Creating custom fields can be confusing when users are not familiar with what kind of fields would best fit their needs. This article will explain the most common field types and provide examples of when they should be used and why.

When picking a field type, be sure to look over the options carefully as it is not easy to change field types once data has been entered into those fields.

First let's take a look at the options salesforce provides us when creating a new custom field. Notice that each field type has a brief description of what each field does/ what the use case is for that field.

Below are some of the most common field types that often require additional explanation before choosing:

Formula fields are read-only fields that are instantly updated as the values within the formula change.

An example of this would be if you wanted to calculate the the net commission based on gross commission and house fee. Once you type in a value within the "Gross Commission" and "House Fee" fields, the net commission would automatically populate.

Another way a formula could be useful is to pull data from one place to another. For example, You want the property's "Building SF" field to show up on a comp record. You would create a formula field on the comp record that would pull the value from the property's "Building SF" field.

Want to learn more about creating formulas: Intro to Formula Fields

Look-Up fields are used to link one record to another in some way. This type of field also creates a related list on the object the field is referencing.

This type of field is useful when you want to keep Associate and reference other records within a certain object

An example of this is the Property Owner (Contact) and Property Owner (Company) fields. These fields indicate who the owner is on the property record, while also creating a related list on the company and contact record to show what properties they each own.

Another example would be the "Deal" and "Property" fields on the Comp record.

A Picklist field, commonly called a "Dropdown" field, is often desirable due to its preset list of values. Having set values makes it easier for brokers to fill in the fields without additional work and keeps responses uniform.

This type of field is the easiest field type to filter by due to its preset values and one value selection.

Users can take picklists one step further by creating field dependencies. A common example of picklists field dependencies is market and submarket. Once a user chooses a market, a set list of submarket values will populate according to the market value selected.

Multi-Picklists are great when a user would like to select more than one response. Think of these fields as you "All of the above" or "Choose all that apply" responses when taking a test.

This field type is commonly used for categorizing. For example, a company owns properties of several types. A user would like to know what property types this company works within so they can provide better marketing materials. They would create a multi-picklist of all the property types: Industrial, Hospitality, Office, Land, Retail, etc. and choose all that apply for the company. They can then filter this via a list view and create lists that narrow down to their desired audience.

Another common use for this field type would be to create "Tags" for marketing campaigns, lists, clubs their in, etc.

NOTE: Most of the other field type options listed above are exactly as they seem so we will not spend time discussing a use-case for those. If you have additional questions regarding field types feel free to reach out to Support: rethinkcrm@buildout.com