Salesforce: Getting Started with Objects related to Salesforce Product

Product is not new features in Salesforce, it has been there for long time and widely used. I see many companies using Sales Cloud, but not use Product. In this blog, I would like to introduce how Product work in Salesforce, from the basic.

1. You can rename it
Some company do not like it called as Product, because not suit to the business terms for the company. As admin or consultant, you can rename it as Service, or Opportunity Line.

• Go to Setup - Customize - Tab Names and Labels - Rename Tabs and Labels
• Looks for Products and click Edit link prior to it.
• You need to enter Singular and Plural name, in this blog, I'll use Opportunity Line

• Click Save to finish, or Next if you would like to change field label related to Product, by default all "Product" field labels has been rename to "Opportunity Line" for Standard and Other field related to Product.

This will change all label in Salesforce user interface from Product to Opportunity Line, from: Related List name, Tab name, Report Type name, Field name in report, and etc, except the one related with API name and not visible by end user directly, such as: Workflow, Validation Rule, and so on.

Sample of the change happened in related list in Opportunity page layout.

Before:

After:

2. Product is a special object

• It is not the same with other standard object or custom object, Product is linked to Opportunity and Quote through Price Book.
• Each Product added into Opportunity in an object called Opportunity Product, so this object would be a junction object. For Product added into Quote called Quote Line Items.
• You can create roll-up summary field from Opportunity Product to Opportunity, and from Quote Line Items to Quote.

3. Product Object

• The API name is called as Product2, with object prefix 01t, 
• To directly access Products tab from Salesforce user interface, go to https://na3.salesforce.com/01t ; change na3 to your Salesforce instance. 

4. Price Book Object

• You can have multiple price books in Salesforce, each price book may contain different Product and can have different List Price.

Example: a product available in EMEA price book may not available in APAC price book, but available in AMER price book. However, the List Price for AMER price book can be different with EMEA price book.

• The API name is Pricebook2, with object prefix 01s
• User with read access to Product and Price Book, user can access Price Book from Price Books tab or directly go to https://na3.salesforce.com/01s ; change na3 to your Salesforce instance. 
• Each Opportunity or Quote only link to single Price Book. 
• If there is only a single price book is active, or the user only has Use permission to a one price book, then that price book is automatically selected when user adding products to Quote or Opportunity.
• If user has Use access to more than one active price book, user must manually select a Price Book prior to adding products to Opportunity or Quote.
• If user has Use access to more than one active price book, user able to change selected Price Book for the Opportunity or Quote, but all Products added will be removed.

Reference:

• Product2
• Pricebook2
• Product and Schedule Objects