A User Defined Field is a section of the BrightMove Application that the individual user creates and customizes. It is visible to other users at your workplace. When you create a User Defined Field, you are actually adding a section to one of the Profile pages. You may add to the Candidate, Client/Department, Manager, Department/Location, or Job profile as well as Placement and Reference Check details.

UDF's are helpful when you need to keep track of specific information that your company is interested in. For example, it may be helpful to know if nurses have a certain certification. A field could be created asking if the Candidate has that certification and the information would be captured in the Candidate Profile. Another example may be when Account representatives want to keep track of anniversary dates and the names of favorite sports teams associated with their Clients.

A section is the highest level for a UDF. There can be multiple questions in a section. This name is seen in BrightMove as the name of the tab on the specific profile. A section can be assigned to multiple different entities. Any questions in the section will then be assigned to each of those entities.

A field is the middle level for a UDF. These are the questions or statements that will appear on the entity profiles.

An option is the lowest level for a UDF. This will only appear when you have the field type Select Drop Down. This is where you create options for your drop-down.

Let's use the two examples we provided: It may be helpful to know if nurses have a certain certification and keep track of anniversary dates and the names of favorite sports teams associated with Managers.

Section: Certification

Field: What type of certification do you have?, Select Drop Down

Option: ENP, FNP, CPN, etc.

On the Candidate Profile:

Section: Fun Facts

Field: Favorite Football Team, Text

Option: none

On the Manager Profile:

Each User Defined Field (UDF) has a Field Key that acts as its unique identifier. This key is automatically generated based on the field key and entity type (e.g., applicant, manager, job).

You can view the field key on the View Section page under the Field Key column. If the field is enabled for multiple entities, you’ll see a separate key for each one.

Example:
​If your UDF field key is called “Favorite Football Team” and it's enabled for Applicant, Job, and Placement, you’ll see:

What is the Field Key used for?

Field keys are used to reference UDF values in places where you want data to be automatically inserted — such as offer letter templates.

To use a field key in a document:

This tells the system to replace the placeholder with the actual data stored in the UDF for the selected applicant, job, or placement when generating the document.

Note: Only UDFs for Applicant, Job, and Placement entities are supported in offer letters.