What is the Contract Field Builder?

The Contract Field Builder is where you shape your contract database in ContractHero. It brings together contract categories, category sections and custom fields for contracts in one place, so you can tailor how contracts are structured, described and read by the AI.


ContractHero also has a Contact Field Builder for structuring contact partners (customers, suppliers, other counterparties) — covered separately at the bottom of this article.



What's in it for you


Out of the box, ContractHero comes with sensible defaults for contract categories (lease, employment, NDA, and so on) and their fields. The Contract Field Builder lets you go one step further and adapt everything to how your organisation actually works: your own contract categories, your own sections, your own custom fields on contracts — filterable, exportable, and (with an AI prompt) automatically filled in on every upload.


That matters because a well-set-up Contract Field Builder turns ContractHero from a document archive into a structured contract database: information you care about (renewal windows, licence counts, contract values) becomes queryable rather than buried in a PDF.


Where to find it


In the left-hand sidebar, open Settings → Field builder. Two sub-areas appear:


  • Contract field builder — for contracts (this article).
  • Contact field builder — for contact partners (customers, suppliers, other counterparties). See the separate article linked at the bottom.


The three building blocks (contracts)


The Contract Field Builder is organised around three concepts. Together they define the shape of every contract in your account.


1. Contract categories


Contract categories are contract types (lease agreement, NDA, employment contract, supplier contract, and so on). Each contract you upload is assigned to one contract category, which decides:


  • Which fields appear on the contract detail page
  • Which team the contract is visible to (via team assignment)
  • Which AI prompts run on the document


You can create your own contract categories, colour-code them, or copy an existing category as a template.


Full guide: How to add/edit a category?


2. Category sections (in contracts)


Category sections group the fields within a contract category into thematic blocks ("General", "Term & termination", "Financials", "Contracting parties" and so on). Instead of 30 fields in one long list, three to seven well-named sections make data entry faster and audits easier.


Full guide: How to manage category sections?


3. Custom fields on contracts


Custom fields are the smallest unit — the individual data points on a contract (start date, notice period, monthly fee, licence count, and so on). You can create your own with one of ten field types (date, monetary amount, list, checkbox, number, and more), assign them to contract categories, and add an AI prompt so ContractHero fills them in automatically from the PDF.


Full guide: How can I manage Custom Fields?


Who can edit the Contract Field Builder?


By default only members with owner status or a role that has the Field builder permission explicitly enabled. Regular members see the resulting fields on their contracts but cannot change the underlying structure.


Common questions


Is the Contract Field Builder available on every plan?
The core Contract Field Builder is available on most plans. The Contact Field Builder is an add-on. Check your current setup under Settings → Details of the organization.


Do changes affect existing contracts?
Yes — immediately. A new field appears empty on all existing contracts of the assigned contract category; a renamed section shows the new name straight away. To fill new AI-driven fields on existing contracts, use the AI retrigger across your portfolio.


Can I have different fields for different contract categories?
Yes. Contract categories are independent: a field only appears on a category if you drag it into one of that category's sections. The same field can be reused across multiple contract categories — the values are stored per contract.


How is the Contact Field Builder different?
Same idea, but for contact partners instead of contracts. The Contact Field Builder lets you define contact types (Company, Person, Supplier, Customer — or your own) and shape their fields — handy for tracking credit rating, customer number, industry sector or an internal risk classification on the counterparty side. See the dedicated article linked below.


Good to know


  • Start small. Five well-used fields per contract category are worth more than 30 half-maintained ones. Structure grows over time.
  • Sections first, fields second. Setting up sections before creating fields saves a lot of re-arranging later.
  • AI prompts pay off from day one. Even a short, plain-language prompt ("Extract the monthly licence fee in euros") lets the AI fill the field automatically on every upload and every retrigger.
  • Structural changes are permission-gated. Only owners or roles with the Field Builder permission can change the structure — that prevents accidental data-shape changes by regular users.
  • Contract vs. Contact. Contract categories and fields live in the Contract Field Builder. If you want to structure your counterparties (e.g. "Customer", "Supplier", "Freelancer"), that is done in the Contact Field Builder — same principle, different data type.



Updated on: 09/02/2026

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