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Manage Choice Lists

Last update: June 29, 2025

Corey Wilson

Technical Writer

Choice Lists help simplify the customization of your Servis.ai account by allowing you to create reusable sets of options. Once a Choice List is created, it can be applied across multiple Apps to standardize fields and save time.

For example:

Create a Choice List with the 50 U.S. states.
Use that list to add a “State” field in both your Contacts and Organizations Apps.

User Permissions: Only the Administrators can use this feature.

Navigate to Choice Lists

Go to Settings > Advanced > Choice Lists.

Create a Choice List

To create a Choice List, click the ‘Add Choice List’ button.

1. Name

On the Creation window, the first thing you need to do is give your Choice List a Name.

2. Order Type

When setting up a Choice List, you’ll need to select how the items should be ordered. There are two available options:

Alphabetical
This automatically sorts your choices from A to Z. In the List View, clicking the column header will sort items alphabetically; a second click will reverse the order (Z to A).
Order
This maintains the order in which items were added or pasted, including bulk entries. Each item is assigned an order number based on creation sequence.

You can update the order at any time by clicking the ‘Reorder’ button and using the drag & drop interface. The selected order type also affects how sorting behaves in the List View.

3. Allow Ad-Hoc Creation

Next, decide whether to enable “Allow Ad-hoc Creation.”

If enabled: Team members can add new Choices directly from the form, expanding the list as needed.
If disabled: Users will only see and select from the predefined Choices in the list.

Use this setting to control whether your Choice List remains fixed or can grow dynamically through user input.

Note: Please note that the ‘Allow Ad-hoc Creation’ option is only available when the ‘Order Type’ is set to Alphabetical.

4. Parent Choice List

You only need to make a selection here if the choice list you’re creating is meant to be a child list attached to a parent. See Create Child Choice List on how to do this.

5. App

Select the application you would like to use your choice list within.

Now let’s create our choices. There are two different creation methods:

Create Choices One at a Time

To create a short list or add more items to an existing one, simply click the ‘Add’ button. In the pop-up window, enter the name of your new choice and click ‘Save’ to confirm.

Create Choices in Bulk

For first-time setup, the ‘Add Bulk’ option is recommended, as it lets you create multiple choices at once. Click ‘Add Bulk’ to begin.

You can type your choices directly or paste them from another source, such as an Excel sheet. When you’re done, click ‘Save’—all choices will be added instantly.

Delete/Deactivate Choices in Bulk

You can Delete or Deactivate Choices in bulk. In a Choice List’s detail page, click the box in the left hand side of the Choice’s Options Menu and the Delete and Deactivate buttons will illuminate, allowing to perform the desired action on all selected Choice.

Unique Values

When adding a choice you’ll notice a field called “Unique Value”. This value exists to make it easier to reference choice list options in custom code.

For example: If you have a Choice List field named “Sales Stage” and one of your choices you wanted to reference was “In Development” your code might look like this:

[
  {
    field_name: 'sales_stage',
    operator: 'includes',
    values: ['in_development']
  }
]

Add Color to Your Choice List

When creating or editing options in your list you can assign a color to each choice. This can make it much easier to differentiate between all of the various sales stages at a glance.

Here’s an example from the Opportunities app with colors assigned to each stage.

Create a Child Choice List

To set up a Choice List for a Dependent Choice List field:

Name your listand choose how it will be sorted:
- Order
- Alphabetical
Enable ad-hoc creation if you want team members to add new choices directly from the form. Just set the Allow Ad-hoc Creation option to Yes.
Link it to a parent list by selecting the relevant Parent Choice List. This allows the new list to function as a sub-choice—for example, selecting a subindustry based on the chosen industry within the same form.

Once your Choice List is set up, it’s time to create sub-choices for each main option:

Click ‘Add New’ to open the creation window.
Enter the name of the sub-choice.
Optionally, add a value if your integration requires a specific ID or label.
Choose an icon and color if needed.
From the dropdown, select the parent choice this sub-choice belongs to. This list is automatically filled based on the parent Choice List you selected earlier.
Click ‘Save’ and repeat the steps for all required sub-choices.

Edit Choice Lists

After your Choice List has been created you can easily make changes to it.

Select the Edit pencil icon on the left hand side of the List.

Remember to save changes when you are done.

Note: Please note that the ‘Allow Ad-hoc Creation’ option is only available when the ‘Order Type’ is set to Alphabetical.

Delete Choice Lists

If you created a Choice List and decide not to use it, you have the option to delete them. Select the Choice List options menu and select ‘Delete’.

You also have the option of deleting individual choices from your list. Edit your choice list and then select the menu next to the individual value you want to delete.

If the Choice List is being used by any records in the app you’ll get a pop-up asking you to assign a different value to the records that are using the value you’re deleting.