Create a Custom Entity

Create a Custom Entity

HARi CRM is not limited to contacts, companies, and deals. You can create custom entities to track anything your business needs — products, projects, locations, contracts, support tickets, or anything else.

What is an Entity?

An entity is a type of business record. Each entity has its own fields, forms, views, and permissions. Think of it as a table in a database, but presented as a user-friendly interface with forms, lists, and relationships.

Creating a New Entity

1. Go to Settings > Schema
2. Click the New button at the top of the entities list
3. Fill in the dialog:
   • Name — machine name (lowercase, immutable). Used internally.
   • Label — the singular name users see (e.g. “Product”)
   • Label (plural) — the plural form for list views (e.g. “Products”)
   • Icon — pick an icon for the sidebar
   • Color (hex) — optional accent colour (e.g. #10b981)
   • Module — optional grouping (e.g. inventory)
4. Click Create entity

HARi creates the entity with default system fields (_state, _version, created_by, created_at, updated_at, owner_id) and a default form layout.

Adding Fields

After creating the entity, add the fields you need:

1. Open the new entity from the entities list — the Fields tab is selected by default
2. Click Add field for each piece of data you want to track
3. Configure each field’s label, type, and options

For example, a “Product” entity might need:

• Product Name (Short text)
• SKU (Short text)
• Price (Money (currency))
• Category (Single choice)
• In Stock (Yes / No)
• Description (Long text)

See Add a Custom Field for the full list of field types.

Setting the Display Name

The display name controls how records appear in lookups, links, search results, and relationships. For example, a Contact might display “Sarah Chen” while a Company displays “Acme Ltd”.

1. In the entity header, find the Display name control
2. Either pick a single field (e.g. name) or assemble a Composite display by clicking the fields in order
3. Save

See What is a Display Field? for more details on composite display names.

Setting Up the Form

1. Click the Forms tab
2. Organize your fields into tabs and sections
3. Drag fields to reorder them — put the most important fields first
4. Save the form layout

Creating Relationships

Connect your custom entity to existing entities by adding a field of type Linked record:

1. On the entity’s Fields tab, click Add field
2. Type: Linked record
3. Pick the target entity (e.g. Contact)
4. Save

This creates a two-way link: the source entity shows the linked record, and the target entity gets a subgrid of related records.

Configuring Permissions

By default, only admins can see new entities. To give your team access:

1. Open the entity in Settings > Schema
2. Click the Permissions tab
3. Pick a profile (e.g. “Sales Rep”) and toggle Create / Read / Edit / Delete
4. Save

Setting Up Views

The new entity starts with a default table view at /{entity-name} in the sidebar. Customize it:

1. Navigate to the entity
2. Use the column-settings menu to add, remove, or reorder columns
3. Apply filters, then click Save current view in the view picker to save it for your team

Next Steps

• Add a Custom Field for detailed field configuration
• Setup a Lookup Field to create relationships with other entities
• Customize Form Layout to design the record form