Optional Fields

Turn on prebuilt fields like inspection dates and earnest money to track the details your team cares about.

Introduction

Every office tracks a couple of things a transaction doesn't show by default. An inspection date. Earnest money. A lockbox code. The transaction has room for all of them already; the fields are just switched off.

Optional fields are Paperless Pipeline's own fields, built and waiting, rather than something your office has to design. They arrive in two groups: date fields for the contract milestones a deal runs on, and a set of detail fields for things like earnest money and year built. Which ones are on is a company-level choice rather than a per-deal one, and that's on purpose. A field that's filled in on some transactions and missing from others is a field nobody trusts in a report.

Turn a field on and it's there, on every transaction, behaving like the fields that came with the product. More of the deal gets captured and your office builds nothing. And if the detail you need genuinely isn't one Pipeline offers, that's not a dead end; custom fields cover what nobody prebuilt.

How It Works

Optional fields come prebuilt, they show up everywhere a transaction detail would, and the date fields can drive your tasks and calendar.

The Two Groups

Optional date fields cover contract milestones — Inspection Due Date, Inspection Date, Loan Approval Due and Date, Appraisal Due and Date, Money Due Date, Money Deposit Date, and Option Period End Date. The other optional fields cover Earnest Money Amount, Year Built, Lockbox Code, Financing Type, and Home Warranty.

What Turning One On Does

Once a field is on, it becomes a permanent, editable field on every transaction. It also shows on coversheets, works as an autofill tag in your documents and messages, and is included in downloaded Transaction Spreadsheet reports.

Date Fields Do More

Any optional date field you turn on can be used as a relative trigger date — so task due dates and scheduled messages can fire a set number of days before or after it — and can be synced to your calendar.

Optional Fields vs. Custom Fields

Optional fields are Pipeline's prebuilt fields that you toggle on. When you need something Pipeline doesn't offer, build your own with Custom Fields instead.

Turn On Optional Transaction Date Fields

To turn on optional transaction date fields:

1. Click the [Gear] in the upper-right corner, then [Admin / Settings].
2. Scroll to the section for Optional Transaction Date Fields / Checklist Trigger Dates.
3. Check the box next to any date fields you'd like to turn on.
4. Save your settings.

Each field you enabled now appears on every transaction and is available as a trigger date for tasks and scheduled messages.

Turn On Other Optional Fields

To turn on other optional fields:

1. Click the [Gear] in the upper-right corner, then [Admin / Settings].
2. Scroll to the section for Other Optional Fields.
3. Check the box next to any fields you'd like to turn on.
4. Save your settings.

The fields you chose now appear on every transaction, on coversheets, and in your spreadsheet reports.

Make One of These Dates Do Something

Switching on Inspection Date gets you somewhere to record it, and nothing else happens on its own. The step that turns a recorded date into a deadline is a separate one, set up once for the whole account rather than deal by deal.

Pick the date a deadline counts from, and Pipeline works the rest out on every transaction — for task due dates and scheduled messages alike.

See Trigger Dates

Optional Fields FAQ

Optional fields are Pipeline's prebuilt fields, split into date fields and other details, and the date fields can trigger tasks. Answers to the common questions about optional vs. custom fields, what's available, and who can fill them in. See Optional Fields FAQ.