Project Fields Tab
Database view for project custom fields - user-created field tabs, inline editing, Cost Summary with currency roles, task rollups, relationship connections, and the Field Setup Wizard with project templates.
The Fields tab turns a project into a structured data record. Beyond the built-in fields (name, description, dates, health, progress), you can add any number of custom fields - text, number, currency, date, dropdown, rating, URL, relationship, and more - and work with them in a database-style view. Organise fields into custom tabs, see Cost Summary totals auto-calculated from currency fields with roles, review task rollups aggregated from linked child tasks, and inspect Connections pointing in and out of the project.
The Fields tab appears on the Project Details Page only when Custom Fields is enabled on your license.
Project custom fields are Pro
Every custom-field capability - the 14 field types, field tabs, the database view, rollups, relationship fields, currency roles, Cost Summary, and the Field Setup Wizard - requires Pro. See License Settings.
Reach for fields when built-in project data is not enough
Add custom fields for budget, client details, risks, estimates, links, relationships, or reporting values.
Want to see linked people, companies, or tasks as rows?
Each tab here can pivot to show the contacts, companies, tasks, or projects linked to this one, with one editable row per record. That is the Project Database view - see Project Database.
What you can do
Add custom fields
scoped to projects - 14 field types including text, number, currency, date, dropdown, rating, relationship, and more
Organise fields into tabs
create custom tabs with names and an ordered list of fields
Use a database view
sortable columns, filters, search, pagination, and inline editing
Edit values inline
for checkbox, dropdown, and multi-select fields; open a rich editor for other types
See a Cost Summary
auto-calculated from currency fields with roles (budget, expense, revenue, payment, estimate, value)
See task rollups
non-financial aggregations from child tasks (sum, average, min, max, count)
See Connections
outgoing relationship links from the project and incoming backlinks from other entities
Run the Field Setup Wizard
with project templates and financial presets
Pivot a tab to other records
Hide fields per-project
without deleting them from the Space
Assign fields to tabs
via right-click context menu or drag-reorder
Use the slide panel
to edit every field from one place
Search
across fields by name, type, or description
The Field Tabs system
The Fields tab has its own secondary field tabs at the top - user-created categories that organise your custom fields. The default tab is All (showing every visible field), and you can create additional tabs for specific contexts.
Creating field tabs
Add a new tab with a name, then drag fields into it. Each tab is stored with:
- Name - the display label
- Order - the tab's position relative to other custom tabs
- Show As - what the tab's rows represent (this project by default; see Project Database)
- Fields - an ordered list of fields that belong to the tab
You can rename a tab, set its Show As source, delete it, or drag to reorder it. Open a tab's menu (on the open tab, or by right-clicking any tab) for these actions.
Moving fields between tabs
Fields can be assigned or removed from tabs via the right-click context menu on any field row in the database view. The menu shows every custom tab - click a tab to toggle the field's membership. Fields can belong to multiple tabs.
Within a tab, fields have their own order. Use the context menu's Move Up and Move Down actions to reorder fields inside a tab.
"All" tab
The All tab is always present and shows every visible field on the project. It's not editable or removable - use it as your default working view.
All stays as the complete field view
Custom tabs help you focus, but All remains the place to review every visible project field.
Project field tabs vs Task field zones
Project fields are organised into user-created tabs - you create and name them. Task fields use auto-generated zones (Metrics, Timeline, Categories, Details, Connections) that group fields by their type automatically. See Task Custom Fields.
The database view
The main Fields tab content is a sortable, filterable table - a lightweight database grid for the project's own fields.
Columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Field | The field's name (stays visible when scrolling) |
| Type | The field's type (text, number, currency, date, and so on) |
| Value | The current value - editable in place for simple types, rich display for others |
| Rollup | Aggregated values from relationship fields (sum, average, and so on) |
| Actions | A per-field action menu |
Inline editing
- Checkbox fields toggle directly in the cell
- Dropdown fields open a select menu
- Multi-select fields open a multi-pick menu
Other field types (text, number, currency, date, rating, URL, email, phone, relationship) open the slide panel for full editing when clicked.
Use inline editing for quick updates
Open the field details when you need richer context, relationships, or field definition changes.
Rich display
Some field types render with extra detail instead of raw values:
- Relationship - shows the linked entities
- URL / Email / Phone - a clickable link with a copy action
- Progress - a progress indicator
- Rating - a star display
Filters
Three filter sets are available from the filter menu:
- Type - filter to specific field types; empty means all types
- Value status - All, Has value, or Empty
- Required - All, Required, or Optional
Search
A search box filters the table by field name, field type label, or description. Search is case-insensitive and applies on top of filters.
Pagination
Long field lists paginate. You can configure how many items to show per page - your choice is remembered across sessions.
The right-click context menu
Right-click any field row to get:
- View Details - opens the field's editor and focuses it
- Edit - opens the Custom Field Editor for the field definition
- Move Up / Move Down - reorder within the current tab
- Assign to Tab / Remove from Tab - toggle membership in each of your custom tabs
Summary row
The bottom of the table shows an aggregation summary row for the Value and Rollup columns. Pick an operation - Sum, Average, Min, Max, or Count - and PrimeTask groups by type, so each currency and each number gets its own total.
Cost Summary
Below the database table, a Cost Summary card auto-calculates financial metrics from any currency fields on the project - but only when fields have a role assigned.
Currency roles
Every currency field can have one of six roles:
- Budget - planned spend
- Estimate - estimated cost
- Expense - actual money spent
- Payment - payments made or received
- Revenue - revenue earned
- Value - deal value or contract amount
Roles are assigned when you create or edit a currency field. They tell the Cost Summary how to categorise and aggregate values.
Currency roles drive financial summaries
A currency field needs the right role before it contributes to budget, expense, revenue, payment, estimate, or value totals.
Sections shown when applicable
The Cost Summary automatically shows different tracker sections depending on which roles you've used:
- Budget Health (budget + expense/payment) - Total Budget, Total Spent, Remaining, and Percent Spent.
- Estimate Accuracy (estimate + expense, without budget) - Estimated, Actual, and Variance, labelled under or over budget.
- Pipeline (value + revenue) - Total Value, Revenue, and Outstanding.
- Remaining to Pay (a contract value plus payments collected) - how much of the agreed amount is still outstanding, alongside the share already collected as a percentage. See Project Financial Tracking.
- Financial Summary (derived metrics) - Profit, ROI, Budget Utilisation, Burn Rate, and Budget Runway, shown when the project has enough data.
For the full financial workflow, see Project Financial Tracking.
Auto-hide
The Cost Summary hides itself entirely when no currency fields have values. As soon as you add a currency field and enter a value, the card appears.
Supported currencies
PrimeTask supports 14 currencies including BTC. Each currency field can have its own currency code, so you can track multi-currency projects without conversion issues.
Task Rollups card
A separate Rollups card below the Cost Summary shows aggregated values from linked child tasks - non-financial rollups only (financial rollups merge into the Cost Summary). Typical rollups are the sum of a numeric field across tasks, the average of a rating or progress field, or a count. The card auto-hides when there are no task rollups to display.
For the full relationship and rollup system, see Rollups & Financial Tracking.
Connections zone
The Connections zone shows every relationship link pointing to or from the project. Two sections:
- Outgoing links - relationship fields on the project that link to other entities, with an action to edit the links.
- Incoming backlinks - other entities anywhere in your Space whose relationship fields point at this project.
The zone auto-hides when there are no outgoing links and no backlinks. For relationship fields in depth, see Relationship Fields & Connections.
The slide panel
When you click a field's name or pick "View Details", the slide panel opens. This is where you do the bulk of your value editing.
- Search - filter fields by name, type, or description
- Per-field editors - one input per field type
- Visibility toggle - hide a field for this project without deleting it from the Space
- Hidden section - a collapsible list of fields you've hidden; expand to unhide
- Auto-save - changes save as you go; no Save button
- Add Field to Space - creates a new field definition from inside the panel
Clicking a specific field opens the panel and scrolls straight to it with a highlight, so you don't have to hunt for it.
The Field Setup Wizard
The Field Setup Wizard is a guided flow for adding pre-configured field sets to a project in one pass. Open it from the Fields tab header.
Project templates
| Template | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Project Planning | Timeline, milestones, stakeholders, risks |
| Client Management | Client fields, contract details, deliverables |
| Software Development | Sprint, velocity, bug tracking, release info |
| Marketing | Campaign type, audience, channels, metrics |
| Event Planning | Venue, date, attendees, logistics |
| Consulting | Engagement type, scope, deliverables, rates |
| Construction | Site, phases, permits, contractors |
| OKR | Quarterly objectives, key results |
| Game Development | Genre, platform, milestones, metrics |
Financial presets
Purpose-built packages that set up currency fields with the right roles - and, for the money-flow presets, the relationship and rollup that make project totals update themselves:
- Budgeting - budget + expense
- Freelance - payment tracking for contractors
- Sales - deal value + revenue
- Estimate vs Actual - estimate + expense
- Pay Schedule - a contract value on the project plus an amount-paid field on your customers, wired so what each customer pays rolls up into the project's revenue
- Contractor Costs - a contract cost on the project plus an amount-paid field on your suppliers, wired so spend rolls up as an expense
- Full Financial - all six roles
- Custom - pick exactly which roles you need
The Pay Schedule and Contractor Costs presets pair naturally with a tab pivoted to your contacts or companies - see Project Database.
Smart reuse
The wizard detects existing fields with matching names and reuses or extends them rather than creating duplicates, so running it again on a project that already has some fields is safe.
For the full walkthrough, see Field Setup Wizard.
See linked records as rows
Everything above describes the project's own fields. Each tab can also be pivoted to show the records linked to the project - one editable row per contact, company, task, or linked project - turning the tab into a spreadsheet of those records. Open a tab's menu (on the open tab, or by right-clicking it) and choose Show As to switch its source.
This is the Project Database view, and it has its own article covering row sources, per-record editing, spreadsheet controls, money-flow scenarios, and export: see Project Database.
Things worth knowing
Fields are defined per-Space, visible per-project
Custom fields are defined at the Space level - they appear in every project in that Space that matches their entity scope. Each project can then hide fields it doesn't need without affecting other projects or deleting the definition. For creating and managing fields, see Custom Fields Overview and Category Management Settings.
Changes save automatically
Editing a field value in the database view or the slide panel saves immediately. There's no Save button.
Currency roles drive the Cost Summary
The Cost Summary doesn't appear unless your currency fields have roles assigned. Without roles, currency values show in the database view but don't contribute to derived metrics like Profit, ROI, Remaining to Pay, or Burn Rate.
Burn Rate and Budget Runway need a start date
These two metrics need to know how many days the project has been running. If you haven't set a project start date, they don't calculate. Add one via the Edit Project modal.
Connections propagate both ways
If you set a relationship field on a task pointing to the project, the project's Connections zone shows that task as an incoming backlink automatically. You don't need to create the link from both sides.
Common questions
"I don't see the Fields tab."
The Fields tab requires Pro. Check your license - see License Settings.
"How do I add a new custom field?"
Open Settings → Category Management → Fields to add a field at the Space level, or use Add Field to Space inside the slide panel. Scope the field to Projects (or include Projects in its entity scopes). See Category Management Settings and Custom Fields Overview.
"Can I see each linked contact's own values instead of the project's?"
Yes - pivot a tab with Show As. That's the Project Database view; see Project Database.
"Why doesn't my Cost Summary show up?"
Check three things: you have currency fields on the project, at least one has a role assigned, and it has a value. The Cost Summary auto-hides until all three are true.
"How do I track budget vs actual on this project?"
Add a currency field with the Budget role and another with the Expense role. The Cost Summary's Budget Health section appears with remaining amount and percent spent. See Project Financial Tracking.
"Can I use the same field on multiple projects?"
Yes - fields are defined at the Space level, so every project in the Space that matches the field's scope can use it, with values set independently per project.
"I hid a field by mistake. Can I unhide it?"
Open the slide panel, expand the Hidden section at the bottom, and click to unhide.
"What's the difference between field tabs and field zones?"
Project field tabs (this feature) are user-created - you name them and assign fields to them. Task field zones (on task detail pages) are auto-generated categories that group fields by type automatically. See Task Custom Fields.
Where to go next
| If you want to… | Read this |
|---|---|
| See linked contacts, companies, or tasks as rows | Project Database |
| Understand the full custom fields system | Custom Fields Overview |
| Run the Field Setup Wizard with templates and presets | Field Setup Wizard |
| Track budgets, ROI, Remaining to Pay, and burn rate | Project Financial Tracking |
| Use relationship fields across entities | Relationship Fields & Connections |
| Work with rollups from child tasks | Rollups & Financial Tracking |
| Use custom fields on tasks instead | Task Custom Fields |
| Configure fields from Settings | Category Management Settings |
| Return to the Projects hub | Projects Overview |