---
title: "Records, fields, and search"
section: "Using Your App"
canonical_url: "https://support.buildwithhq.com/end-user/records-and-data.html"
reviewed_at: "2026-09-14"
authority: Official
---

# Records, fields, and search

Find, view, and edit information — and why some fields behave differently.

## In brief

- **Audience:** End users
- **Time:** 5 min
- **Related:** Protected fields

Your application organizes information as records — customers, jobs, orders, whatever your organization tracks. Search finds records across everything you're allowed to see.

Records don't live in isolation — they link to each other across every module, and those connections are visible from both ends. See [How everything connects](how-everything-connects.html).

## Why you might not see something

What you can see and edit follows the permissions your administrator set. Two people can search the same word and get different results; that's the permission model working, not a bug.

## Protected fields

Some fields are protected: their values show as hidden until you explicitly choose to reveal them, and **they don't appear in search results**. These fields hold sensitive information your organization has chosen to encrypt. If you can't find a record by a value you know it contains, that value may be in a protected field — search by something else.

## Approvals on records

Some processes pause a record for approval. While a record is waiting on someone's sign-off, editing is locked; it unlocks the moment the decision is made.

---

Capability review: 2026-09-14. [View the canonical guide](https://support.buildwithhq.com/end-user/records-and-data.html).