Salesforce Objects, Records, and Fields Explained

Before you can work confidently in Salesforce, you need to understand three foundational terms: Objects, Records, and Fields. These three ideas form the backbone of every piece of data stored in Salesforce. Once you grasp them, everything else — from building reports to writing code — makes much more sense.

The Library Analogy

Imagine a public library:

  • The library has different sections — Fiction, Science, History. These are like Objects.
  • Each section has individual books. Each book is like a Record.
  • Each book has a label with title, author, year, and ISBN. These details are like Fields.
  OBJECT = Account (Section in the library)
      |
      +--> RECORD = "Acme Corp" (One specific book)
                  |
                  +--> FIELD: Name = "Acme Corp"
                  +--> FIELD: Industry = "Manufacturing"
                  +--> FIELD: Phone = "+91-11-1234-5678"
                  +--> FIELD: Annual Revenue = 5,000,000

What Is an Object?

An Object in Salesforce is a table that stores a specific type of data. Think of it as a category or a folder. Salesforce comes with many built-in objects, and administrators can create custom ones.

Standard Objects

Salesforce ships with pre-built objects called Standard Objects. The most common ones are:

  • Account — a company or organization you do business with
  • Contact — an individual person at a company
  • Lead — a potential customer who has not yet been qualified
  • Opportunity — a potential sale or deal in progress
  • Case — a customer support request or complaint
  • Campaign — a marketing effort like an email blast or a trade show
  • Task — a to-do item assigned to someone
  • Event — a meeting or call with a date and time

Custom Objects

When a business needs to store data that does not fit a standard object, an administrator creates a Custom Object. A real estate company might create a "Property" object. A hospital might create a "Patient Visit" object. Custom objects work exactly like standard objects — they store records and have fields.

What Is a Record?

A Record is one individual entry inside an object. If the Account object is a filing cabinet, then each record is one folder inside it — representing one specific company.

Examples of records:

  • The Account record for "Tata Consultancy Services"
  • The Contact record for "Priya Sharma" at TCS
  • The Opportunity record for a "Cloud Migration Project" worth ₹20 lakh

Every record has a unique ID that Salesforce generates automatically. This ID is 18 characters long and looks like: 001Hs00000XaBC1IAN. Developers use this ID to reference specific records in code and integrations.

What Is a Field?

A Field is one piece of information stored on a record. Fields are the individual columns inside the table. A Contact record might have fields for:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email
  • Phone
  • Title (job title)
  • Department

Field Data Types

Every field has a data type that controls what kind of information it holds. Here are the most important types:

Field TypeWhat It StoresExample
TextAny words or charactersCompany Name
NumberNumeric valuesNumber of Employees
CurrencyMoney valuesAnnual Revenue
DateA calendar dateClose Date of a Deal
Date/TimeDate plus a specific timeMeeting Start Time
PicklistA drop-down list of optionsIndustry, Status
CheckboxTrue or FalseIs Active Customer?
LookupA link to another recordAccount Name on a Contact
FormulaA calculated valueDiscount % from price fields
Text Area (Long)Long blocks of textDescription, Notes

How Objects Relate to Each Other

Objects in Salesforce connect to each other through Relationships. The two most common types are:

Lookup Relationship

A Lookup is a loose connection between two objects. A Contact has a Lookup to an Account — the Contact can exist without an Account, but it can also be linked to one. Deleting the Account does not delete the Contact.

Master-Detail Relationship

A Master-Detail is a tight parent-child connection. If the parent record (master) is deleted, all child records (detail) are deleted too. Opportunity Line Items have a Master-Detail relationship with Opportunities — if you delete the Opportunity, all line items disappear with it.

  LOOKUP (loose):           MASTER-DETAIL (tight):
  Contact ---o Account      Opportunity Line Item ---* Opportunity
  (Contact survives         (Line Item deleted when
   if Account deleted)       Opportunity deleted)

Object API Names

Every object and field in Salesforce has two names: a Label (what users see) and an API Name (what developers use in code). Standard object API names are simple: Account, Contact, Opportunity. Custom object API names always end with __c: for example, Property__c or Patient_Visit__c. Custom fields also use __c: Annual_Bonus__c.

Key Points

  • An Object is a table (like Account or Contact) that categorizes a type of data.
  • A Record is one row inside an object — one specific company, person, or deal.
  • A Field is one piece of information on a record — name, phone, revenue, and so on.
  • Standard objects are built into Salesforce; custom objects end with __c.
  • Objects connect through Lookup (loose) or Master-Detail (tight parent-child) relationships.
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