Cross Object Formulas Have Changed the Game
If you haven’t already done so, make sure you get deep into Cross Object Formulas. They have fundamentally changed how we think and work with Salesforce.Com configurations. A Cross Object Formula is a Formula field that can traverse object relationships and pull down data into an object.
Take the following example. Let’s say you are using the Opportunities object to track Inbound Grants. Let’s say that you have a Payments object that has a Master/Detail relationship with Opportunities (Payments is the Detail).
You can setup the following Cross Object Formulas in the Payment object to reference elements from the Opportunity and Account.
Payment Made By (Account) = Opportunities__r.Account.Name
Payment For (Opp) = Opportunities__r.Name
The beauty of the Cross Object formulas is that it lifts many of the constraints we previously faced with Salesforce. We can now:
- Create more complex reports including more objects than we could in the past
- Avoid writing Apex for something as silly as replicating a parent or lookup field
- Ease data entry and report building for the end user by making data more accessible
There are some limitations to be aware of:
- Limit of 5 cross object relationships per object
- You can reference up (from detail to master) or sideways (lookup), however, for references from parent to child, you still need to use Summary Roll Ups.
If you haven’t already used these, you should definitely check them out as they can solve many common problems you may have faced in the past.
If you have any interesting use cases for cross object formulas, please post them in the comments.
Cross object formulas can enhance the value of List Views. Lists are great because you can have list buttons that do great things with the data, they show up in the console, and you can use them in the mass email wizard. The main limitation of List Views is that you can only look at one object at a time. Cross object formulas allow you to look at more than one object, giving you some query flexibility in List Views. They aren’t as flexible as Reports, but cross-object formulas have made them much more powerful!