What this feature does and when to use it?
The Nested Custom Fields feature allows you to create parent-child relationships between custom fields, ensuring that only relevant field options are displayed based on selections. This helps organize complex data more effectively, improves data accuracy, reduces input errors, and provides a more guided data entry experience for your team.
Use this feature when:
• You want to improve data organization across Candidates, Companies, Contacts, Jobs, or Deals.
• You want to reduce data entry errors by displaying only relevant choices.
• You are managing complex data sets that require multiple levels of field dependencies.
Important Notes
Nested Fields are available for all entities (Candidates, Companies, Contacts, Jobs, and Deals) in the Admin Settings under the respective Custom Fields section.
One Child field can have only one direct Parent field.
Multi-level dependencies are supported up to 5 levels deep, i.e., each parent field can have up to 5 child fields (siblings).
Unlinking a Parent-Child Relationship is possible only if the child field has no dependencies.
Deleting Parent Fields is restricted until all child fields are unlinked.
🔗 How to create Nested Custom Fields
1. Navigate to the Admin Settings.
2. Under 'Data Customization', choose the entity to which you want to add nested custom fields.
3. As usual, create the custom fields that you would like to link/connect by clicking on the '+ New Custom Field'.
Note: Parent Fields support only Checkbox (Yes/No), Dropdown, and Multiselect custom field types, whereas Child Fields support all custom field types.
4. Now, to establish the parent-child relationship between the custom fields created, you need to click on the 'Add' option next to the 'Field Dependency' section.
5. Select the 'Parent field' and the 'Child field' from the dropdown list.
6. Now you can 'Map the Dependency' according to your requirements i.e., you can select the 'Child field' options that need to be shown when a specific option is selected under the 'Parent field' and click on 'Save'.
7. To view the linked fields, you can click on the 'View' option next to the 'Field Dependency' section.
8. You can unlink/edit/add more fields by selecting the respective option under the 'Dependency Actions' column.
9. All the created nested custom fields will be visible under the Additional Information (Custom Fields) section:
Troubleshooting
Problem: Child options are not appearing when a parent value is selected
Problem: Child options are not appearing when a parent value is selected
Likely cause: The dependency mapping between the parent and child options is incomplete or incorrect.
What to check: Open the dependency configuration and verify that each relevant parent option has the correct child options mapped.
Resolution: Update the mappings so that the desired child options are associated with the appropriate parent options, then save and retest.
Problem: Parent field type cannot be selected in dependency setup
Problem: Parent field type cannot be selected in dependency setup
Likely cause: The field type is not supported as a parent.
What to check: Confirm the field type of the intended parent field in the custom field settings.
Resolution: Use only supported parent field types (checkbox, yes/no, drop-down, or multi-select). If needed, recreate the parent field using one of these types.
🤔 FAQs
Why do we need nested custom fields?
Why do we need nested custom fields?
Flat custom fields make data entry disorganized. Nested fields allow logical structuring, reducing errors and improving efficiency.
Can I create dependencies for default fields?
Can I create dependencies for default fields?
No, only custom fields can be used for nested relationships.
Can a child field have multiple parent fields?
Can a child field have multiple parent fields?
No, a child field can have only one parent, but a parent can have multiple child fields.
What happens if I delete a parent field?
What happens if I delete a parent field?
You cannot delete a parent field until all its child fields are unlinked.
What happens if I edit dropdown options in a parent field?
What happens if I edit dropdown options in a parent field?
If an option is already used in a dependency, editing/removal is restricted to prevent breaking the nested structure.
Is there a limit to how many nested levels I can create?
Is there a limit to how many nested levels I can create?
Yes, 5 levels deep per nested relationship and 5 child fields per parent.
Conclusion:
Nested custom fields in Recruit CRM help you control which options and fields appear based on previous selections, making data entry cleaner, more accurate, and easier to manage.