Contact fields let course providers collect and store information about the people on their contact list, such as phone numbers, dietary requirements, or licence numbers.
Contact field values are saved on the provider’s contact record. The same fields can be reused across forms, filled automatically for returning customers at checkout, and viewed from the contact or their Registrations. Supported values can also be used in exports and integrations.
This article is for course providers and admins.
Contact fields vs Registration fields
Cademy fields are grouped by what the information is about. The Fields page in Settings has tabs for Contacts, Registrations, Organisations, Courses, Occurrences, and Users. This article covers contact fields.
The most important distinction to understand is between contact fields and Registration fields, because both are often used together on the same checkout form:
Contact fields store information about a person. Values are saved on the contact record and follow that person across bookings. Examples: phone number, passport or licence number, dietary requirements.
Registration fields store course-specific information about a person’s place on a course, rather than reusable contact information. For storage details and the effect of learner edits on a multi-course order, see Create Registration Fields for Individual Course Places.
Use a contact field when the answer is about the person and stays true across bookings. Use a Registration field when the answer only applies to one booking.
Who can use contact fields
Contact fields are available on every plan. Your team role determines which settings and records you can edit.
Managing fields in Settings requires the Course Owner role or higher.
Facilitators can edit contact details from the Registration side sheet for Registrations they have access to. Wider admin and order areas remain restricted for Facilitators.
Customers answer contact fields on your forms. After booking, each participant can reopen their own details from the course page, whether they booked the place themselves or somebody else booked it for them. The order owner manages the other participants on the order. The after-booking section below explains the restrictions.
Create a contact field
Follow these steps to create a contact field in Settings.
In the Admin dashboard, select Settings, then Fields.
Stay on the Contacts tab.
Click New Field.
Pick a field type.
Fill in the field options, such as the Label, Description, Placeholder, and Items.
Click Save Field.
Once a field is created, it can be used across any of your forms. Creating a field does not show it at checkout by itself. The field must also be added to a form.
Check Field created, then reopen the definition and verify its settings. If saving reports a missing Label or Items, complete those details and retry. After another error, check the field list before creating a second copy.
Available field types
Text
Text Area
Date
Number
True/False (Boolean)
Telephone
Email
Website
File Upload
Address
Multiple Choice Checkboxes
Single Choice Options
Dropdown
Statement
Field settings
Label: shown to customers on public forms. Every field must have a label.
Internal Field Name: shown in the Admin dashboard, tables, and exports. If left blank, the public label is used instead. This is useful when the public label is long or customer-facing wording and you want a clearer admin name.
Description and placeholder text.
Allow Autocomplete: fills the field at checkout using the value already saved on the contact. It is enabled by default for eligible contact fields. It is not available for Statement, File Upload or Organisation fields. Reopening a learner’s saved details follows a separate rule explained below.
Items: for Dropdown, Single Choice Options, and Multiple Choice Checkboxes fields, enter one choice per line. At least 1 option is required.
For a custom contact field, Allow Autocomplete controls whether saved contact details fill the field at checkout.
File Upload field settings
Max files: between 1 and 10. The default is 1.
Max file size (MB): a positive whole number, up to 50 MB per file. The default is 10 MB.
Max files multiplied by max file size must be 100MB or less. Customers cannot upload more than 100MB in total for a field.
Accepted file types: exact file types, wildcard types such as image/*, or extensions such as .pdf. If no accepted file types are set, any file type is allowed.
System contact fields
Cademy includes built-in system contact fields: First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Address, Organisation, Tags, and Marketing Consent. System fields are shown with a lock in the Settings field list and cannot be deleted.
For First Name, Last Name, and Email:
They are always required on checkout forms, and their required setting is locked in the form editor.
For all system fields:
Their labels and descriptions cannot be edited globally from Settings. Eligible system fields offer Custom Label in Field Options for a particular form; Marketing Consent does not offer this override.
Organise fields into sections
On the Contacts tab of the Fields page in Settings, fields can be grouped into sections.
In the Admin dashboard, select Settings, then Fields.
On the Contacts tab, click Add Section. A section named New Section is created immediately.
Select the section’s name, enter a useful name and press Enter. Then drag the fields into it.
Good to know:
Fields outside named sections are unsectioned. When named sections exist, the list shows them under Unsectioned Fields; when no sections exist, the fields are listed directly.
Deleting a section does not delete the fields in it. The fields become unsectioned.
Reordering fields and editing sections saves automatically. Wait for Field layout saved before leaving the page. Use a section’s up and down controls to reorder sections.
Add a contact field to a form
Follow these steps to add an existing contact field to a form.
Open Forms, select your Checkout or General form and open Form Editor. On a Checkout form, work inside Contact & Registration Fields.
Select Add Field, then choose the field under Contact Fields.
Select Save at the top of the form.
The field is added to the form.
Create a new contact field from the form editor
Follow these steps to create a contact field without leaving the form editor.
Open Forms, select your Checkout or General form and open Form Editor. On a Checkout form, work inside Contact & Registration Fields.
Select Add Field > New Contact Field….
In the Create Contact Field window, choose the field type and configure the field.
Select Create Field, then Save at the top of the form.
Create Field saves the shared definition immediately, so the field can also be reused on other forms. Save at the top of the form keeps its place on this form. Leaving without saving the form does not undo the newly created definition.
Editing a field affects all forms
A contact field’s definition is shared. Changes to the field apply across all forms that use it.
To edit a custom definition, open Settings > Fields > Contacts, select the field, change the available settings and select Save Field. Check Field updated, then reopen it to confirm. The field type is chosen when you create the field; the screen for an existing definition has no type selector.
Check where a field saves its answer
In Forms > your form > Form Editor, shared fields have a Contact, Registration or Organisation label. This tells you where the answer is saved: on the person, on this registration, or on the organisation. Open Field Options to read the explanation for that field. These labels identify the saved field type; they do not change where an existing field stores its answers. General and Feedback forms handle Contact questions differently, as explained below.
Contact questions on General and Feedback forms
General forms: the response stores the submitted answers. Contact questions can also update the contact record. With Update Existing Contacts off (the form’s Settings tab, under Contacts), existing values are kept and empty fields can be filled. With it on, submitted non-empty values can replace existing details. Save the form after changing this setting.
Feedback forms: answers to Contact questions are stored with the response and do not update the person’s saved contact details. Feedback forms do not offer File Upload questions.
Questions created with New Custom Field… belong to that form’s responses. They do not become shared contact fields. Editing a submitted response later changes that response, without updating the contact record. See Create and Share a General Form and Set Up a Feedback Form for Your Courses.
Edit a shared Statement
A Statement shows instructions without asking for an answer. Contact and Registration Statement fields are shared: changing their text changes it on every form that uses that field.
Open Forms, select the form and open Form Editor.
Select the Statement or open its Field Options.
Edit the text under Statement. If the text is long, scroll within the window to reach its buttons.
Select Save. Cademy shows Statement updated. Save the form at the top if you also changed its layout or other form settings.
Per-form settings
The field itself is global and reusable, but some behaviour is set per form from the field's card in the form editor:
Required: available for all field types except Statement.
Additional validation rules:
A text pattern rule (called a regular expression) that checks the answer format for Text, Text Area, Website, Email, and Telephone fields.
Minimum and maximum values for Number and Date fields. For example, a Date field can show "Please enter a date between <min> and <max>" if the customer's answer is outside the range.
Hide If Primary Contact Is Not Attending: on checkout forms, hides an eligible field when the person booking is not attending. Hidden fields are skipped in validation. This option is not offered for always-required fields or organisation-section fields. In an order with several courses, the field stays visible when the person booking attends any of them, or when one of the courses only captures the primary contact’s details. See Create and Use Checkout Forms for the full conditions.
Custom Label for eligible system fields.
Field Width.
These settings only apply to the form they are set on. When its Required setting can be changed, the same field can be required on one form and optional on another. First Name, Last Name and Email remain required on checkout forms.
To change one of these settings, open the question’s Field Options, change the setting and select Save, then Save at the top of the form. Reopen the form to check the setting. Shared Statement text is saved at once, as described above.
How contact fields work at checkout
Contact fields appear on the Your Details step of checkout, on custom checkout forms, and on each guest’s form when guest details are collected.
Autofill for returning customers
When checkout identifies the returning contact in your account, eligible fields are filled in with their saved values. Typing an arbitrary email address alone is not a way to look up someone’s details. A saved value is not used to prefill a field when:
the field is a File Upload field
Allow Autocomplete is turned off for the field
the field is a Registration field
Organisation details at checkout
Organisation details have their own autofill behaviour, separate from contact fields:
If the contact is already linked to an organisation, that organisation's details can be filled in on the form.
If linking organisations by email domain is enabled, the customer's email domain can be used to select or fill in the organisation automatically. This is also used as a fallback if a previously linked organisation has been deleted.
If an organisation must be selected and the customer has not selected one, the customer sees "Please select or create an organisation".
Duplicate email addresses
Each attendee on the same course must have a unique email address. The same person can attend different courses in a multi-course order. Repeating a guest’s email on one course shows The email address <email> is duplicated. and Each attendee on the same course must have a unique email address. The customer corrects that person’s email or removes the duplicate guest before continuing. If the place is for the person booking, they use + I’m Attending This Course on that course card instead of entering their own email for a guest. Older checkout flows can show different wording.
File uploads at checkout
If an uploaded file does not meet the field's settings, the customer sees a message about the number of files, the size of one file, the total upload size or the file type, such as "Upload no more than 100MB in total." They correct the stated problem before submitting.
How values are saved
When checkout creates or updates a contact, an existing contact is updated and a new person gets a contact record. Collecting a guest’s details does not automatically add every guest to your Contacts list. Check Create each guest as a contact in Create and Use Checkout Forms for that setting and its conditions.
If the contact already exists, it is updated. Empty answers do not blank existing values: if a contact already has a value saved for a field and the customer leaves that field empty, the saved value is kept.
Update participant contact details after booking
An order owner is the person whose account the order belongs to. A guest is somebody booked onto that order by another person. Every participant can edit the details for their own place, whether they booked it themselves or somebody else booked it for them. Only the order owner can manage other participants.
Learners editing their own details
The learner logs in with the email address connected to their course place, selects My Account, then My Courses & Bookings.
The My Courses page opens. They open the course under Your Courses. An on-demand course opens on its Content page, where they select Course Overview in the side panel, or the Overview tab if the page has no side panel.
In the course side panel, they select Edit Your Details or Complete Your Details. The Edit Your Details window opens with their saved answers.
They change the available fields, select Save, then reopen the form to check the saved information.
After attendance or learning progress is recorded, contact fields such as phone and address remain editable if they are included on the learner’s form. First Name, Last Name and course-specific answers are locked. Email is always read-only. The lock can come from another course on the same order. The learner needs the provider’s help to change locked information.
Learners can still correct contact fields such as Phone after attendance. Their name and course-specific answers stay locked.
These changes update the provider’s contact record, so the updated contact values are used wherever that contact appears, including other bookings. Editing course details is separate from changing the learner’s Cademy account profile.
Allow Autocomplete controls checkout. Turning it off does not hide the saved value when the learner reopens their own Edit Your Details form.
If the action is disabled and labelled Provider only, the learner needs you to make the change. This applies to a place that you added or imported for them directly. An order that you created for a customer is not automatically read-only. An order owner who is not attending the course has no participant details of their own to edit.
Order owners editing another participant
From My Account > My Courses & Bookings, the order owner selects Orders & Billing, opens the order and selects Manage Participants for the course. They open the other participant’s three-dot menu and select Edit. The Edit Attendee window opens; they change available answers and select Save. Manage Participants is not shown for a course with one seat where the order owner is the only participant, because that course has no participant list.
Those controls lock after the other participant’s attendance or learning progress is recorded on that course. This does not stop the participant correcting editable contact fields through their own form. The order owner’s own row has no Edit item; they use the side panel instead. Email cannot be changed in either editing window.
Missing answers and requested files
A guest can complete visible required questions in Additional details required when it opens. They can return to available personal questions through Complete Your Details. The ordinary edit window does not show organisation questions. A locked or unavailable required question, or an incomplete status that remains after saving, needs the provider’s help.
Learners can upload a requested file when their own form includes an editable File Upload field. They wait for the upload to finish, select Save and reopen the form to check the filename. An order owner cannot upload a file for another person through Edit Attendee.
For the complete learner process, email corrections, replacement or transfer, and unavailable actions, see Manage Participants and View Their Course Progress and Certificates.
View and edit contact field values in the Admin dashboard
System Admins can open Contacts in the Admin dashboard, select the person’s row and edit a field under Contact Details. Wait for Contacts changes saved before closing the record. For the complete route, including Quick Edit..., see Manage Contacts.
Course Owners and Facilitators working on a course can open Courses, choose the course, select Registrants and open the person’s Registration. Expand Contact Info and edit an available field; course-specific answers are in the separate Registration Fields section. Wait for Contact details updated. These edits change the contact record wherever that person appears. If saving fails, the value changes back to its previous value.
Email cannot be edited from the Registration side sheet. An email change on the full Contact record can merge contacts when another contact already uses that address. Follow Manage Contacts before changing an email. To combine duplicate contacts, follow Merge Duplicate Contacts and review the records and consequences before confirming a merge.
An edit to a text field is saved when you leave the field or, in a single-line field, press Enter. A switch or single choice is saved when you change it. There is no separate Save button for an existing contact. Clearing a value here is different from a customer leaving a checkout answer blank.
You can also enter contact values when creating a contact from a contact picker: complete the fields, select Create Contact and check Contact created. Manage contact fields links open the field settings where your role permits it.
Contact fields in imports, exports, and integrations
Imports
Custom contact fields are available as columns in contact imports, alongside built-in fields such as first name, last name, email, phone, tags, organisation, and address parts.
Address fields expand into multiple import columns.
File Upload and Statement fields cannot be imported.
For the import steps, see Import Contacts. Before you map Marketing Consent, read Marketing Consent in an import in that guide.
Exports
Supported contact fields can be included in Contact, Registration and Order exports. File Upload and Statement fields are excluded; open the contact record to view uploaded files. Address values expand into separate columns.
Export column headers use Internal Field Name. If it is blank, the Label is used.
Zapier
Order and Registration Zapier triggers include supported contact field values with a contact_field prefix, so they can be mapped in Zaps. Their labels can differ from export headers; inspect the actual trigger output when mapping a Zap.
Delete a custom contact field
Before deleting a shared definition, export any supported values you need and check which forms use it. System fields cannot be deleted. Removing a question from a form is different from deleting its shared definition.
Open Settings > Fields > Contacts, open the custom field’s cog menu and select Delete.
If no form uses the field, review Are you sure? and select Delete only if you want to remove the definition.
If forms are listed, the eye icon opens that form and leaves the field list; return to the field list and select Delete again to continue. The X icon asks you to confirm removing the question from that form; existing responses are kept. Select Remove only where the question should no longer be asked. This changes that form immediately.
When no forms are left in the list, select Delete Field. Select Cancel if you need to keep the field.
After deletion, check Field deleted and confirm the field is absent from the list.
Deleting the definition is not proof that every historical answer is erased, or a guarantee that old values remain accessible in normal screens and exports. Ask Cademy Support about a historical-data removal requirement.
Good to know
Contact field values belong to the contact, not to one booking. The same value appears wherever that contact is shown.
Editing a field changes it on every form that uses it.
Creating a field alone does not show it at checkout. Add it to a form first.
Organisation details collected at checkout are handled separately from contact fields and are saved to the organisation, not the contact.
Frequently asked questions
If a customer fills in a contact field, does the answer apply to just that booking?
No. Saved contact values belong to that provider’s contact record and are reused across bookings. Use a Registration field for course-specific information; see Create Registration Fields for Individual Course Places for the difference. General and Feedback form submissions follow the separate rules above.
Why did a field not autofill at checkout?
File Upload fields never autofill, and fields with Allow Autocomplete turned off do not autofill. Registration fields do not autofill either. Autofill also only works when Cademy already has a saved value for that contact.
If I edit a contact field, does it change on my other forms?
Yes. The field definition is shared, so changes apply to every form that uses the field. Required, hidden, and width settings are per form and do not change other forms.
Can I make the same field required on one form but optional on another?
Yes, for fields whose Required setting can be changed. First Name, Last Name and Email remain required on checkout forms. Statement fields do not collect answers and have no Required setting.
Can a customer clear a saved value by leaving the field empty at checkout?
No. Empty answers at checkout do not remove existing saved values on the contact.
Why can I not edit the email address from the Registration side sheet?
Email is read-only there. A System Admin can use the full Contact record. Changing it to an address used by another contact can merge their records, so follow Manage Contacts for the complete steps and checks.
Can participant contact details be updated after booking?
Yes. Learners can use Edit Your Details for their own available fields, including phone and address after attendance when those fields are on the form. Name and course-specific answers lock after attendance or progress; email is always read-only. The order owner’s controls for other people remain separate. See Manage Participants and View Their Course Progress and Certificates.
Do I need a specific plan to use contact fields?
No. Contact fields are available on every plan. Managing fields in Settings requires the Course Owner role or higher.
Can Facilitators update a contact's details?
Yes. Facilitators can edit contact details from the Registration side sheet for Registrations they have access to. Managing the fields themselves in Settings requires the Course Owner role or higher.
Can I delete the first name, last name, or email fields?
No. System fields, shown with a lock in the Settings field list, cannot be deleted. First Name, Last Name, and Email are also always required at checkout.
Does deleting a section delete the fields inside it?
No. The fields are kept and become unsectioned.
Can I use contact field values in booking emails?
Custom contact fields are not listed in the Mail Merge dropdown. An email editor that has Mail Merge can offer them in a list when you type {{ in the message. Choose the intended field and check Preview for the relevant recipient before sending. Do not expect every email or conversation editor to support the same tags. See Personalise Emails with Mail Merge Tags.
Can I use a different name for a field in my admin tables and exports?
Yes. Set Internal Field Name on the field. This name is used in the Admin dashboard and export headers, while customers still see the public label on forms.
Does turning off Allow Autocomplete hide saved details from the learner’s edit form?
No. It stops that field being filled automatically at checkout. The learner’s own Edit Your Details form still loads the saved value so they can check or correct it.