1. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions, that when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to implement a customer relationship management (CRM) 15 system configured to perform a method comprising: obtaining input to create a custom entity based upon a parent entity in the CRM system; creating the custom entity in a common table with the parent entity, the creating the custom entity comprising: forming an entity object for the parent entity to be copied; populating the entity object with metadata for the parent entity; and duplicating the entity object for the parent entity to create the custom entity by invoking an inheritance copier function, the inheritance copier function configured to create one or more instances of specific metadata inheritance copiers, and call the one or more instances of specific metadata object inheritance copiers to copy the metadata that is populated in the entity object to corresponding objects for the custom entity; the common table including at least one common data field between the custom entity and the parent entity that is inherited by the custom entity and at least one custom data fields for the custom entity that is not inherited from the parent entity, and the common table defining an object type code for the custom entity to differentiate the custom entity from other entities maintained in the common table; applying business logic associated with the parent entity to the custom entity, the business logic defining a workflow that is configured to automate a set 5 of actions defined for a business process that involves data corresponding to the parent entity; and wherein the inheritance copier function is further configured to call the one or more instances of specific metadata object inheritance copiers by calling the one or more instances of specific metadata object inheritance copiers in a topological order defined for the parent entity to copy the metadata that is populated in the entity object to corresponding objects for the custom entity.