Business Rules

Note Decision tables are also available as part of Business Rules Engine. If your org has Business Rules Engine enabled, see Decision Tables for Business Rules Engine.

Important If a rule doesn't have values for specific input fields, the decision table ignores the blank fields when evaluating a value. The decision table then can provide multiple outcomes. An outcome results when the specified values match with a rule based on the input fields condition of the decision table. Outcomes result when rules that don't have values for one or more input fields and the values of the remaining input fields match based on the input fields condition.

Note You can't use these standard objects as the source for your rules:

• Account
• Contact
• Lead
• Opportunity
• Case

Example A company has three business rules. The first rule is that a product that's categorized as a shoe and is priced at US$500 or less is discounted by 5%. The second rule is that shoes priced between US$500 and US$1,500 are discounted by 10%. The third rule is that all products up to US$2,000 are discounted by 8%. The custom object that contains the rules is named Product Discount Rules. The object contains four fields: Category, Lowest Price Point, Highest Price Point, and Discount. The object contains three rules, each containing the details of one rule.

The first record contains these values:

• Category: Shoe
• Lowest Price Point: US$0
• Highest Price Point: US$500
• Discount: 5%

The second record contains these values:

• Category: Shoe
• Lowest Price Point: US$501
• Highest Price Point: US$1,500
• Discount: 10%

The third record contains these values:

• Category: —
• Lowest Price Point: US$0
• Highest Price Point: US$2,000
• Discount: 8%

Category, Lowest Price Point, and Highest Price Point are inputs in the decision table and Discount is the output. A shoe worth US$400 is evaluated by the decision table. It checks the rules and provides 5% as the outcome because the shoe matches the first rule. When the decision table evaluates another shoe priced at US$750, it provides two outcomes: 10% and 8% because the product matches the second and third rules. It matches the third rule because an input field (Category) in the rule doesn't have a value, and the shoe isn't evaluated against that input field. So, based on the price alone, the shoe also matches the third rule.