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This guide covers institution-level setup at deandesk.com. See Institutions & Schools for how these levels relate.

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Video walkthrough

This walkthrough uses the real DeanDesk interface with the fictional Northstar Academy demo school and a calm, AI-generated English voice. Payments and outside services are not connected in the demo.
Screenshots use fictional Northstar demo data. Payment and integration screens illustrate the demo setup; no live transactions or connections are shown. Open Settings → Metadata. These custom fields belong to institution Identities. School User fields are configured in Profile Form Settings; membership fields are configured in Memberships → Configuration.

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Add a field

1

Name the field

In New metadata field, enter a unique Field Name, such as department, and a readable Field Label, such as Department.
2

Choose its format

Choose a Field Type: text, textarea, number, date, boolean, select, or multiselect. For select and multiselect, enter the allowed values in Options (comma separated), which appears after you choose one of those types.
3

Set behavior

Set Order and an optional Description. Enable Required if the field must be completed. Enable Public (editable by identity) if the Identity should be able to edit it; this label does not mean the value becomes a public directory listing.
4

Save and verify

Click Add field. Check its label, type, options, and Required/Public badges under Current schema, then inspect an Identity’s metadata fields.
Northstar demo: Metadata

Northstar demo — Metadata

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Review and remove fields

The current schema is displayed in order, with a total field count. Use Delete to remove a field from the schema. Check how staff use a field before removing it, especially if it supports search or recordkeeping. This screen provides field creation and deletion. It is not the school metadata section editor, which also groups and drags fields into sections.