Custom Fields for Students, Teachers and Enquiries

Every centre eventually needs to record something the software did not plan for. A music academy wants the instrument each child plays. A martial arts school needs belt grade. A coaching centre wants the school and board a student comes from. A tuition centre running a Saturday sports batch needs allergy notes and an emergency contact.

Most owners solve this with a side spreadsheet or a notes column that nobody reads. Then the spreadsheet drifts out of date, the teacher cannot see it, and the information is missing exactly when you need it. Custom fields put those extra details on the student, teacher or enquiry record itself.

What a custom field is

A custom field is an extra question you define once, in Settings, that then appears on every record of that type. TuitionDesk supports three record types:

Record type	Example custom fields
Student	Allergy notes, school name, belt grade, instrument, T-shirt size, board (CBSE/ICSE/State)
Teacher	Highest qualification, subjects taught, languages spoken, certificate number
Enquiry	Preferred class timing, how did you hear about us, current school, target exam

Each field has a name, a type and an optional "required" switch. The five field types are:

Text for free notes such as allergies.
Number for things like previous marks.
Date for an exam date or a belt test date.
Yes/No for a simple tick, such as "has own laptop".
Dropdown for a fixed set of choices you list, such as "How did you hear about us: Instagram, Friend, Flyer, Google".

Names are limited to 100 characters, and two fields of the same record type cannot share a name.

How to set them up

Sign in as the owner and open Settings → Custom Fields.
Pick the tab: Student, Teacher or Enquiry.
Add a field: give it a name, choose a type, add dropdown options if needed and decide whether it is required.
Drag to reorder so the most important field sits first.

Only the owner can create, rename, reorder or delete field definitions. Owners and teachers can fill in the values on records they can open.

Start with the two or three details you currently chase on WhatsApp or paper. A short, well-used set of fields beats a long form nobody completes.

Where the values show up

Once defined, a field is part of the normal workflow rather than a separate screen:

Student form and profile. The fields appear when you add or edit a student, and again on the student's profile.
Student list. In list view you can switch custom fields on as extra columns, and TuitionDesk remembers your choice for your centre on that browser.
Admissions. Enquiry fields appear when you add an enquiry and on the enquiry detail panel, so the counsellor sees them while following up.
Your website form and API. Enquiry fields can be filled from your own website form or the enquiry API. Send them in a custom_fields object keyed by field id. The Lead Capture Guide inside the app shows the exact embed code and a curl example with your own field ids.
Data export. Custom field definitions and values are part of the full data export, so they travel with your records.

If a field is marked required, the in-app forms ask for it before saving, and the public enquiry endpoints reject a submission that leaves it empty. That is useful for a field like "Preferred class timing", and annoying for a field that only applies to some parents, so keep "required" for details you cannot work without.

A worked example: a music academy

Say you run a small music academy with 60 students. You would define:

Record	Field	Type	Required
Student	Instrument	Dropdown (Keyboard, Guitar, Violin, Vocals)	Yes
Student	Grade / exam level	Dropdown	No
Student	Allergy or health note	Text	No
Enquiry	Preferred class timing	Dropdown	Yes
Enquiry	How did you hear about us	Dropdown	No
Teacher	Instruments taught	Text	No

Your website enquiry form now captures preferred timing and lead source automatically. The counsellor sees both on the enquiry. When the child joins, instrument becomes a column in the student list, so a quick scan tells you who plays what before you plan next month's batches.

Limits by plan

Custom fields are not on the Free plan. The in-app limits per plan are:

Plan	Custom fields
Free	Not available
Starter	3
Growth	8
Pro	20
Enterprise	Unlimited

These caps apply to your centre, so decide which details deserve a slot. Enquiry fields are used through the admissions CRM, which is available on paid plans; see the pricing page for the current plan details before you decide.

What custom fields are not

To keep expectations honest:

They are plain data fields. They do not trigger automations by themselves, for example a dropdown value will not send a message.
They are not a replacement for built-in features. Fees, attendance, batches and parent contacts already have their own screens, so do not recreate them as custom fields.
Existing records start blank. Adding a new required field does not retroactively fill old students, so plan a short clean-up if you need the data on everyone.

Tips for a clean student database

Use dropdowns over text wherever the answers repeat. "CBSE", "Cbse" and "cbse board" are three different values in a text field and one in a dropdown.
Name fields the way staff say them. "Allergy notes" is clearer than "Medical remarks (if any)".
Import first, then fill. If you are moving from a spreadsheet, bring in the core student list with the Excel student import, then add custom fields for the extra columns.
Review once a term. Delete fields nobody uses so the forms stay short.

Related guides

Keep the details where your team can use them

A student's allergy note or a lead's preferred timing is only useful if the person who needs it can see it at the right moment. Custom fields keep that detail on the record, not in a spreadsheet.

Create your free TuitionDesk account to set up your centre, then see the pricing page to pick the plan that includes the number of custom fields you need.