Who is this article for?

Users building or configuring Workflow definitions.

Workflow Administration permissions are required.

Each custom field can only be added to a workflow definition once, but there are two approaches for working with fields across multiple steps or capturing repeated data.

Showing the same field at multiple steps

Once a custom field has been added to a workflow, you control whether it appears at each step using the View and Edit toggles on that step's field settings. This means one field can be visible at some steps and hidden at others — without needing to add it more than once.

Example: A Sample Result field is added to a workflow once. It is set to View only at the Review step (so the reviewer can see the value but not change it) and to View and Edit at the Entry step (so the analyst can fill it in). The same field — and the same data — appears at both steps without being added twice.

Capturing the same type of data more than once

If you need to collect the same kind of information multiple times within one workflow instance — for example, recording temperatures at three separate points — you need to create a separate custom field for each entry. Each field has a distinct name and is added to the workflow individually.

Example: A workflow needs three temperature readings. Three separate fields are created — Temperature 1, Temperature 2, and Temperature 3 — and each is added to the workflow independently. All three appear on the same step, giving the user three distinct fields to fill in.

Note: The same rule applies to subforms. A custom field can only be added to a subform once. If you need the same type of data in multiple columns of a subform, create additional custom fields with distinct names and add each one to the subform separately.

Tip: If the number of repetitions varies per instance — for example, a variable number of test samples — consider using a subform instead of multiple fixed fields. A subform lets users add as many rows as needed at runtime, rather than requiring a fixed set of fields to be defined at design time.