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nandac Updating a formula field using a workflow
Hi,
I working on a billing application where I have bill custom object that contains a balance custom field.
I want to set the balance custom field to the total amount on the bill on save when the bill is created. Should this be done through a trigger or a formula field?
i also need to update the balance field whenever a payment is made, and would like to know if a formula field can be updated, through a workflow where a payment is made against a bill?
If there are better ways to do this please let me know.
Cheers
Generally speaking, if you want a value that is going to show the latest value every time you view the record, and you don't want the field to be editable, you'll want a formula field. If you want the update only to occur under certain circumstances -- like when you're creating the record -- or you want the field to be editable after, you'll want a workflow rule field update.
I think you can use a formula field on your billing object for Balance, and also create a roll-up summary field -- say it's called Payments Applied -- that sums the amounts of each child payment amount. Then your Balance field formula would be Amount__c - Payments_Applied__c. The Payments Applied field doesn't need to be on the detail page.
All Answers
Hi there,
I don think you can update/write to a formual field.
Thanks
Prady
HI Nandac
1. I want to set the balance custom field to the total amount on the bill on save when the bill is created. Should this be done through a trigger or a formula field?
- Use formula field
2. i also need to update the balance field whenever a payment is made, and would like to know if a formula field can be updated, through a workflow where a payment is made against a bill?
- You don't need to update the formula field because the formula field will automatically calculates and updates itself.
Ex: Formula total field = field1+field2+field3
2 1 + 0 + 1
-----------------------------------------------------------
5 1 + 5 + 1
if field2 is updated with value 5 then automatically the total formula field will be updated with the new value 7.
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Regards,
Madhan Raja M
Thank you for your reply.
Your reply would work if I was updating the field always based on the same field. This is not what is happening in my case. I want to set the balance of the bill to the total amount initially when the bill is created. In this case the formula field does the job.
However, when I make payments on the bill I want the balance to reduce by the amount paid on the payment. The payments are tracked by another custom object which has a master-detail relationship with the bill.
So my problem is I have a field that needs to be updated but cannot because it is a formula field. If the field is not a formula field I cannot set it to the total amount on the bill initially.
I believe there must be alternatives but may be I am just looking at this the wrong way.
I would appreciate any pointers.
Cheers.
Create a Balance custom field to capture the Balance amount.
Formula:
Total Amount (Formula field) = field1__c+field2__c+field3__c-Balance__c
Regards,
Madhan Raja M
Generally speaking, if you want a value that is going to show the latest value every time you view the record, and you don't want the field to be editable, you'll want a formula field. If you want the update only to occur under certain circumstances -- like when you're creating the record -- or you want the field to be editable after, you'll want a workflow rule field update.
I think you can use a formula field on your billing object for Balance, and also create a roll-up summary field -- say it's called Payments Applied -- that sums the amounts of each child payment amount. Then your Balance field formula would be Amount__c - Payments_Applied__c. The Payments Applied field doesn't need to be on the detail page.
Thank you for your reply.
I ended up implementing this using a workflow as per your post after some experimentation.
Cheers