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Rocio VivancoRocio Vivanco 

Looking for best practices to distiguish when to use Record types and when to use separate entities

I am not a Salesforce architect, but I would like to learn from the best practices.
When is appropriate to create record types? when is appropriate to put things under the same entity? in which cases? when is appropriate to put things in separate entities?.

Some say, if objects have many fields in common they should be in a same entity and build record types. Which other cases should lead to think of putting objects/things under the same entity and using record types?.

Which are the best practices?.
Vlad PetrishinVlad Petrishin

Hi!

Record types are used when you want to the same entity in different business cases. They give you ability to choose different page layouts and picklist values for different use cases.

Example:

Let's say, customer wants to use Case object in sales and support processes. Support agent doesn't have to see fields, connected with sales processes (discount etc.). and vice versa. In this case, we can create 2 record types for sales and support processes.

It is always preffered to use record types instead of creating new objects (if such record could be logically united by the same entity).

Hope it will help you

Rocio VivancoRocio Vivanco
Thanks for your answer, one is the theory and one is the practice.
Your example is simple, but how about this case:

I don't know which word exactly to use. For example, you have a "thing" (I name it "thing" as I don't know how else  to call it), this thing represents "Vocational Activity". Another thing represents "Research Work", their meanings could lead you to use different objects, because one thing seems to have nothing to do with the other, they have their own different fields, but also many fields in common or have the same name. Would be a good practice to put these two "things" under a same object, even if they have different meanings or they have different concepts? or in separate objects?.