Best Practices: Record Property Names

This topic reviews recommended standards for naming the properties in your records that are held in Ironclad Repository.

Best Practices for Naming Record Properties

1. All keywords are capitalized. Do not capitalize propositions like “with” “to” “for”
   • I.e. “Termination for Convenience”; “Agreement Date”
   • Do not do: “Termination for convenience” or “Agreement date” or “counterparty name”
2. Utilize symbols where it makes sense. these symbols are removed from Workflow Attribute IDs and Record Property IDs, so it may cause confusion to use symbols if you are building integrations.
   • Use % instead of “Percent”
   • Use “&” or “+” instead of “and”
   • Use monetary symbols like $ instead of “Dollars”
   • Use “/” instead of “or” where it makes sense.
3. Try to find a balance between a short property name and being clear what it names.
   • For instance “Convenience Termination” is more confusing than “Termination for Convenience” because that is a known phrase, so in that case, longer is better.
   • But “Includes DPA” makes as much sense as “Does this include a DPA” but is much shorter.
   • NOTE: There’s often 2 Termination for Convenience properties. We recommend including the name of the party that can terminate, e.g. “Counterparty Termination for Convenience” and “[Company Name] Termination for Convenience”
4. Confirm spelling - if in English, confirm if American English or British English and ensure properties are spelled to match.
5. If there are multiple dates in a contract to differentiate, specify in as few words as possible: “Agreement Date” and “MSA Agreement Date”
6. For Yes/No questions you can structure them in multiple ways
   • “Termination for Convenience”
   • “Termination for Convenience?”
   • “If Termination for Convenience” (If can also be replaced with “Whether” in some cases)
   • Which ever one is used - just ensure you remain consistent throughout the company’s instance.
   • NOTE: Check that the responses will always be Yes/No before creating a boolean property. 
7. In order to avoid creating duplicate record properties it is best to use the Record Storage functionality in the edit page of the property. New properties you create will merge into a Record Property that already exists. Checking the dropdown for “Property display name” that already exists can help avoid issues in the future and maintain your Repository data cleanliness.
8. You need to choose which Ironclad Record Properties will be pushed to which Salesforce properties (nested under the top-level Object), how they will be converted (if applicable), and which property will be the key for the search (e.g. “match Salesforce Account by searching for Salesforce Account ID”.).
9. Check what is already in your repository by looking at the searchable WFD record properties list when you create a property in Workflow Designer.
10. If you need to create multiple record properties with different property types, it is best practice to give each record property a unique name. For example: Total Contract Value (Property Type: Currency), Contract Value Description (Property Type: Text)
11. For Number Property Types, it is helpful to include a unit description in the name, e.g. “Term (Months)”

Common Property Names

Record Property Resources

• Customizing Form Properties in Workflow Designer
• Understanding Property Types
• Related Records in Workflow Designer
• Searchable Workflow Designer Record Properties
• Salesforce integration informing property names
  • Recommended Properties for Record Sync
  • Leveraging Record Sync

Best Practices for Naming Record Types

1. Confirm to ensure all record types align with their internal company verbiage.
2. Confirm whether you want to use abbreviations versus full name: i.e. “MSA” vs. “Master Services Agreement” and make sure you follow those guidelines for all record types. Do not have one type be “MSA” and the other be “Statement of Work”. Confirm this before creating.
3. All keywords are capitalized. Do not capitalize propositions like “with” “to” “for”
4. Currently Ironclad does not have the ability for one record to have multiple record types. In these cases you may want to combine them or choose one - “Master Services Agreement & Statement of Work” or “MSA & SOW” or just “MSA”. You could also design a separate record property that captures the Contract Type. For example, you may use Vendor Contract as the Record Type and MSA or SOW as the Contract Type
5. Do not use “Other” as a record type. Instead use a slightly more specific term like “Corporate Document” or create the record type.
6. Do not create a new record type if a similar one is already created.

Common Record Type Names