[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 10

 

Path 10: Keep your Org Healthy and Updated

In Part 10 of my series on Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, I think it’s important to discuss how to keep your org healthy and updated. It’s so easy to become bogged down in the day-to-day shuffle, as you’re hustling to finish projects on time, and deliver great customer service to your internal users, however, I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping your Org in top shape as those hours turn into months or years. Salesforce does a great job of providing resources to utilize so you’re more familiar with org limits and general health, but it’s really up to you to make use of that information.

Because of the breadth of Salesforce, I’m going to go over just two features that you can use as an Admin to check in on the state of things, but that can help you in staying aware and planning on the next steps you’ll need to take moving forward to keep your org healthy.

Health Check

In Setup > Quick Find, you can find the Health Check with a simple search. This feature shows you how well your org compares to expected Salesforce security standards. You can find more information on each of your risks, and identify which are high, medium, or low risks. It also shows you areas where you are compliant, so you can see the progress you’ve made as you work through what needs to be addressed.

Image: Health Check of your Org

This is a great tool to utilize a few times a year so that you can plan out the updates you need to make and prioritize time for making critical changes for the sake of the org, versus enhancements that are “nice to have”. When this is paired with the next tool, you’re sure to rest easy with feeling empowered to make the necessary changes for your org to function like it should.

Release Updates

Release Updates is new, as of Summer ‘20, but encompasses the older “Critical Updates” section you may have seen in the past. I have to say, this is much better! It’s easy to become overwhelmed with release notes and trying to figure out which updates and enhancements are great for your org. Now, you can do a quick Setup > Quick Find search for “Release Updates” and see it all laid out, with no 500+ pages of reading necessary!

Image: Release updates let you know what needs to be done now!

This is great for letting you know what is past due, due soon, or overdue and helps you break down the changes into actionable steps, with links to appropriate documentation, as well. It also tells you why this particular update is necessary, so you can better prioritize which changes really need to be made first. The archived tab contains enhancements that may have been baked into newer releases or are no longer applicable. Either way, this saves you time and can help you plan for emergencies that need to be addressed immediately.

Well, that wraps up my 10 part series of my Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward! I hope you have learned some great information along the way, and feel more empowered to tackle that next big goal you’ve set for your upcoming weeks, months or year. You absolutely can be an amazing Salesforce Admin, and I’m honored to have been a part of your journey! 

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 9

Part 9: Become a Master of Chatter

In Part 9 of my series on Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, I want to talk about a useful tool that can often be overlooked,even by advanced Admins and companies that have had Salesforce for a while. That awesome tool is called Chatter! 

Chatter is a messenger tool utilized within Salesforce so your end users can better communicate without leaving the platform. Want to leave a note for your manager on a record that can send them an email, notifying them immediately? Need to pull in colleagues from other departments to collaborate on a specific record, such as a customer support case? Or need to send messages automatically via Process Builder on certain records? All of the above - and more - can be done in Chatter. You can have private groups, public groups, and make posts on object records and user records. End users have the ability to dictate how frequently they receive emails on posts, so they’re not feeling overwhelmed. And, you can follow records that are of interest, such as a big customer, or someone you need to keep an eye on. 

Image: Your Sales team can quickly reach out to a user or group by tagging them on a record

While I could write many posts on the use cases of Chatter, for now, I want to go over how you, as an Admin, can navigate through some of the different areas of Chatter more efficiently. 

How do you turn this thing on?

Chatter must be enabled in your org, and there are settings that can be established, as well, before users can jump in and start making posts, questions or polls. By navigating to Setup > Quick Find and searching for “Chatter”, you can quickly find the “Chatter Settings” tab. 

Image: Chatter Settings must be enabled before it can be utilized

This is where you will enable Chatter, if it is not enabled already, and can turn on special features, such as Draft Posts, which allows users to draft instead of sending right away, or allow for approval requests to be sent in chatter as well. There are many other features that make the end user experience more valuable that are nestled here on this page, but this is not the only area of Chatter you should be familiar with. Next, let’s look at the Chatter app itself, and the functionality it contains.

What can I do in the Chatter App?

The Chatter app is where you will spend most of your time when it comes to working within Chatter. The app contains tabs that allow you to set up groups that can be tagged in Chatter (such as the Sales Management group in our first image above), see a list of chatter posts related to records you’re following, and allow you to determine how frequently you see emails related to chatter. In some cases, it makes sense to see every post, but other times, you may only need a daily digest. 

Image: In the Chatter App, you can access groups, people, and how frequently you receive emails from Chatter

Assisting your end users will more than likely occur in the UI, and areas such as the privacy of their posts, how they adjust email notifications for Chatter, and how to tag certain groups. It’s just as important to feel comfortable with the Chatter App as it is with Chatter Settings.

This is just the absolute surface of Chatter, and it’s a great tool to learn. You can find out more in this awesome Trailhead called Chatter for Lightning Experience!

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 8

Part 8: Get the Skinny on Reports and Dashboards

Back in Part 2 of our series called Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, I discussed basic admin skills to master in order to increase your value as a Salesforce Admin. Today, for Part 8, I want to dig a little deeper, specifically into Reports and Dashboards, as this is a great skill to master and will allow you to further support pretty much every department in your company. Let’s discuss what they are and why they’re important.

Reports

Image: Report Builder in edit mode...also where the magic happens!

Whether it is your Sales manager looking for the number of Closed Opportunities for the month, or a Customer Support representative trying to better understand how they’re spending time on their cases, Salesforce reports are a crucial tool for chopping up information into easy-to-digest pieces. Before you dive in, there is something important you must understand - if the data doesn’t exist in Salesforce, then the report cannot display it. Unfortunately, there is a misconception (usually amongst end users) that the reports can pull your company data and analyze it in a flash. While it can provide great results in a small turnaround time, it can only be as good as the data in the system. Poor data equals poor reporting. 

Once you’ve got a handle on implementing good data practices, it really is fun to jump right in. When creating a new report, think of it as a blank canvas holding every single record you have in Salesforce, and you get to narrow it down (with Filters) and organize it (with the ability to group rows and group columns). You also get to decide which parts of the data you want to actually see in the report (which are your columns). On the Report Editor, you also get to show Subtotals, and the Grand Total, which is great for summarizing your numerical data.

Keep in mind, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But once you create (and save!) a report, you need a great way to display it, right? Well, that’s where dashboards come in.

Dashboards

While you can add charts to reports, dashboards offer a collective view into multiple metrics in one glance. Your end users can start their day by diving into a refreshed dashboard as they sip their coffee, and focus in on the areas that need the most attention without wasting any time.

Image: Understanding data is much easier when it’s visual.

Dashboard parts are called components, and each component consists of one report. But what if my company needs to see more than three components!? No worries - think of a dashboard as a corkboard with malleable features, as you can squeeze in up to 12 columns and 20 components in a Lightning dashboard. You can display the data in graphs and visuals that best suit the information. Maybe you need a gauge to push sales reps to move that needle this quarter, or you need a bar graph to show comparisons between team members working towards their goals, or you simply need a short list of 5 accounts that need the most attention right now. Either way, there are numerous ways to display the data, and you get to design it the way you see fit.

Reports and Dashboards are one of the most commonly requested tools to show company analytics, and they’re actually really fun and easy to learn. Get started today by searching for Reports or Dashboards tabs or search your App Launcher.

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 7

 

Part 7: All about Data Import and Data Export

In Part 7 of our series Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, I want to talk about Data Import and Export.  There will inevitably come a time in your Salesforce Admin career when you will need to handle large amounts of data. Fortunately, this does not mean you will have to spend hours upon hours painstakingly updating each record individually. Whether you will be asked to update large batches of records, or store records periodically for auditing purposes, knowing how to import, export, and manipulate data correctly is a crucial skill to learn early on. Let’s take a look at a few native Salesforce tools that you can utilize to perform these tasks.

Data Import

Importing data is when you take data from another source, such as an excel spreadsheet, and bring that data into Salesforce, matching it appropriately on the records you have already existing. This is referred to as an update. You can also use data import tools to create brand new records, as well.

The Data Import Wizard allows you to import data for both standard and custom objects, as long as the batch sizes are less than 50,000 records. If you have more than that, you can still make updates, but must break down your import into separate batches. 

Image: Data Import Wizard

The Data Import Wizard is fairly easy to use, as long as you have your data appropriately prepared beforehand, and know the API names of the fields you wish to adjust. You can find this tool by searching for “Data Import Wizard” in the Setup > Quick Find menu.

Data Export

There are a few ways to export data from Salesforce into various locations. Although not a tool, per se, an Admin with “Export Reports” permission can choose to create and filter reports to identify necessary information, and export as a .csv file on their computer. This is actually a commonly used step to manipulate data for updates, to be imported back into Salesforce.

There is also a Data Export tool which allows you to set up exports on a schedule. This is great for allowing large amounts of data to be pulled at convenient times of day, such as off-peak hours late at night, so as to not interfere with functionality of your Salesforce org.

And then there’s Data Loader…

Data Loader is also a native tool that does both importing and exporting of data into and out of Salesforce. This is great for loads that the Data Import Wizard cannot handle, and can accommodate up to 5,000,000 records! Data Loader also allows you to update, create or delete records and can be used for objects not available to the Data Import Wizard, as well.

 Image: Data Loader Installation. Find it by Searching “Data Loader” in the Setup > Quick Find menu.

This is not the “end all, be all” list of ways to import and export data, however, it’s a great list to get you started with highly functional tools that are very useful in making the most of your Salesforce journey! 

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 6

Welcome to Part 6 in my series Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward! In Part 6, I want to discuss tools for process automation. As an Admin, you will be asked to not only add fields, or adjust page layouts, but also to implement processes to help your end users get through their day more efficiently. There are a host of tools you can use for various automation requirements, ranging from small and quick to the whole kit and caboodle. Let’s go over three tools for Process Automation, so you can learn how to make your Salesforce org an efficient machine!

Three Tools for Process Automation

Process Automation is not something that should scare you, but should invigorate you. There are a lot of great ways in Salesforce to grab information from one area, populate it in another, or reduce clicks and time spent by your end user. Familiarising yourself with these three tools is essential for taking your career to the next level and can improve your ability to analyse the best options for the job.

Workflow Rules

Workflow rules are great for small, easy changes that have simple requirements and are focused on one object. You can create logic that triggers an action of creating a New Task, New Email Alert, New Field Update, New Outbound Message, or any existing action. In this example, I used a workflow rule to evaluate the Industry field on the Account object to update a separate custom field called “Enterprise Industry”. The action is a field update, which will check the box as “True” if the criteria are met. Quick and easy, Workflow Rules are a great option for these types of automation.

Process Builder

For the past few years, the Process Builder has been the darling of Automation in the world of Salesforce. Due to its ability to execute more actions than a workflow rule, and it's easy to use interface, the Process Builder is a great choice for holding many changes for a single object that need to run upon edit or create. Let’s take the example above for the workflow rule: if you also wanted to add an update for Chatter to go along with your field update, you would set up this scenario in the Process Builder, instead of using a workflow rule. This tool is more versatile and is easy enough for an Admin to use along the various stages of their Salesforce journey.

Flow Builder

This is a more advanced tool, but is one that Admins can still take advantage of, nonetheless. Flow is a step up from Process Builder and is quickly becoming the new favorite tool. Flow has more capabilities all around, is more robust, and is the last step in Admin tools (at the moment) before crossing the threshold into becoming a developer. Flow can do everything from grab records and evaluate before taking action, loop through collections of records to seek or update information, and even make decisions based on input from your end users on a screen. This is worth spending a lot of time exploring and getting some hands-on practice!

Image: Just the tip of the iceberg compared to what this tool can do...

If you can become familiar with those three tools, you can definitely step up your Salesforce skills. Remember, practice is key, so make sure you remain patient, learn from your mistakes, and keep moving forward!

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 5

 

Part 5: The Lowdown on Salesforce Permissions

In Part 5 of our series Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, let’s take a few minutes to discuss Salesforce Permissions. To be clear, Salesforce permissions run deep and wide, and you will eventually need to put in a decent amount of time to become an expert at this, however, today we’re just going to go over some basic terms to make sure you understand the gist of things.  Let’s dive in!

Image: OWD and Sharing Settings

Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD) - This controls the record level access for the entire org, on whether records should be privately viewed or not. For example, you may not want Sales reps to see each others’ Opportunities, so you can make the Opportunity object private.

Role Hierarchy - As you create users in Salesforce, you determine which Role they may be in, such as Sales rep or Services rep, for example. Specific roles can be nested under others, such as the Sales Rep, which looks up to the Sales Manager, which looks up to the VP of Sales. You can grant record access based on Role Hierarchies to ensure a Manager can always see his rep’s records. 

Sharing Rules - These are another way to work within the OWD you have set, to allow users to see certain records. You can set up Sharing Rules to work with Public Groups that you have established, in order to grant access to certain records with specific criteria. This is a great way to share records across departments.

Manual Sharing - Manual sharing is an option for individuals to share individual records. Maybe your sales rep only needs to share a record with the Service rep once or twice a month, and they only need to see one or two at a time. This would be a good way to allow record sharing without the setup involved for sharing rules.

Field Level Security - Also known as FLS, field level security is where you can allow certain profiles to have access to a field. You may find that some fields should remain hidden from lower level end users, or reserved for a specific department, such as Finance. This allows you to limit clutter and unauthorized permission.

Image: The Role and Profile are located on the User Record

Profiles - Each user record has a profile, which houses object and system permissions. These are separate from roles, in that these give what is known as “CRED” access: Create, Read, Edit, or Delete. This allows your user to take those actions on records, and should be thoughtfully considered before doling out. 

Permission Sets - The idea of Profiles is to give users that need the same permissions their access in a way that’s easiest for you as an Admin. You simply don’t want too many profiles. However, you may find that there are permissions that may be needed for a select group of users that are very specific to an object or setting that others should not have. A permission set can be created and added to the user record to grant that access.

That’s a lot - and only scratching the surface. If you’re looking for a pretty awesome trailhead on this topic, check out the Data Security module.

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 4

 We all love Salesforce, but one of the most confusing things about Salesforce may be trying to navigate through all of the places to find what you’re looking for. It can absolutely drive you crazy to see a record or a setting, and find yourself unable to locate it once more, just a few minutes later. Well, I’m here to help you sort it out! In Part 4 of my series Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, I’m going to talk about how to navigate through Salesforce efficiently and some things you can do to make it fit nicely into your daily tasks. 

Part 4: How to Navigate through Salesforce Efficiently

Setup Menu: How to get there and how to use it

The Setup menu is where you essentially, as an admin, control the ‘backend’ of your Salesforce instance. This is where page layouts, user permissions, and other tools are easily available for you to access and customize. 

In order to access your Setup menu, you must select the Setup ‘wheel’ in the top right corner of your layout. You can then select Setup.

Once you select Setup, you are taken to the Setup screen, where you’ll see a tab called “Home”. The Home tab is where you can use the Quick Find search bar to locate the Lightning App Builder, Profiles and User records, as well as anything else that may require setting up or adjusting.

Under Setup, there is also a tab called “Object Manager”, which houses each Salesforce object, both standard and custom. You can then select the object and access information specific to each one, such as page layouts and record types, fields for each object, and even validation rules. This is also where you would create any new custom fields for that object, as well.

The App Launcher: What does it do?

While Setup is the ‘backend’ of Salesforce, the Apps are what your end users will have the most access to, and how you navigate through customer data. Apps are collections of tabs and objects, which contain collections of records. For example, you may have two teams, such as Sales and Services, with different needs. Sales may need to see Accounts, Opportunities, and Leads, but Services may need to see Cases, Accounts, and Reports. You can create two different apps to prevent them from too much clutter on their screens. They each can navigate through their tabs, and learn that to get a list of recently visited accounts, they can select their Accounts tab for that list view. 

If you’re in Setup, but need to navigate back to records, you will select the App Launcher icon in the left corner. From there, you can select the App you’re looking for, or even just search for a specific tab, such as “Accounts”.

Understanding how to navigate between those two worlds of Salesforce will make a huge difference in your day to day functioning. Take time to explore Setup a little more, and you’ll be a whiz in no time!

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 2

Part 2: Basic Admin Skills to Master in Salesforce

In Part 1 of my series for Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward, I discussed things to consider as you pursue your Salesforce Administrator Certification. Here, in Part 2, I want to discuss Basic Admin Skills to Master in Salesforce, whether you already have your certification or it’s a work in progress. If you’re looking to challenge yourself, make it a goal to become more proficient in each of these areas by the end of the year, focusing on one skill every few weeks. Before you know it, you’ll be an efficient Salesforce ninja, ready to tackle new ideas and help your company in ways you never thought possible! Let’s get started!

1. Creating New objects - As intimidating as it sounds, understanding how to create a new object in Salesforce is a crucial skill you can use as your company continues to grow. Furthermore, with solid knowledge of when it’s appropriate to create a new object, you can help guide solutions to use the best feature for your needs. 

2. Reporting & Dashboards - This is the bread and butter for management and how they analyze the health of your company and your customers. Get some practice slicing and dicing with different report types, how to summarize a report, and how to manipulate data within the report. Also, explore dynamic dashboards, and practice by assembling a dashboard that could be useful for your Sales team. You’ll be a hero for mastering this skill!

3. Permissions - As scary as permissions can be, understanding them is crucial for keeping your org in great shape. Make sure you know what Organization Wide Defaults are, and how to use Profiles, Permission Sets, and Field Level Security. Permissions “make or break” so much in your org, from reports, to process flows. This is worth a large investment of your time, and one I highly recommend learning sooner rather than later.

4. Creating Fields - Understand how to create a custom field, and how those fields differ from Standard Salesforce fields. There are so many different kinds of custom fields, so make sure you play around with each one. This is where it really gets fun, as you can explore which ones are your favorites, and it may spawn some ideas on current projects you’re working on. 

5. How to Set up a User - Make sure you are comfortable creating a user, and understand the license types you have and the limits of each one. Learn the difference between Freezing a user and Deactivating, and the implications of deactivating a user when they own records. 

6. Data Cleanup - Knowing how to clean up your data is a really important skill that seems to elude a lot of admins. Learn some best practices you can recommend to your org, and how to backup data with dataloader and also, mass update data. It’s also important to understand what it means to export data, and who should have those permissions. 

As an admin, with these skills under your belt, you’ll be on your way to furthering your career in no time! 

[#Blogged] - Salesforce Administrator Guide: Propelling your Career Forward - Part 1

Part 1: What to Keep in Mind as Your Pursue your Salesforce Administrator Certification

If there is one positive to our ever changing world, it has caused a lot of reflection into our personal and professional lives. COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we work, with remote work options being the norm, and no longer the exception as they were before. This has caused many people to consider their current positions, and how they can perform their tasks more efficiently at home. It has also caused a lot of uncertainty, with many people asking how they can propel their career forward, make a career change altogether, or make themselves more valuable to the companies they currently serve. 

I’m here to offer encouragement and advice from my personal experience. You absolutely can utilize Salesforce to help you excel in all three of those approaches, and I want to use this series to show you how. In this 10 part series, I will explore ways you can take this time and uncertainty and use that anxiety and worry for the betterment of your career. It’s time to focus on some positives, and I’m here to offer guidance on moving in the right direction when it comes to Salesforce and how to make the most of it.

Let’s dive into Part 1: What to Keep in Mind as you pursue your Salesforce Administrator Certification.

A lot of people wonder if it’s “worth it” to get officially certified when it comes to Salesforce exams. They may worry about the cost or time it takes, and whether or not it actually “pays off” in the end. I’m here to tell you “yes, it does!”. Yes, the exams can be a few hundred dollars, however, there are two things to keep in mind here: your company can reimburse you for this with a little persuasion on your part, and if they don’t, it’s still a worthy investment for your career. It’s one thing to say you have a few years of admin experience, but it’s another to be able to show your official certification as proof on sites like LinkedIn or your resume. Plain and simple, companies will take your expertise more seriously if you have the certification to prove it, and may actually pay you a higher salary.

So, what should you keep in mind as you pursue your Salesforce Administrator Certification?

1. Access the Exam Guide - Make sure you log into your Trailhead org to access the wealth of materials they have available for exam certifications. You can navigate to your exam guide by going to Credentials > Certifications > Selecting “Administrator” > Get the Exam Guide. This outlines exactly what you need to study and the weight of each section.
2. Do the Trailheads - Salesforce has put together Trailhead modules to help you prepare for your exam, so take advantage of those!
3. Give yourself time - Make sure you give yourself a good few weeks to prepare for this, and even a few months if you don’t have much experience under your belt. If you lack experience, also consider exploring scenarios in a dev org, so you can practice as much as possible.

Above all else, be patient with yourself! This is a great step you’re taking to challenge yourself and further your career.

[#Blogged] - Sales Milestones Confetti in Salesforce

Help your teams celebrate their successes. Toss some virtual confetti when reps reach a designated path stage, such as winning an opportunity. You can choose the frequency, such as always for those hard-won victories or only sometimes for daily occurrences. Celebrations don’t work on the status Converted on leads. 

This change applies to Lightning Experience and all versions of the mobile app in Essentials, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions.

A confetti celebration creates a little fun when reps reach a milestone. In Setup, use the Quick Find box to find Path Settings. Enable Path to create a path, or edit one. The confetti settings are in step three of creating a path.

Reference: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/platform-app-builder-maintenance-summer19/get-hands-on-with-sales-milestones-confetti