Most of us prefer to use native Salesforce.com components whenever possible. However, it’s not always possible to get the results we desire with the built-in components and that’s where Salesforce Custom Objects come into play.
Salesforce Custom Objects allow you to extend functionality past the native Salesforce CRM suite (Leads, Accounts, Opportunities, etc). Custom objects are custom database tables that allow you to store information unique to your organization.
Here are a few tips to think about when planning and creating a new Salesforce Custom Object:
- Sometimes, a new section and a few fields on the detail page will meet your requirements, but if you find yourself creating five of the same field (like lookup fields to the same object) because you might need them for some records, then a Salesforce Custom Object might be a better solution.
- Utilize Salesforce Custom Objects when you want to link multiple records to one record or when you need a new data table.
- Master/detail fields will allow for roll-up summary data from your Salesforce Custom Object to the master object.
- You can have two master/detail links per Salesforce Custom Object like a custom object called Time Cards that tracks hours against cases and contracts. Then you can see the total hours on each case as well as the total hours for all cases on the contract.
Read more about Salesforce Custom Objects here.
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