A Rating field scores a record on a short scale, shown as stars or another symbol. Think of the row of stars under a product review.

Here is the test: is the answer a quick score on a fixed scale, picked by eye? If yes, you want a Rating field. For a number people type, use a Number field. For a score the whole team votes on, use a Vote field.

Example: a Vendors table with a field called Vendor Performance. After each quarterly review the vendor manager gives the vendor one to five stars. A formula flags any vendor at two stars or fewer for a contract review.

The Vendor Performance field in a vendor record, with four of five stars filled in amber and the tooltip showing 4.

The field settings panel opens. It has three tabs: Settings, Defaults and Help Text. There is no AI Field Agent tab. The rest of this article takes them in that order. Save at any point with Add Field (or Update Field on a field that already exists) and come back to the other tabs later. If you leave the panel another way, a prompt asks whether to Exit without Saving or Save Changes.

The field settings panel, Settings tab, with the Scale dropdown, the Display Format sample, Color, Include Rating labels and the Require an entry switch.

The Settings tab holds the symbol, the scale, the color, the labels and one rule. Top to bottom: Display Format, Color, Include Rating labels and Options.

Two controls share this section. A small dropdown at the right of the title sets the Scale, the highest score a record can get. It reads Scale : 5 by default. The main dropdown shows a sample with two of five symbols filled and picks the symbol:

Vendor Performance keeps Stars on a scale of 5. Five steps is enough for a quarterly review, and everyone already knows what four stars means.

The Display Format dropdown open, with the seven symbols and their samples.

Twenty swatches in two rows. The color applies to the selected symbols; unselected symbols stay gray. The default is amber.

Off to start. Turn it on and two boxes appear, Lowest Rating and Highest Rating, prefilled with "low" and "high". The preview shows the labels under the two ends of the scale. Vendor Performance uses "Replace" and "Exemplary", so one star and five stars mean the same thing to every reviewer.

Include Rating labels switched on, with Replace and Exemplary in the boxes and shown under the ends of the preview.

One switch, off to start.

Require an entry in this field. On, the field shows a REQUIRED label and a record cannot be saved until a rating is set. Leave it off for Vendor Performance, because a new vendor has not been reviewed yet.

Default Value shows the scale's symbols in gray, with the labels when they are on. Select a symbol to set the score every new record starts with.

Vendor Performance has no default. An unrated vendor should look unrated, not average.

A note for the person filling in the record, up to 800 characters. Help Text Appearance shows it As A Tooltip (the default, behind an info icon next to the field name) or Below The Field Name (always visible).

Write it for someone who has never seen the field. For Vendor Performance: "Score from the quarterly review. One star means replace; five means exemplary. Two or fewer triggers a contract review."

Field Permissions. Every field can carry its own permissions, which control who can see the field and who can edit it. Open the column menu and select Edit Field Permissions. Let vendor managers edit Vendor Performance while everyone else reads it. See Field Permissions.

Dynamic Record Permissions. A Rating field can also drive record-level rules: who can see or edit a record based on the value it holds. Every field type except Button can drive a rule. See Dynamic Record Permissions.

In a record, the field is a row of gray symbols. Hover over one and a tooltip shows its number; select it and the symbols fill up to that point in the field's color. You can also type the number. In Grid View, select the cell once to select it, then select a symbol to set the score. To clear a rating, select the symbol of the current score and press Delete, or type 0. Half ratings are not possible: a value of 3.5 is stored as 4.

The operators are is equal to, is not equal to, is greater than, is less than, is equal or greater than, is equal or less than, is empty and is not empty. A view of the vendors whose Vendor Performance is equal or less than 2 is the contract review list.

Group by this Field puts one group per score. Group vendors by Vendor Performance and the one-star group is the list to act on first.

Sort 1 → 9 or 9 → 1 from the column menu. The sort follows the score, as a Number field sorts by value. Sort 1 → 9 puts the lowest-rated vendors first.

A Rollup field can average the rating across linked records: Average on Vendor Performance gives a vendor group's mean score. See Rollup Field.

A formula reads the rating as a number. Put this formula in a field called Review Flag:

Ratings can be combined too. An interview score can add two ratings and multiply by a third, as the Hiring template does. See Formula Field.

An Update records or Create a record action can write the field. It can set a score, or add, subtract, multiply or divide the current one. See Automation Actions explained.

A Rating field can be placed on a form. See Form View.

Change a rating. Open the record or select the grid cell, then select the symbol for the new score.

Clear a rating. Select the symbol of the current score, then press Delete or type 0.

Change the symbol or color. Open Modify Field Settings, pick another Display Format or Color, then Update Field. The stored scores do not change; only how they show.

Change the scale. Pick another Scale and select Update Field. Raising it keeps every score. Lowering it caps the scores above the new maximum, as the Note under Display Format explains.

Change the field type. The dropdown at the top of the panel turns a Rating field into Text, Text Area, SmartDoc or Number only. See Changing a Field's Type.

Delete the field. Open the column menu and select Delete Field. The scores go with it. Deleted fields sit in the Recycle Bin for 30 days.

Last verified 30 Oct 2026.