You can get lots of benefits of Record Types in Salesforce but if you do not implement it correctly, then they can create some complexities for users and admins. In short, Record Type enables admins to display specific custom & standard fields, and picklist values for end-users based on the type of record to be created. You can control all Record Related Lists which should be displayed for every type of record. For instance, if you have two different types of Forms/Applications that your students applied, like an Application1 and an Application2 and each Application has to display different data requirements or fields, you should create two Record Types (Application1, Application2) – where you only show Questions that apply to the Application1 on the Application1 Record Type.
When you create a Record Type, you can assign the same Record Type in a Page Layout and display your desired fields. Then you can apply the page Layout to the Profiles of Users that will be accessing it.
When should we create a Record Type?
- We should create Record Types when they need to be easily distinguished by an end-user. For example, creating a Record Type on an Account called Real Estate that displays many fields related to Real Estate company, and another Record Type called IT Industry that displays many fields related to IT company, are good to distinguish. In this scenario, users can easily identify that what Record Type to select while creating an Account.
- We can create Record Types when there is a need to create different Page Layouts, Buttons, Custom Links etc. (on any Objects) based on different requirements. For instance, if any user needs access to only some required fields based on the Record Type, then the user can access different layouts for different Record Type.
- You can use Record Types and Page Layouts combinations to display different Page Layout and Record Type to different sets of profile users. For Example, you can assign two separate page layouts to two different Record Types – one for Real Estate and another for IT Industry if you don’t need to display Developer related fields to your Real Estate.
Note:- Just remember that you not having a field on Page Layout does not prevent it from being available in Reports.
When should we not create a Record Type?
- If a user is creating the record without understanding what Record Type to select. For example, if you have a Record Type called Partner and another called Customer. What Record Type should a user select when they need to add a Partner who is also a Customer?
- I have seen many scenarios where the Record Type is used as Type field. There was no need for a Record Type. For a user, this is an unnecessary step that they could avoid.
- When you are only creating a Record Type to display different page layouts to different sets of users. This can easily be done by creating different Page Layouts and assigning them to different Profiles. There is no need to create a Record Type for this.