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How To Enhance Your Reporting With Custom Field Data

Mitchell Ivany Updated by Mitchell Ivany

Read Time: 4 mins

Custom Fields let you store unique data on different items in your Sonar instance—but pulling that data together can be tricky. Instead of opening each account to see what’s been entered, you can use Sonar’s Business Intelligence Reporting to build a custom report that displays the values stored in Custom Fields for a selected entity.

Before you build this report, make sure you’re familiar with the reporting dashboard and that your user profile has a Report License assigned.

Creating the Report

To get started, go to the Reports dashboard and click Create Report.

In the creation window, enter a report name and choose a report category.

Pick a clear name—other users will see it if you publish the report.

For this example, we’ll create a report named “Custom Field test” in the Accounts category.

To access Custom Field Data endpoints, the report category must be Accounts. The Financial category uses a different set of endpoints.

Configuring the Dashboard

After you create the report, you’ll land on its dashboard. This is where you choose which data shows in the report.

  1. Click Edit Dashboard.
  2. When the edit bar appears, click Add → Visualization.
  3. In the Explore window, pick the explore group that fits your report. For this example, choose Accounts.
This walkthrough focuses only on Custom Field tiles. For general report-building help, see How to Create a Report - Sonar’s Business Intelligence.

Custom Field data tables (Accounts)

Within Accounts, you’ll see several options for Custom Field reporting:

  1. CustomFieldData: This is the default Custom Field Data data table. Pulls basic Custom Field details (value, field ID, type, created date, last updated).
  2. CustomFieldData > CustomFields: Pulls details about the Custom Field itself (name, required status, and more).
  3. CustomFieldDataX (X being a number 1 through 5): Similar to CustomFieldData, but includes a built-in filter so you can run multiple Custom Field queries side by side in one table.
When extracting data from custom fields, Boolean Custom Fields display as 1 (Yes) or 0 (No), not “Yes/No.”

Example 1: report using only CustomFieldData

In this example, we’ll build a table using two data tables:

  1. Accounts (to show the account ID and account name).
  2. CustomFieldData (to show values stored in Custom Fields), filtered to only include accounts where a Custom Field has a value.

This report will return every account and every Custom Field that has data. That can work for smaller setups, but as you add more accounts and Custom Fields, the results get crowded—especially when all values land in one column.

You can add the Custom Field Name from CustomFieldData > CustomFields, but large datasets can still be hard to filter and compare. That’s where CustomFieldData1–CustomFieldData5 are useful.

Example 2: report using CustomFieldData1–CustomFieldData5

In this example, we’ll build a new tile using multiple numbered CustomFieldData tables. Each one uses the Custom Field ID Input (filter-only) field to pull a specific Custom Field, and you can rename each column to match the Custom Field it represents.

The filter-only field requires the Custom Field ID. Grab the IDs first from Settings → Misc → Custom Fields, or via the GraphQL API.

The result is a table that shows all accounts alongside separate columns for each Custom Field value. While this example focuses on Account Custom Fields, the same approach works for other entities that support Custom Fields (like Addresses or Jobs).

Renaming column headers is optional, but it makes the report much easier to read—especially for users who aren’t familiar with the data tables.

While CustomFieldData1–CustomFieldData5 make it easier to view multiple Custom Fields as separate columns, that layout also makes filtering harder. Because each Custom Field value lives in its own column, there isn’t a single “has Custom Field data” field you can reliably filter on to remove accounts with no values. If you need to exclude accounts with no Custom Field data, export the report and apply the filter in your preferred spreadsheet tool.

This column-by-column setup makes it easier to report on specific business metrics, like ad performance, referrals, and customer health scores.

Filters in reporting don’t just choose which data to show—they also control which rows are returned. For example, if you filter by a Custom Field ID, the report will only return rows where that Custom Field exists, which can hide accounts that don’t have a value set.

Most users expect to add a Custom Field like Sales Agent as a column and still see all accounts—even ones with a blank Sales Agent.

That’s why the filter-only input field exists: it lets you pick the Custom Field you want to display without filtering out accounts that don’t have a value.

How did we do?

Enhanced Business Intelligence - Tips & Tricks for Advanced Users

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