Field Groups

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Field Groups let multiple custom fields (or multiple selection options) share a single pool of openings. When you put fields into a group, the group's capacity governs them all together — the individual field opening counts are ignored. This solves a specific problem that comes up often: you have two or more fields that conceptually represent the same thing but need to exist separately, and you want them to share one capacity.

This article walks through when to use field groups, how they work, and how to set them up.

When to use a field group

The most common reason: separate member and non-member pricing for the same session. Say you're running a workshop capped at 100 attendees. You want members to pay $50 and non-members to pay $100. The cleanest way to do this is to make two checkbox fields — "Workshop (Member)" and "Workshop (Non-Member)" — tied to the respective member/non-member packages so each attendee only sees the one that applies to them. But if you set Openings Available to 100 on each field, members get their own 100-seat pool and non-members get a separate 100-seat pool, for a combined 200 seats. That's not what you want.

Putting both fields into a field group with the group's capacity set to 100 fixes this. The two fields now share one 100-seat pool. When 60 members and 40 non-members have registered, the session is full for everyone — no more registrations from either field are accepted.

Other common uses:

Member tier pricing. Same session, different prices for student/professional/retired/sponsor member types. Put all the per-tier fields into one group sharing the session's capacity.
Add-on bundles. A dinner add-on offered as "Member $40," "Non-Member $60," and "Sponsor (comp) $0" with one shared total seat count.
Selection option groups. If your session picker is a Selection field with multiple options (Session A, Session B, Session C), you can group options across different fields to share capacity — for example, "Friday Session 3" appearing in two different selection fields can share one capacity pool.

Fields vs. options

Field groups come in two flavors, chosen when you create the group:

Field groups. The default. Members are entire custom fields. Use these when you have multiple separate fields (e.g. one field per pricing tier) that should share capacity.
Option groups. Members are individual selection options drawn from one or more Selection-type custom fields. Use these when the same session is represented as a selection option in multiple fields, or when you want to group options from a single selection field that should share capacity with each other.

The setting that controls this is the Holds selection options instead of fields checkbox on the group editor. You pick it when creating the group and it can't be changed after members have been added — the editor disables the checkbox once the group has any members.

Setting up a field group

Field groups are managed on their own tab in the event configuration editor. Open the event editor and click the Field Groups tab in the sidebar.

Step 1: Create the fields first

Before you can build a group, the fields (or selection options) you want to group together must already exist on the Custom Fields tab. Create your "Workshop (Member)" and "Workshop (Non-Member)" fields the normal way first, with whatever capacity you want as a fallback (typically the full group capacity or just leave it blank). Then come to Field Groups to wire them together.

Step 2: Add a new group

On the Field Groups tab, click Add New Group. A slide-out editor opens with a small set of settings:

Group Name. Internal label for the group. Attendees never see this name — it's just for you to identify the group in the admin interface. Use something descriptive like "Friday Workshop Capacity" or "Gala Dinner Seats."
Holds selection options instead of fields. Checkbox. Leave unchecked to group entire fields (the default). Check it to group individual selection options instead. See Fields vs. options above. Locked once the group has members.
Openings for Group. The shared capacity. Set this to the total combined capacity you want across all member fields. Leave at 0 for unlimited (which makes the group pointless unless you're just using it for organization).

Click Save to create the group. You'll see the new group appear as a card on the Field Groups list.

Step 3: Add fields (or options) to the group

On the new group's card, click Add Field (or Add Option if it's an option group). A modal opens listing all the fields or options on this event that aren't already in another group. Pick the ones you want to include and save.

Fields appear listed inside their group's card. You can add as many fields as you want to a single group — there's no limit. A given field can only belong to one group at a time.

How shared capacity works during registration

Once a field is part of a group, the registration system stops looking at the field's individual opening count and instead checks the group's count. The system counts up how many attendees across all the group's member fields have selected one of them, and compares that to the group's Openings for Group value.

If the group is full, every field in the group becomes unavailable for new registrations — the system shows "Sold Out" or "Session Full" on each one. Attendees who try to pick any of them get blocked.

If your fields have costs attached, the costs still apply individually. The group only controls capacity, not pricing.

Managing groups

Each group card on the Field Groups tab has action icons:

Edit. Reopens the group editor to change the name or capacity.
Delete. Removes the group. The member fields are not deleted — they're released back to normal behavior, where their individual Openings Available values apply again.
Reorder. Drag the handle on the left to reorder groups in the list. This is purely visual; group order doesn't affect attendees.

Within a group's card, individual fields have a remove icon. Removing a field from the group leaves the field intact — it just goes back to using its own opening count. This is non-destructive; you can remove and re-add fields as needed.

Things to watch out for

The group capacity is the source of truth. Once a field is grouped, its own opening count is ignored. If you want to remove a field from the group later, double-check that its individual opening count is set to the value you want as the fallback.
Groups are per-event. Field groups don't carry over between events. If you copy an event, the groups copy with it (assuming the fields also copied). If you're building a new event manually, you'll need to set the groups up again.
Tied to packages still applies. If a field is tied to specific packages (via the Tie Field to Specific Packages setting on the field editor), the package restriction still controls who can see the field. Field groups don't change package visibility — they only control capacity. The combination of package-tying and field grouping is what makes the "members see only the member field, non-members see only the non-member field, but they share capacity" pattern work.
Existing registrations count. If you add a field group to an event that already has registrations, those existing registrations count toward the group's capacity from the moment you set it up. Set the group capacity with this in mind.

After you pick a type, you can change it later by editing the field, but switching types after attendees have answered can produce unexpected results (e.g. text answers don't fit cleanly into a checkbox). Pick the right type at creation time when you can.

The field editor

The field editor opens as a slide-out panel and is organized into two sections: Field Basics covers what the field looks like and behaves like; Additional Field Options covers session metadata (location, date, time, speaker) and confirmation messaging.

Field Basics

Field Name. The label attendees see next to the field on the registration form.
Instructions. Optional helper text shown directly under the field name. Use it to explain what to enter, link to a policy, or clarify formatting.
Available On Date and Cut-off Date. Optional date window. Available On hides the field until that day; Cut-off stops accepting responses after it.
Cost and Openings Available (for chargeable types). For Numeric, Checkbox, and Selection-with-options fields you can set a cost and an opening count. Cost adds to the attendee's invoice when they pick the field. Openings caps how many total attendees can pick it.
Field Image. Optional image that appears to the left of the field on the registration form. Use for branded session graphics, product shots, or sponsor badges.
Entry Required and Restricted. Required forces an answer before checkout (available for text, selection, and multiline types). Restricted hides the field from the public form so only admins can pick or fill it — see Section: Restricted Fields for Admins.
Attendance Tracking. When your organization has the attendance-tracking feature enabled, you can turn this on to track who actually showed up for this field/session, separate from who registered. When enabled, controls for CEU credit amounts and minimum check-in duration appear below it.
Tie Field to Specific Packages. Check this to make the field appear only when the attendee picks one or more specific packages. Useful for package-specific add-ons or session selections that only apply to certain registration tiers. This is also the easiest way to scope a field by membership without setting permissions on the field directly: tie the field to a members-only package and only members will ever see it, since they're the only ones who can pick that package. Tie it to a guest-only package and only guests will see it. Permissions effectively trickle down from the package to every field that's tied to it — whatever rules gate the package also gate the field.
Use as Radio Buttons (Selection fields only). Renders the field as a list of radio buttons instead of a dropdown. Good for small option lists (3-5 choices) where seeing all options at once is helpful.

Additional Field Options

This section is most useful for fields that represent sessions or scheduled blocks. Everything in here is optional.

Field/Session Location. Where the session takes place — room name, virtual link, venue address.
Field/Session Date, Start Time, End Time, Timezone. When the session happens. Used by the itinerary editor and by the calendar invite system.
Hide Additional Data Fields During Registration. Hides the location, date, and time from attendees on the registration form. The data is still used internally for the itinerary and exports.
Field/Session Speaker and Speaker Bio. Speaker name and rich-text bio. Surfaces on the public itinerary detail page.
Add to Calendar links. When checked, attendees get an "Add to Calendar" link in their confirmation that creates a calendar event for this field. You can override the calendar event's location and description.
Confirmation Verbiage. Rich-text block that appears on the confirmation summary and confirmation email when an attendee picks this field. Use it for "what to bring," parking notes, or post-registration instructions specific to this session.

Selection options

Selection-type fields need a list of options for the attendee to choose from. To manage them, click the Options action icon on the field's row in the Custom Fields list.

The options editor opens as a slide-out panel showing the existing options as cards. Each card can be edited, copied, deleted, or reordered. Use Add Option to create a new one. Each option has its own name, description, cost, capacity, schedule, and even its own confirmation verbiage. Options behave like mini-fields nested under the parent selection field.

This means a single Selection field like "Breakout Session Choice" can have options for each session, each with its own time, location, speaker bio, and capacity limit — without needing a separate field for each session.

Dependent (child) fields

Checkbox fields can have dependent child fields that only appear when the parent box is checked. Use this to ask a follow-up question only when it's relevant:

A checkbox for "I have dietary restrictions" with a child text field for "Please describe."
A checkbox for "I need lodging help" with a child selection field for which night and a child text field for any preferences.

To set up a dependent field, create the parent checkbox first, save it, then create the child field. The child field's options will include a "depends on" setting that points at the parent. Dependent fields appear in the list nested under their parent, with visual indentation and a marker, so you can see the relationship at a glance.

Tip: Take the in-app tour

The field editor has a guided tour. Click the play icon labeled "Take a Tour" in the panel header at the top to walk through every section. Press Esc to exit.

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