Admins can customize People and Companies so your team captures the right relationship details. Use contact types to classify relationships, custom fields to track business-specific information, and required fields to keep records complete.
Before you start
You need admin access to change contact types and fields. Go to Settings > Customization, then use Contact Types or Fields On Records.
Go to Fields On Records to review and organize fields for each record type.
Customize contact types
Copper includes Potential Customer, Current Customer, and Other by default. Keep Potential Customer and Current Customer so you can distinguish prospects from customers.
Create additional contact types for relationships your team needs to manage, such as Lead, Vendor, or Partner. If your team has a clear set of relationship categories, avoid relying on Other as a catchall bucket.
Add specific contact types, such as Lead, Vendors, and Partners.
Add custom fields
Go to Settings > Customization > Fields On Records, then select People or Companies. Click Create Field and choose the field type that matches the information you want to track.
Common options include dropdowns for Industry, date fields for important milestones, or text fields for notes like Next Step. Create fields only for information your team will use for filtering, reporting, or follow-up.
Create fields on People or Companies using the field type that matches the data.
Organize fields into sections
Use Add Section to group related fields. For example, create a Contact Information section and move Emails, Phones, Websites, Social Media Accounts, and Address into it.
Sections make records easier to scan, especially as you add more custom fields. Drag fields to reorder them or move them into a section.
Use sections to group contact details and keep records easier to scan.
Require key fields
Use Record Creation Rules to make important fields required when a teammate creates a record. Consider requiring:
Email, because Copper uses email address to help prevent duplicate people records.
Owner, so every relationship has someone responsible for follow-up.
Company, so people are connected to the right organization.
You can also use Record Edit Rules to control whether fields are editable after creation.
Set required fields so key information is completed when records are created.
Best practices
Keep Potential Customer and Current Customer as core contact types.
Add contact types for important non-customer relationships, such as vendors or partners.
Avoid using Other when you can create a more specific category.
Use dropdown fields when you need consistent filtering and reporting.
Use sections to keep longer records easy to read.
Require Email, Owner, and Company when clean data is important to your workflow.