Collecting Information from Customers (Contact & Appointment Fields)

pickAtime lets you collect custom information from participants at two different points:
When they create an account (Contact Fields)
When they book a specific appointment (Appointment Fields)
Both support various answer types — including text, date, radio buttons, drop-down lists, and checkboxes.
1. Choosing the Right Field Type
 
Contact Fields
Appointment Fields
When it's collected
During initial account sign-up
Every time a slot is booked
Frequency
Once per user
Once per appointment
Best used for
Phone number, address, language preference — info tied to the person
Student name, meeting topic, teacher-specific questions — info tied to the appointment
Location
Global Setup / Contacts / Contact Fields
Settings / Appointment Fields
2. Setting Up a Field
Both field types use the same basic process:
Go to either Global Setup / Contacts or Settings / Appointment Fields, depending on which type you're creating.
Add the field: Type the field name (e.g., "Phone Number") into the Add New box and click Add.
Activate the field: It will appear under Available Fields — select it, then click the 
< button to move it into Included Fields.
Admin visibility: Check "Required for Admins" if you want staff to see/fill out this field when testing the system.
💡 Pro tip: Don't create custom fields for First Name, Last Name, or Email — these are already collected automatically during registration. Adding them again will prompt users to enter the same information twice.
3. Configuring a Question with Multiple Choice Answers
If you want a field to use radio buttons, a drop-down list, or checkboxes, you'll configure it as a "Choice" type field:
In Included Fields, locate the Type column for your question.
Click the cell and select "Choice" from the drop-down.
The Question Editor will open. Click Add New Option to add each possible response.
Choose a display format:
Drop-down list
Radio buttons
Checkboxes
Use the arrows (
<>) to reorder the options as needed.
4. Conditional Logic: Show/Hide Fields Based on Responses
You can make fields appear or disappear dynamically based on how a participant answers a Choice-type question.
Each Included Field is assigned a number, which is used to reference it in the conditional logic.
To enable this: Check "Hide/Show fields based on the user response" on the question you want to control others with.
To configure it: Next to each answer option, enter the field numbers to hide or show when that option is selected:
To hide fields: Enter their numbers directly — e.g., 
3,4,5 or 
3-5
To show specific fields instead: Prefix each number with a 
/ — e.g., 
/5, /6
⚠️ This logic only applies to fields that come after the conditional field in the list — it cannot affect fields earlier in the form.
Example: If a participant selects "Junior" for a given question, you could configure the rule to show only fields 5 and 6 — hiding everything else beyond that point unless explicitly shown.
5. Restricting Date Ranges
For Date-type fields (e.g., Date of Birth), you can restrict the range of dates a participant is allowed to enter.
Why this matters: Schools have reported participants accidentally entering today's date in a DOB field. The Restrict Dates option helps prevent this kind of erroneous entry.
To use it: On a Date-type field (in either Contact Fields or Appointment Fields setup), enable Restrict Dates and define the valid range — e.g., no dates after the year 2000.
6. Viewing the Collected Data
In the Appointments Grid (Admin View): For Appointment Fields, you can view responses immediately without running a report:
Go to the Appointments page.
Click any booked slot.
View the participant's custom field responses in the section below the calendar (left-hand side).
In Reports: To include custom fields as report columns:
Go to the Event Report section.
Click the blue Contact Fields or Appointment Fields link.
Check the box in the upper-right corner of the pop-up to select all fields, or choose specific ones.
Confirm your selection — the fields will now appear as columns in your report.