What is Record Type in Salesforce?

In this blog, we are going to discuss What is a Record Type in Salesforce? and why we need a Record Type in salesforce.

A record type in Salesforce allows you to have different business processes, picklist values, and page layouts for different users based on your profile.

Or you might want to create a record type to limit access to certain contacts and/or accounts to specific employees based on profile type.

By using Salesforce’s powerful profiles feature, you can easily set up multiple profiles that reflect the way your organization works and then assign those profiles to specific users or groups in Salesforce.

Related Article: Salesforce Organization – What it is and How it Works?

What is a Record Type in Salesforce?

The best way to understand what record types are and why you would want to use them in Salesforce is to first understand the different types of users that will be interacting with your records.

For example, you might have sales users who need access to all picklist values, contacts, opportunities, and custom objects and service users who only need records related to their service deals, such as accounts, contacts, opportunities, and custom objects.

By creating record types in Salesforce, you can create two different profiles that differentiate between these two different types of users.

Related Article: Salesforce Workbench: A Comprehensive Guide

Why are Record Types Important?

Record types are useful for businesses that need to run different processes and provide different user types with different choices.

These differences can affect not only what you see but also what your users are allowed to see and do within Salesforce.

For example, if you have a record type called Account Executive that has specific account-level permissions, then any user with that profile will be able to access those permissions.

If they don’t have that record type assigned to their profile, they won’t be able to access those permissions.

Related Article: What is Salesforce Testing? – Guide on Testing Salesforce

When should I use Record Type in Salesforce?

When you have multiple business processes, picklist values, and page layouts for different users based on profile.

This can also be used to create similar but separate instances of an object with different data elements and business rules.

One approach is to make an additional field for differentiating between two different record types.

A picklist might contain two values for regular deals and two values for professional services.

For example, if you are creating a new account record type, it would contain all of the fields needed to create an account (name, address, etc.) plus any additional fields that are unique to that particular type (e.g., Professional Services or Rental Property).

This way when a user creates an account they will see only those fields applicable to their situation leaving out unnecessary fields and helping them complete their task more quickly.

How to Create Record Types in Salesforce?

There are many ways to create record types in Salesforce, and you can do it from your Administrator account.

• You can create record types by logging into your Administrator account, clicking Setup, and then selecting Create.
• You’ll be directed to a page where you can either build an entirely new record type or edit an existing one.
• Enter your name for the title of your record type and click Save, You will see a list of all standard fields that come with Salesforce.
• Select which fields you want to include on your record type and drag them over to the right-hand side column labeled Add Field To New Record Type.
• When you are finished adding fields, click Save again.

Now that you have created your record type, it will appear as an option when creating new records within Salesforce.

Your newly created record type will also be available when editing existing records.

Note: If you change your mind about including a field on your record type after saving, hover over it and select Remove From Record Type from its dropdown menu. This will remove it from both new and edited records.

What Is If/Then Logic? (Activate/Deactivate)

You can also use if/then logic to conditionally change your page layouts or field mapping based on certain criteria.

For example, you may want different picklist values for your accounts and contacts depending on what industry they’re in.

Or, you might want different business processes depending on whether an account is new or existing.

With if/then logic, it’s easy to activate one record type when another record type is deactivated (or vice versa).

Here are some examples of how you might use these tools: Activate Account Record Type When Contact Record Type Is Deactivated: This will allow your users to add account records only when contact records are not available.

Audit Trail in Salesforce

Audit Trail allows you to see who has done what on any record, whether it be editing, viewing, or even just opening.

Audit Trail can come in handy when determining which of your users should have access to what information.

For example, you might allow salespeople to make edits on their own leads but restrict that same privilege to only certain admins for other records.

To enable Audit Trail, go to Setup and then select Security Controls > View All Audit Data.

If you don’t see View All Audit Data under Security Controls, contact your system administrator.

Page Layouts in Salesforce

If you have different types of users, then you’ll need to account for their specific needs, You can do that by setting up different page layouts.

For example, if you have multiple salespeople on your team and each one manages his or her own accounts differently, then it might make sense to create separate page layouts for each salesperson.

Each user would then pick their page layout when logging into Salesforce and navigate accordingly.

This way, users don’t get confused about which tasks they should be completed at any given time.

It also allows you to segment data so that everyone sees only what they need to see, for example, two reps could share an account but still see only their own deals and leads from that account within Salesforce.

Related Article: What is a Salesforce Sandbox? – Comprehensive Guide

Creating page Layouts

Page layouts are another way to use record types to customize your layout for different users.

For example, if you have project managers that need certain fields on each of their opportunities and professional services sales reps that don’t, you can create separate page layouts for them.

One can change the appearance of an object in the Objects panel, For example, creating a customized account layout with lightning

1. Click the Setup tab and find the Object Manager and select Account.
2. Then Click on Page Layouts and for creation click New,
3. Simply drag and drop the fields (and buttons) onto the layout and save the page layout.

Custom Settings in Salesforce

By setting custom settings for record types, you can have different page layouts, picklist values, and business processes for different users.

You can create record types to differentiate your customers based on their profiles. For example, you might have one record type for regular sales deals with standard page layouts and picklist values.

But if a prospect with similar needs wants to sign an engagement contract instead of a sales contract, you could then create another record type for professional services clients and offer different page layouts, picklist values, and business processes.

Related Article: What is Sharing Rules in Salesforce?

Custom Actions in Salesforce

You can add custom actions to your record types, allowing you to customize how users interact with data.

You could add a save button on Opportunity records, for example, or create new fields and actions for Case records.

It’s best practice to limit these customizations only to what your business needs, The more creative you get with your record types.

However, the more difficult it will be for users familiar with other record types to work with them.

Conclusion

A record type organizes your records and offers different processes, picklist values, and page layouts.

You can use them to differentiate between regular sales deals and professional services engagements.

Record Type in Salesforce allows you to have different business processes, picklist values, and page layouts for different users based on profile.

The Salesforce record type feature allows you to create different business processes, picklist values, and page layouts for different users based on profile.

Related Article: Salesforce Trailhead – A New Way to Learn Salesforce