Your categories („Ihre Kategorien") — on the left: every contract category in your account (employment contract, lease agreement, NDA, your own categories, and so on).
Category sections („Kategorieabschnitte") — in the middle: the section cards of the selected category (General, Term, Financials … / „Generell, Laufzeit, Finanzielles …").
Your fields („Ihre Felder") — on the right: the alphabetical list of every field in your account, with a "Search fields" box („Suchfelder") and a sort icon at the top.

2. Create a new field

At the top right of the "Your fields" column („Ihre Felder"), click the green "+" icon (tooltip: "Add new field" / „Neues Feld hinzufügen"). Clicking the pair of arrows next to it — immediately to the left of the "+" icon — also lets you change the sort order to suit you.

The "New field" dialog („Neues Feld") opens. Mandatory and optional settings:

Field name (German) („Feldname (Deutsch)") — mandatory; this is what later appears as the column and detail label.
Field type („Feldtyp") — mandatory; determines which values the field can hold (see the next section).
This is a mandatory field („Dies ist ein Pflichtfeld") — a toggle, for when the field must be filled in on the contract.
Field description (German) („Feldbeschreibung (Deutsch)") — optional help text shown to users directly next to the field as they fill it in.

Confirm with "Add field" („Feld hinzufügen").

3. Add an AI prompt (optional, but strongly recommended)

At the bottom of the dialog you will find the section "Optional: instruct the AI to extract the key details by giving a specific description for this field" („Optional: Weisen Sie die KI an, die wichtigsten Details zu extrahieren, indem Sie eine spezifische Beschreibung zu diesem Feld angeben") with the input box "Tell the AI what to extract" („Sagen Sie der KI, was sie extrahieren soll"). Here you describe in plain language what the AI should pull out of the contract text (e.g. "Extract the monthly licence fee in euros").

Help available right in the dialog:

"Improve prompt" („Prompt verbessern") — ContractHero suggests an optimised wording of your prompt.
"Test on a contract" („Im Vertrag testen") — test the prompt straight away against an existing contract to see whether the AI pulls the right value.
"Optional: filters and special instructions" („Optional: Filter und Sonderanweisungen") — an expandable section for additional rules (e.g. "only extract if the category is lease agreement").

Once the prompt is right, the AI analysis runs automatically on every upload and on every AI retrigger.

4. Edit or delete existing fields

In the field list, click the gear icon on the field you want and choose:

Edit („Bearbeiten") — opens the same dialog as when creating the field; every setting can be changed afterwards.
Delete („Löschen") — removes the field from the account.

Careful when deleting: removing a field also loses every value recorded in it so far — the field disappears from all contract detail pages. If you only want to pause a single field, it is sometimes better to deactivate the AI prompt and leave the field empty rather than delete it.

5. Assign the field to a category

For the new field to appear in a category, drag and drop it from the right-hand column into the appropriate category section („Kategorieabschnitt") in the middle (e.g. "General" / „Generell" or "Financials" / „Finanzielles"). The field then appears when creating and editing contracts in that category. Confirm the structural change with "Save" („Speichern") at the top right.

The 10 available field types

Checkbox („Checkbox") — a yes/no switch. Handy for "auto-renewal active", "GDPR-compliant", "SLA on file".
Date („Datum") — a single date, e.g. a cut-off date, milestone or deadline.
Single-line text („Einzeiliger Text") — short text values, e.g. customer numbers, IDs, codes.
Monetary amount („Geldbetrag") — amounts in euro format (default). Handy for contract value or a monthly fee.
Interval („Intervall") — a recurring period, e.g. a billing cycle every 3 months.
Link („Link") — a URL, e.g. to a customer portal, a terms & conditions page or a DPA.
List („Liste") — multiple choice from options you define, e.g. a list of sites or risk classes.
Multi-line text („Mehrzeiliger Text") — longer free text for comments, notes and context.
Number („Zahl") — numeric values without a currency, e.g. number of licences, parking spaces, employees.
Time period („Zeitspanne") — a fixed period with a start and an end, e.g. a warranty term or a probation period.

Choose the type deliberately — it determines how the field is treated in filters, reports and AI extraction. An amount can be summed; a text cannot.

Common questions

What happens to contracts that were already uploaded when I create a new field?
The new field appears immediately on all existing contracts in the assigned category — empty. Use the AI retrigger („KI-Retrigger") to run the AI analysis again across your existing contracts so that the new field is filled in automatically.

How many custom fields can I create?
That depends on your plan. Most plans have generous to unlimited limits — you can see your current count in the "Your fields" list („Ihre Felder").

Can I use the same field name in different categories?
Yes. A field lives in the account, not in the category. If you create "IBAN", for example, and assign it to both "Lease agreement" and "Supplier contract", it is technically the same field — the values are stored separately per contract.

What does the blue "sparkle" icon next to a field mean?
It indicates that an AI prompt is stored for that field and that the AI is trying to fill the field in automatically.

What is the difference between "Improve prompt" and "Test on a contract"?
"Improve prompt" („Prompt verbessern") suggests a better wording of your prompt, optimised by ContractHero's AI. "Test on a contract" („Im Vertrag testen") applies the current prompt to a sample contract straight away, so you can see whether the extraction works — before you save.

Why don't "Multi-line text" fields appear in the contract list column picker?
Free-text fields cannot sensibly be rendered as a list column (too much content). They remain visible on the contract detail page and findable via full-text search.

Good to know

Consistency beats completeness. Five genuinely used fields per category are worth more than 30 half-maintained ones. Fields nobody fills in make reporting unreliable.
Add the AI prompt early. The effort you put into the prompt pays off massively from the first retrigger across existing contracts — filling fields in manually per contract takes far longer.
Use mandatory fields sparingly. A field marked as mandatory blocks saving. With existing data that can cause frustration — test first whether the AI can fill the field in reliably.
Export before you delete. If you are unsure whether the values in a field are still needed, pull an export from the settings first and keep the column, then delete.
The contact field builder runs in parallel: for fields on the contract partner (e.g. credit rating, customer number) there is a separate contact field builder („Kontaktfeldbaukasten") under Settings → Field builder → Contact field builder („Einstellungen → Feldbaukasten → Kontaktfeldbaukasten").

Updated on: 09/09/2026

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