Entity Types

An entity type is a schema that defines a kind of business record. Each entity type belongs to one of the eight super types and has a set of fields organized into groups.

What this page describes is the mechanism. The specific kinds — document types, fields, statuses — are defined for your organization; yours may differ. See the entity system.

Creating an entity type

To create a new entity type, open the Entities section, select the super type folder (for example, Directories), and choose Create type.

Every entity type requires:

Display name

A human-readable name shown throughout the interface. The display name can be changed later.

Machine name

A unique identifier used internally by the system. The machine name must start with a letter and may contain letters, digits, and underscores.

A machine name cannot be changed after the entity type is saved. Choose it carefully.

Machine names must be unique across the entire organization — no two entity types may share the same machine name, and no entity type may use one of the reserved system names (Deal, File, Proposal, Employee, Employee Group, Customer, Contact, Digital Inventory, Printed Inventory, Tag, or Price List).

After entering the name and machine name, add one or more field groups and their fields before saving.

Field groups

Fields on an entity type are organized into groups. Every field belongs to a group.

A group has its own display name and machine name (subject to the same uniqueness and immutability rules as entity type machine names). Groups serve as visual sections when a user views or edits a record of this type.

To add a group, use the Add group action on the entity type’s edit page. Within each group, add fields using the Add field action.

Ordering groups and fields

Groups and fields each have a display order. Use the Edit order action to move groups up or down on the page, or to reorder fields within a group.

The display order determines:

The sequence of sections and fields on the record creation and editing forms.
The column order when fields appear in list views.
The field order in exported schema files.

Adding and editing fields

Each field (called "data type" in the interface) defines one piece of data on the entity type. When adding a field, you choose:

A display name and machine name (same rules as for entity types).
A data type — one of the nine types described in data types.
Optional behavior flags: required (the field must have a value when saving a record) and unique (no two records of this entity type may have the same value for this field).
Type-specific configuration — for example, a date field’s precision (date-only or date and time), a link field’s target entity type, or an expression field’s formula. NOTE: The unique flag is checked against existing data only for entity types belonging to the Document, Counterparty, Directory, Task, Employee Group, or Proposal super types.

Machine name uniqueness

Field machine names follow the same pattern as entity type machine names: they must start with a letter, may contain letters, digits, and underscores, and cannot be changed after creation.

Field machine names are unique per organization across all fields on all entity types — not just within one entity type. If entity type A already has a field with machine name notes, entity type B cannot have a field with the same machine name.

This rule also applies when copying a field. The copy action duplicates the field’s configuration, including its machine name. Before saving, you must change the copied field’s machine name to something unique, or the save will fail.

Editing an existing entity type

Open the entity type from its super type folder and choose Edit. On the edit page you can:

Rename the entity type (display name only — the machine name remains fixed).
Add, edit, or remove field groups.
Add, edit, reorder, or remove fields within groups.
Change a field’s display name, description, required flag, or unique flag.
Change type-specific settings on a field (for example, switching a date field between date-only and date-and-time precision).

Changes take effect when you save the entity type.

Deleting a field

Removing a field from the group editor and saving the entity type permanently deletes that field’s definition. There is no undo and no confirmation beyond the save action itself.

Existing records that had values for the deleted field retain those values in storage, but the values are no longer displayed, validated, or included in exports. The data becomes inaccessible through the interface.

Field deletion through the entity type editor is immediate and permanent. Review the field list carefully before saving, especially when removing fields that may contain data.

Archiving an entity type

Archiving is a soft-disable. An archived entity type:

No longer appears in creation pickers — users cannot create new records of this type.
No longer appears as a target when configuring a new link field.
Retains all existing records — they remain accessible and functional.

To archive an entity type, use the Archive action from the type’s detail or list view. To restore it, use the same action to remove the archive flag.

Deleting an entity type

Deleting permanently removes the entity type and its field definitions. This action is available only for custom entity types defined by the administrator. Built-in system types cannot be deleted.

Data types covers the nine available field types. Nested entities covers repeating-row structures. Field permissions covers per-field access control. Transferring a schema covers moving entity type definitions between organizations.