SF-Admin Object Manager and Lightning App Builder Practice Question
An administrator is configuring a custom object called 'Project' and has created a lookup relationship from Project to Account. The administrator now wants to create a formula field on Project that displays the Account's Billing City. Which statement describes what the administrator must do to make this work?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is reversing the direction of the relationship and assuming the formula belongs on the parent Account or that a roll-up can pull parent data, when cross-object formulas always traverse child to parent.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create the formula field on Project and reference the Account's Billing City through the lookup relationship using the syntax Account.BillingCity.
Cross-object formula fields allow a child record to display values from a parent record reached through a lookup or master-detail relationship. On Project, the administrator creates a formula field and references the Account lookup, producing syntax such as Account.BillingCity. Because the formula reads the parent live, it always reflects the current Billing City without automation or stored copies, making it the correct declarative solution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create the formula field on Project and reference the Account's Billing City through the lookup relationship using the syntax Account.BillingCity.
Why this is correct
Cross-object formulas can traverse a lookup or master-detail relationship from the child to the parent. On the Project object, the administrator can create a formula field and insert the Account lookup field, which renders as Account.BillingCity, pulling the parent's Billing City value onto the child. This is the standard declarative approach and requires no code.
- ✗
Create a roll-up summary field on Project that sums the Account's Billing City values.
Why it's wrong here
Roll-up summary fields aggregate child records on a master-detail parent and can only perform COUNT, SUM, MIN, and MAX on numeric or certain field types. Billing City is a text field, and Account is the parent of Project, not a child, so a roll-up cannot retrieve it. This approach is structurally and functionally impossible for the stated requirement.
- ✗
Create the formula field on Account and reference the Project's related list to display Billing City.
Why it's wrong here
Formula fields cannot reference related lists or child records. Creating the formula on Account would only allow upward traversal to Account's own parents, not downward to Project children, and Billing City already exists on Account. The requirement is to display Account data on the Project record, so the formula must live on Project, not Account.
- ✗
Create a text field on Project and populate it with a Flow that copies Billing City each time the Account changes.
Why it's wrong here
A Flow could copy the value, but it would require automation to run on Account changes and would store a static copy that becomes stale if the Account's Billing City is later edited without triggering the flow. This is a workaround, not the declarative formula solution, and it introduces data synchronization risk that the formula approach avoids entirely.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Salesforce exam blueprint
This SF-Admin practice question is part of Courseiva's free Salesforce certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SF-Admin exam.