Create and manage custom objects

What are custom objects?Copy link

If your company’s data doesn’t fit within Attio’s standard objects, you can create your own custom objects to suit your business requirements. Custom objects give you the flexibility to adapt Attio to your business’s exact needs.

For help choosing the right objects and understanding how they work with lists and views, see Define your data model: objects, lists, and views.

Things to consider before creating a custom objectCopy link

Before you create a new custom object, it’s important to ensure it is the best option for your data. Consider:

• Does your data fit within one of Attio’s standard objects? If so, consider using the standard object instead. The standard object will include built-in attributes, enrichment data, and features that may not be available with custom objects.

• Do you need to sync emails or send emails to the records? If so, consider using a standard object instead. Emails can only be sent to people records, and you can only sync emails to person and company records.

⁠Here are some examples of use cases that are a good fit for custom objects:

• A SaaS company may want to create a custom object for:

  • Subscriptions, to track data such as subscription type, status, renewal date, and seat count

  • Invoices, to track data such as amounts, due dates, and payment dates

  • Projects, to track project names, descriptions, owners, statuses, and due dates

• A B2B marketplace may want to create custom objects for:

  • Buyers, to track data such as total spend, number of purchases, or peer ratings

  • Sellers, to track data such as total earnings, number of sales, or buyer ratings

  • Transactions, to track data such as date, amount, and product

Create a custom objectCopy link

Workspace admins can create new custom objects from Workspace settings.

1. Click your workspace name in the top-left corner.

2. Select Workspace settings from the dropdown.

3. In the left-hand sidebar, click Objects under Data.

4. Click + New custom object in the top-right corner.

5. Enter the Plural and Singular nouns for your object. For example, if you're creating a Subscriptions object, you would enter "subscriptions" and "subscription". You can update these later in Workspace settings, under the Configuration tab for the object.

6. Next, add an Identifier / Slug. This is the internal name for your object and is also used in the URL. Once set, the identifier cannot be changed. For example, the Companies object uses the identifier companies, which appears in the URL for the Companies page: https://app.attio.com/basepoint/companies/view/

7. When you're done, click Create Object.

Manage custom object attributesCopy link

Once you’ve created your custom object, head over to the Attributes tab to create attributes for the data points you want to track.  Learn more about creating and managing attributes.

You can also customize which attributes are shown when creating a new record for your custom object by creating a record template (available on Pro and Enterprise plans).

The following system attributes are automatically included on all custom objects. These system attributes are built-in by Attio, and the attributes and their values cannot be edited.

Manage record labelsCopy link

To manage how your custom object records are displayed, admins can follow these steps:

1. Click your workspace name in the top-left corner.

2. Select Workspace settings from the dropdown.

3. In the left-hand sidebar, click Objects under Data.

4. Select the object you want to customize, and open the Appearance tab.

This is where you can configure which attributes are used for record labels, including the record image and record text.

Record imageCopy link

If you want records to include an image, use the dropdown under Record image to choose the attribute that will hold the image URLs.

This must be a text type attribute, since it stores URLs pointing to images. Learn more about creating attributes.

The record image appears:

• Next to the record text on the record page

• In the first column of list views

You can create or select a text attribute directly from the dropdown.

Record textCopy link

The Record text is the main identifying attribute shown for each record. This is typically a name attribute, but it could also be something like an ID, email address, or username, for example.

The record text appears:

• In the top left corner of the record page

• In the first column of views

For example, the standard Companies and People objects both use the Name attribute as their record text. This must be a text type attribute. Learn more about creating attributes.

To set this:

1. Click Choose an attribute under Record text.

2. Select an existing text attribute or click + Create new attribute to make one.

Delete a custom objectCopy link

Admins can delete custom objects from Workspace settings.

To delete a custom object:

1. Click your workspace name in the top-left corner.

2. Select Workspace settings from the dropdown.

3. In the left-hand sidebar, click Objects under Data.

4. Select the custom object you want to delete.

5. Go to the Configuration tab.

6. Scroll to the bottom and click the red Delete Object button.

7. To confirm, click Delete Object again.

Make sure you really want to delete the object before confirming. This action cannot be undone.