How does Custom Field work in Salesforce?
Salesforce offers over 20 custom field types, including Text, Number, Currency, Date, Picklist, Multi-Select Picklist, Lookup, Formula, Roll-Up Summary, and Encrypted Text. Each custom field has an API name ending in __c and can be configured with a help text, default value, and field-level security settings that control visibility per profile or permission set. Fields can be made required at the field level, through page layouts, or via validation rules for conditional enforcement.
Formula fields compute values in real time from other fields on the same or related objects and consume no storage but count toward the compiled formula character limit. Roll-Up Summary fields aggregate child records on master-detail relationships (SUM, COUNT, MIN, MAX). Understanding field type implications (such as picklist vs. text for reporting, or lookup vs. master-detail for cascade delete behavior) is essential for a clean data model. Clientell AI can audit your org's field usage, identify unused fields, and recommend cleanup strategies.