Another day, another Salesforce quirk.

While coaching a client today, I noticed something that had not caught my attention before. When building a report and choosing a report type, Salesforce is inconsistent with the data model.

Sometimes a top-down approach is used. That is, a parent object with child objects. Examples are:

  • Campaigns with Opportunities
  • Orders with Products

Other times there is a bottom-up approach. Examples are:

  • Activities with Accounts
  • Email Recipients with Email

And sometimes there is both:

  • Opportunities with Products
  • Products with Opportunities

Note that when you create a custom report type, it’s always top-down.

The takeaway
Consistency is not one of Salesforce’s strong suits.

Category:
Salesforce