What Is a Cross-Object Formula?

Important Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer implementations.

You can reference fields from objects that are up to 10 relationships away. A cross-object formula is available anywhere formulas are used except when creating default values.

Note If you create a formula that references a field on another object and display that formula in your page layout, users can see the field on the object even if they don’t have access to that object record. For example, if you create a formula field on the Case object that references an account field, and display that formula field in the case page layout, users can see this field even if they don’t have access to the account record.

You can't include an object as the lookup field in a formula. To reference an object, reference the object's ID field or another field on the object. For example, Account.Owner is invalid because it references the object directly. Account.Owner.FirstName or Account.OwnerId are valid references for your formula.

• Building Cross-Object Formulas in the Simple Formula Tab
  To create a cross-object formula when building a formula in the Simple Formula tab, enter the relationship names of the objects to which you are spanning followed by the field you want to reference. Separate the relationship names of each object and the field with periods.
• Build Cross-Object Formulas in the Advanced Formula Tab
  Create a cross-object formula when building a formula in the Advanced Formula tab or for approvals or rules, such as workflow, validation, assignment, auto-response, or escalation rules.
• Tips for Building Cross-Object Formulas
  Keep these tips in mind when working with cross-object formulas.