One of the first things we grasp in our Salesforce journey is that it’s a powerful customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides a wide array of tools and functionalities to help businesses manage their connections with customers. At the core of every Salesforce org’s data structure are Objects, which we can think of as “containers” for storing information. They’re the database tables which house your records and their fields.
Objects come in two main types: Standard Objects and Custom Objects. It may seem basic, but having a thorough understanding of the differences and use cases for these two types of objects is crucial for effectively structuring your data model to meet your business’s unique needs.
What Are Standard Objects?
Standard Objects are the default objects that come out of the box with your org. Simply put, they’re predefined by Salesforce and cover a wide range of common business entities and typical business needs. Some of the most commonly used Standard Objects include:
- Accounts: Represents companies and organizations (or even individuals) that are your customers, partners, or competitors.
- Contacts: Represents the actual people associated with Accounts.
- Leads: Represents potential sales, with further details on interactions with customers who have shown interest in your products or services.
- Opportunities: Represents potential sales deals for tracking the sales process at all stages until closure.
- Cases: Used for tracking and managing customer support issues.
- Campaigns: Represents marketing initiatives aimed at generating sales.
Key Features of Standard Objects
- Predefined Structure: Since these objects exist as soon as you get your org, they already have predefined fields and relationships that support a variety of common business processes which will most likely be a basic need for your company as well. Standard objects are automatically seamlessly integrated with core features, like standard report types for example.
- Consistency: Standard objects are widely used and are consistent across different instances, so it’s easier to understand how they work. With Salesforce being community-driven and rich in resources, you can easily find answers and support for any questions related to Standard Objects as many other businesses use them too.
- Maintenance – No worries about updating and maintaining standard objects – these will all be handled by Salesforce to ensure compatibility with existing and upcoming features. This reduces the administrative burden on your team and guarantees that your data structure stays current with release updates and the latest enhancements.
What Are Custom Objects?
Standard Objects do cover a broad range of scenarios, but even so, businesses can often have specific requirements that will not be fully addressed by these predefined objects. This is where Custom Objects steal the spotlight. Custom Objects are user-defined objects that allow organizations to extend standard functionality and tailor their org to meet unique needs.
With Custom Objects, you can create custom fields, relationships, and workflows that support your operational requirements. This enables you to model complex business processes or capture specialized data that are unique to your organization.
Main Advantage of Custom Objects
The biggest advantage of custom objects is their flexibility. Need to reference an entity specific to your business? Creating a Custom Object is the answer. Custom Objects can be further configured to establish custom fields and relationships that capture specific data or reflect real-world connections that your organization needs. Custom apps and page layouts are also easier to create when they revolve mainly around your Custom Objects – there are no predefined required fields and you can choose to display information in a way that’s most relevant to different user roles.
With this level of flexibility and customization also comes scalability. Custom Objects can be scaled to accommodate the growing data needs of an evolving business. You can modify their structure and processes, add new fields, and adjust relationships as your organization’s requirements change or grow over time. Being able to build an object from scratch provides the flexibility to adapt the org to your evolving business, ensuring that everything remains aligned even as the business grows or changes. Even Apex-managed sharing can only be used for Custom Objects.
Standard Objects vs. Custom Objects: When to Use Each?
Evaluate Your Needs
Always know what you need first. Ask relevant questions: Do you need to reference a new entity? Is it something similar to what already exists in your org? Does it need to be related to your other Objects? Before ultimately deciding to create a Custom Object, evaluate whether there’s already a standard object that fulfills your requirements. There are some scenarios where using standard objects can potentially save time and effort as you won’t need to build everything from scratch.
Assess Available Standard Objects
Before committing to creating a Custom Object, it’s crucial to thoroughly review the Standard Objects provided by Salesforce to determine if they can fulfill your requirements. This step helps ensure that you’re maximizing the built-in capabilities of Salesforce to the fullest, saving both time and resources. Here’s how to effectively assess the available Standard Objects:
- Review Object Definitions: Familiarize yourself with the Standard Objects available in Salesforce and their default fields, relationships, and functionality. Salesforce provides extensive documentation and descriptions for these objects here, which can help you understand their purpose. Using a Standard Object, especially when correctly aligned with its original purpose, can prevent potential conflicts with future packages or integrations that might also use that object.
- Match Your Requirements: Align your business requirements with the features of Standard Objects. Check if the predefined fields and relationships in Standard Objects meet your data capture needs and support your business processes. For example, if you need to track sales deals, the Opportunity object might already have the necessary functionalities, which you might just need to add custom fields to.
- See Customization Options: Standard Objects can be customized to some extent, and sometimes this is enough to meet your needs. Salesforce allows you to add custom fields, create custom page layouts, and configure validation rules on Standard Objects. A minor customization of a Standard Object might address your requirements without needing a completely new Custom Object.
- Seek Community and Support Feedback: There’s a benefit to having a supportive community-driven platform. Check Salesforce for resources or ask a question in the community to get feedback on how others have used Standard Objects to meet similar needs. There just might be best practices or solutions that you’ve not considered.
Plan Ahead
When creating Custom Objects, plan the data model carefully to avoid unnecessary complexity and ensure scalability. Standard and Custom Objects have their own pros and cons. When deciding, it’s good to keep the following in mind:
- Standard Objects can’t be deleted (however, you can rename them instead).
- Standard Objects can’t be on the detail side (a child object) of a Custom Object in a master-detail relationship.
- Custom Objects automatically have some standard fields, like Name, Owner, and LastModifiedBy.
- You can have 0 to 3,000 Custom Objects in your org depending on your Salesforce edition. It’s unlikely you’ll reach 3,000, but it’s good to know the limit anyway! This count includes Custom Objects created by you as well as those that come with packages you install from the AppExchange.
- Soft-deleted Custom Objects and their data count against your org’s limits.
Document Your Customizations
Keep documentation of your objects and their relationships to facilitate the maintenance and onboarding of new team members. I know most may skip this step or it’s sometimes overlooked, but taking a bit of time to add descriptions upon the creation of your Custom Object can help in the long run. Descriptions provide context and clarity, making it easier for others to understand the purpose of each Custom Object. While this may not be visible to all end users, it can be incredibly useful for you in the future when you forget the specifics of what you built.
Additionally, it can also be a big help for future admins, developers, or new hires who need to quickly understand what a specific object is for. The Schema Builder can also provide an easy-to-use graphic representation of your org’s data model as a whole, including all objects and relationships between them. When viewing a list of objects, Custom Objects (whether created by an admin or from a package) usually have “__c” appended to their API name. When everything is clearly documented, it’s easier to review and optimize regularly, ensuring your data model and customizations are running smoothly and continue to meet your business needs.
Summary
In Salesforce, the interplay between Standard Objects and Custom Objects forms the backbone of a tailored and efficient CRM system. Understanding the strengths and limitations of each type of object is key to leveraging the platform’s full potential.
By thoughtfully evaluating your business requirements and thoroughly assessing the capabilities of Standard and Custom Objects, you can make informed decisions that balance both simplicity and customization. Mastering this empowers you to build a system that not only meets your present needs but also anticipates tomorrow’s challenges.
What has been your experience with using Standard over Custom Objects in Salesforce? Leave them in the comments below!