Custom fields are your own fields you add to your cards in Trello. You can add different types of custom fields, including dropdowns, numbers, dates and more (we will cover all the options below). Your custom fields can be shown on the front of cards and work great with lots of other features in Trello like their automations and exports. You can also use them in lots of power-ups like Forms, Imports and Reports.

When we do demos to new Trello users one of the things we always encourage them to check out is Trello's custom fields. Not just because they work great with all our tools, but because adding custom fields is when I see people really get Trello. Welcome to our ultimate guide to custom fields in Trello! We will cover the how the why and give you some examples of how we've seen other teams using Custom fields.

Some power-ups for custom field users

Not every power-up works nicely with custom fields, if you're evaluating power-ups it is always worth checking if they store data in custom fields where possible. This way your data is safe, if you remove the power-up it will still show on your cards. You will also be able to access your data in other power-ups which work with custom fields since they can all share the same data. These are some of our top picks for power-ups which play nicely with Trello Custom Fields.

Blue Cat Reports

Get Power-Up

😻 Easy, beautiful, fully customizable, drag and drop reporting for Trello 📊📈

Forms

Get Power-Up

The easiest and most complete forms for Trello, integrates with custom fields and attachments

Imports

Get Power-Up

Import cards from CSV or Excel spreadsheets directly into your Trello boards

Contents

• Custom field examples
• How to add custom fields in Trello?
• Can you report on custom fields?
• How to filter custom fields?
• Why are my custom fields greyed out, disabled, not available or not working?
• How to copy custom fields to another board?
• Sorting lists by custom fields
• Showing and hiding custom fields
• How to change the order of custom fields?
• How to export Trello custom fields?
• How to import Trello custom fields?
• How many custom fields can you have?

Custom field examples

Let's start with a few examples of how you could use Trello's custom fields on your boards

Sales teams can add fields like deal value, deal source, expected close date, email address, etc.

Here we see the front of the card showing all these fields. You can select which custom fields you want to show on the front of the cards if you don't want to show them all.

HR Teams using Trello for a recruitment pipeline can add expected salary, location, hiring department, etc.

Content marketing teams can add fields for content type, designer signoff checkbox, estimated hours, etc.

None of these examples is probably perfect for you, but that is the point of Custom fields. It is your data, create the fields you want for your cards.

How to add custom fields in Trello?

To add a new custom field from the back of any card in Trello:

1. Find the Custom Fields button in the menu on the right of the card back

2. Click that button to bring up the Custom Fields menu

3. Click on the + New field to add a new custom field and you will see this message

4. Give your custom field a name in the Title box

5. Select which type of custom field you want

You can add any of these custom field types to your cards

• Numbers
• Dropdown lists
• Text
• Dates
• Checkboxes

Most field types are pretty self-explanatory, but the dropdowns require a little more explanation. What most people miss the first time they use them is that they can set a colour for each of the options by clicking on the little grey box next to each option.

This is worth doing as that colour can then get pulled through elsewhere in Trello and helps your custom dropdowns fully replace labels if you have been using those.

That is all you need to do to add your first custom field. Now repeat the above steps until you have all the custom fields set up for your cards. These fields will appear on all your cards on the same board and will move with that card if you send it to another board.

Trello reporting and table view with custom fields

Trello's built in reporting tools and table view sadly don't do much with their custom fields. However, other reporting tools like Blue Cat Report allow a lot of flexibility of reporting on custom fields. You can filter cards based on their custom fields, show cards grouped by custom fields in pie, bar and line charts and show all your custom fields data in your reports.

To get started with reporting on your custom fields in Trello, simply...

1. Add the power-up here
2. Start your free trial
3. Create a report or quick list
4. Create the charts you want, filtering and displaying the custom fields you want to show

For a simple free reporting option you could check out our Swimlanes Power-up. While this isn't an in depth of flexible reporting option it will let you see how your board looks broken down by each of your custom fields. It's free, so why not give it a quick go anyway!

How to filter or search custom fields?

Filtering and searching on custom fields in Trello isn't as good as it can be. You can use the usual filtering in Trello, accessed by pressing the f key on your board. This filters cards based on their titles as well as the content of any custom fields. Here we filter on 'web form' to find any sales leads with the Source custom field set to web form

For smarter filtering, you will need to look to third-party tools like Blue Cat Reports which allows filtering on all custom fields. So you can report on cards with custom dates in a specific range or group by custom text fields, etc. Again, if you just want a quick view of how your board looks broken down by custom fields it is worth checking out our free Swimlanes Power-up.

Why are my custom fields greyed out, disabled, not available or not working?

In 2021 Trello made custom fields a part of their paid offerings. You can no longer add the custom fields power-up to your boards and instead need to be part of a paid team to access custom fields. There are additional details here https://help.trello.com/article/1327-trellos-plans-update-and-faq.

How to copy custom fields to another board?

The easiest way to copy your custom fields to another board is to send a card from the first board to the second board. That will copy all the fields on that card to the second board 😺. You will need to set values in every custom field you want to have copied from that card, empty or unassigned custom fields will not be copied over.

Sorting lists by custom fields

Did you know you can sort the cards in any list based on any custom number or date field. Super handy!

To sort your list by a custom field

1. Click on the ...'s on the top right of the list you want to sort
2. Select the Sort by... option
3. Choose the custom field you want to sort by, and ascending or descending order

Sorry to keep mentioning it but it really can be useful... again our free Swimlanes Power-up is a great way to see your Trello lists with the cards grouped by your custom fields.

How to show and hide custom fields

Custom fields will always show on the back of cards, but can be shown or hidden on the front of your cards. You can choose to show or hide the field on the front of your cards when you create it, or change this setting later if you prefer.

To show or hide a custom field

1. Open any card on your board
2. Click on the Custom fields button on the right of the card
3. Select the custom field you want to show/hide
4. Check or uncheck the Show field on front of cards option

How to change the order of custom fields?

Custom fields can be reordered from the menu on the back of the cards (the same place you add new custom fields) by clicking and dragging on the '6 dots' button on the left of each custom field. The order will then be reflected on the front and the back of cards on your board.

The same can be done to reorder the options in the custom drop-down fields.

How to export Trello custom fields?

Data stored in custom fields can easily be exported from Trello. Check out our guide to exporting data from Trello for more details. Or look at Blue Cat Reports for more in-depth reporting, filtering and exporting options.

How to import data into custom fields?

You can import data directly into custom fields using our Imports power-up or even create forms people can fill out to populate cards on your boards including all your custom fields. For that, check out our Forms power-up

How many custom fields can you have?

There is currently a limit of 50 custom fields per board. To be fair that is a lot of extra fields on every card! But if you think you may be hitting that limit you may need to think about collapsing multiple fields into single fields which cover the same data somehow.