How to Create Lookup Field in Salesforce

Quick summary

A Salesforce Lookup field links two objects together, letting you create parent-child relationships between records without duplicating data. This step-by-step walkthrough shows how to create a Lookup Relationship from Advanced Setup through to saving the completed field.

Steps

1. Click the gear icon at the top of your dashboard to open Settings.
2. Select Open Advanced Setup from the dropdown menu.
3. At the top left of the page, click Open Manager.
4. Select the child object that will hold the lookup field.
5. Choose Fields & Relationships from the object's sidebar menu.
6. Click New to start creating a new field.
7. Select Lookup Relationship as the Data Type.
8. Click Next to proceed.
9. Select the parent object you want to link to.
10. Click Next to continue.
11. Configure field details such as the field label and name.
12. Click Next to proceed.
13. Set field-level security permissions, then click Next.
14. Select the page layouts where the field should appear.
15. Click Next to continue.
16. Click Save to finish — your lookup field is now created.