What are fields?

Understanding Fields in Halda

What is a Field?

A field is the basic building block for every piece of information Halda collects, stores, and acts on about a person. Think of a field as a labeled container — "First Name," "Program of Interest," "Start Term" — that holds one type of data for each lead in your account.

Fields are account-wide and reusable. You define a field once, and then you can ask for it on as many smart forms as you like. Every form that uses the same field writes into the same container, so a lead's "Program of Interest" stays consistent whether they answered it on a homepage form, a landing page, or over SMS. This is the key idea: a field is the definition; a question is one place you ask for it.

Each field has a few core properties:

• Name — the friendly label you and your team see (e.g., "Program of Interest").
• Database name — the stable internal key used in exports, integrations, and data files (e.g., program_of_interest). Letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores only; it must be unique within your account.
• Field type — what kind of data the field holds (text, number, date, multiple choice, etc.).
• Options — for choice-based fields, the list of selectable answers (e.g., Engineering, Business, Nursing).
• Data category — a classification used for organization and AI context: demographic, geographic, temporal, academic, behavioral, interest-based, or administrative.

Types of Fields

Halda fields fall into two broad groups: question fields (things a person can answer on a form) and system fields (data Halda captures automatically).

Question field types

These are the types you choose from when building a form question:

• Text — short answer or paragraph free-text (also used for First Name, Last Name, Email).
• Number / Slider — numeric input, including slider questions with a min, max, step, and format.
• Dropdown / Radio / List — single-select from a defined set of options.
• Checkbox (multi-select) — pick one or more from a set of options.
• List or Radio with "Other" — a choice list that also lets the respondent type a custom answer.
• Date Picker — a calendar date (also used for Date of Birth).
• Phone Number — phone input with validation and an optional consent/disclaimer line.
• Program Start — a specialized type for capturing intended start season/term/year.
• Specialty inputs — ZIP Code and High School lookups.

System fields (captured automatically)

Every account is provisioned with a standard set of system fields so your data model is consistent from day one. You don't create these — Halda populates them. They include:

• Identity & demographic — first name, last name, preferred name, email address, phone number.
• Program intent — program start season, term, and year.
• Location — city, state, country, postal code, calling code (derived from IP where available).
• Submission metadata — date/time created, browser, device type, page URL, submission ID, form/variant name.
• Attribution — first-touch and last-touch UTM parameters, plus GCLID/FBCLID ad-click IDs.
• Engagement & AI — engagement score and level, lead recommendation, and phone/SMS conversation summaries and transcripts from AI interactions.

A subset of system fields (name, email, phone, preferred name, and the program-start fields) are manually entered — meaning a person fills them in on a form — while the rest are auto-detected behind the scenes.

Using Fields in Forms

When you add a question to a smart form, you're connecting that question to a field. You have two choices:

1. Reuse an existing field (recommended). Pick from your account's field list. This keeps your data clean — every form writing to "Program of Interest" lands in the same place, and the field's existing options come along automatically. Reusing also means CRM mappings and analytics you've already set up keep working.
2. Create a new field inline. If no existing field fits, you can create one as you build the question by giving it a name; Halda generates the database name for you.

A few things worth knowing:

• The same field can appear on many forms. Updating a field's options propagates to the forms that use it, so you maintain choice lists in one place.
• Question text is independent of the field. Form A can ask "What do you want to study?" and Form B can ask "Pick your program," and both feed the single "Program of Interest" field.
• Responses can be configured at the field level. Choice fields and numeric fields can drive dynamic response behavior — static text, threshold-based, benchmark ranges, or AI-generated responses — so the form can react to what a person answers.
• "Other" options let respondents enter a custom value when none of the listed choices fit.

When a form is submitted, the answer is stored against the field, merged into the lead's unified profile, and made available everywhere that field is referenced — analytics, segments, and exports.

Creating a New Field

You can create a field on the fly while building a form (above), or create it ahead of time from the Fields settings area. To create one deliberately:

1. Go to Settings → Fields and choose Add Field.
2. Enter a field name (the friendly label).
3. Confirm or adjust the database name. Halda suggests one based on the name and guarantees it's unique; it must use only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores, and can't reuse a reserved system name.
4. Choose the field type (text, number, date, choice list, etc.).
5. For choice-based fields, add your options. You can add them one at a time, reorder them, or bulk-import them from a CSV. Options can also carry metadata like a description, source link, or qualified/unqualified designation.
6. Optionally configure response behavior (static, threshold, benchmark, or auto-generated) and set a data category.
7. Save. The field is now available to every form on the account.

Managing Fields

Fields are managed from Settings → Fields (admin permission required). From the fields index you can search, filter, and page through every field on the account.

Editing. Open any field to update its name, options, response configuration, or data category. For choice fields, the option editor lets you add, rename, reorder, archive, or bulk-import options, and edit per-option metadata.

Seeing where a field is used. Each field shows its related items — the forms and questions that reference it. Check this before making changes so you understand the downstream impact.

Archiving (removing). Fields aren't hard-deleted; they're archived (soft-deleted) so historical lead data and submissions stay intact. Archiving a field also cascades to its options. Review the related forms first — archiving a field that's still in use will affect those questions.

Database names are stable. The database name is the anchor for integrations and exports, so treat it as permanent once data is flowing. Rename the display name freely, but changing the database name can break downstream mappings.

Integration mappings. Fields are how Halda syncs to your other systems:

• Salesforce — map a field (and its options) to a Salesforce field/picklist on the Lead or Inquiry object.
• Slate / SFTP — map a field to a CSV column name and date format for scheduled exports.
• Webhooks — map fields into outbound webhook payloads.

These mappings are attached to the field, which is another reason to reuse a single field rather than create duplicates — your mappings stay in one place and keep working across every form.

Quick Reference

The golden rule: define a field once, reuse it everywhere. Consistent fields mean consistent data, reliable exports, and trustworthy reporting.