Everything You Need to Know About Salesforce

Knowing about the about mutual Salesforce features volition enable you to boost user productivity, and build in line with Salesforce all-time practices.

While Salesforce orgs can be customized to suit a business' exact needs, at that place are some Salesforce CRM features that you virtually certainly volition come beyond as a Salesforce Admin. Equally you work with Salesforce longer you'll become familiar with even more of its capabilities. Then, if you follow Salesforce's releases closely, you won't exist a stranger to the latest and greatest in its engineering science.

This is how nosotros've categorized these 21 key Salesforce features – ones that every admin should know (level 1), experienced admins will know (level 2), and new ones (level 3). Exercise you know them all?

Lightning App Builder (and Lightning Components)

The Lightning App Builder is a signal-and-click tool that's easy to create pages for Salesforce Lightning, or to use in the mobile app. This enables y'all to rearrange pages to highlight key information users demand, and hide annihilation irrelevant.

There's a big accent on Lightning Components – "compact, configurable, and reusable elements that y'all can add together to a Lightning folio in the Lightning App Builder" – which are available to drag on to the page sail. Y'all tin see Lightning Components on the left-hand side on the user interface below:

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Trailhead module: Lightning App Architect

Trailhead project: Quick Start: Lightning App Architect

Salesforce Reports & Dashboards

Salesforce reports and dashboards are Salesforce's out-of-the-box analytics, the "go to" option for quick reporting; as you would wait from the #1 CRM in the world, they are powerful, intuitive, customisable, and they work well for organizations of all types and sizes.

Salesforce reports are a list of filtered records. There are two chief parts to the Lightning report builder:

• 'Outline', where yous decide which fields you want to include on the report,
• 'Filters', where you narrow down which records yous would like to display.

To create a Salesforce dashboard, add charts and graphs that are based on a report. In other words, the dashboard displays visualisations of reports (run into examples here).

Have you heard well-nigh Salesforce dashboard filters? Dashboard filters in Salesforce are drop-down lists that sit down at the top of a dashboard. After a Salesforce Admin has created them, they are bachelor for users to drill downward even further into the data, for case, adding a 'Region' filter would simply show the sales data for a specific region.

Learn more!

How to Create a Study in Salesforce

6 Salesforce Reports You lot Never Knew You Needed (for Marketing)

Trailhead module: Reports & Dashboards for Lightning Feel

Trailhead projection: Quick Kickoff: Reports & Dashboards

Listing Views

Who doesn't love a Salesforce list view? List views in Salesforce are what they sound similar: a view that's a list of records. Find listing views on the abode tab of each object, for example, on the atomic number 82 object, you will find list views such as "Today'due south leads", "Recently viewed leads", plus whatsoever custom views you lot create.

The major plus point of listing views is the power to view and edit multiple records at in one case. My guess is that users beloved them because they are the closest thing to Excel spreadsheets (which equally we know) are hard for some users to part from, hampering your user adoption.

Learn more than!

Trailhead module: Create and Customize Listing Views

Validation Rules

A Validation Rule is a rule on a field which verifies that data entered past a user meets a certain criteria, earlier the user tin can save the record.

The dominion asks a yep/no question where the answer must be yes (True). If not, an error bulletin appears, where the admin has explained what the user must do to right the tape before clicking 'Salve' again.

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How to Get Started With Validation Rules

Trailhead module: Formulas and Validations

Security: Profiles, Roles, Permission Sets

Security in Salesforce is crucial to ensure each user can access simply the tape data that's appropriate/relevant to their work. Anyone that has looked at the Certified Administrator will know in that location's a big emphasis on this topic because it can be tricky to nail downwards every bit a Salesforce newbie.

The most common Salesforce security controls are Profiles, Roles, and Permission Sets. These three security features piece of work together then that information visibility in your Salesforce org is spot on for your teams' needs.

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Salesforce Roles and Profiles (Feat. Permission Sets)

Trailhead module: Data Security

Sandboxes

A Sandbox lets y'all develop and test your configuration, in the safety of a controlled environment. They are copies of your production environment that have the same platform customizations (eg. custom fields, code, automation). Some Sandbox types, will besides contain a re-create of your production data (eg. Leads, Accounts, Contacts data).

Sandboxes aren't merely for Salesforce Admins. You can grant access to users and so they can cheque that what you lot've created falls in line with their expectations/how they actually work. This is chosen "user credence testing" (UAT) and can place kinks earlier the changes are deployed to production.

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What is a Salesforce Sandbox? A Beginners Guide

Trailhead module: Change Set Development Model

Change Sets

Salesforce change sets deed similar containers that move configuration between Salesforce environments, for example, from a sandbox to your production org (live surround users log into).

 Creating a change set involves selecting which items you lot are ready to deploy – for example, y'all could create a change fix with a new field, a validation dominion, and a Catamenia, which once subsequently you are satisfied with your testing, volition be inserted into production.

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Salesforce Alter Sets vs. DevOps Heart

Trailhead module: Change Set Evolution Model

Information Loader

The Salesforce Data Loader is an essential slice of kit to know, ​​enabling you to insert (import), update, export, and delete records in your Salesforce org. The near common employ are: Inserting data from one system to Salesforce (data migration), mass updating records with new information, mass deleting records that are no longer required, exporting data equally a backup.

There is also the Data Import Wizard, which is included with every Salesforce org, and is accessed via Salesforce setup. There are differences between the Data Import Wizard and Data Loader – every Salesforce professional should know when to apply which.

Learn more!

Introduction to the Salesforce Information Loader

Choosing a Method for Importing Information – Salesforce Help

Trailhead module: Data Management

Dynamic Forms

Dynamic Forms are user-centric, intuitive page layouts that display the right information at the right time. Over time, the folio layout, or "Details" department in Lightning pages, can become congested with fields. These fields may well be necessary but non all the time or to all users.

• Identify fields anywhere on the layout without needing to add them to the traditional folio layout ("Details" tab)
• Use visibility rules to make fields and components appear and disappear based on criteria you choose
• Do abroad with multiple page layouts
• Improve folio load times

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Salesforce Dynamic Forms – Overview & Deep Dive Tutorial

Salesforce Menses

Salesforce Menstruum empowers you to build complex business organisation solutions using clicks, not code. Flow Builder is the about powerful tool that a Salesforce Admin has at their disposal, giving you similar powers that Salesforce developers have.

If yous need to perform mass updates across multiple unrelated records, or complex logic into opportunity conversion, these are mutual examples for when you should use Flow.

The use cases for Catamenia are endless, and its capabilities are growing with every Salesforce release.

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Introduction to Salesforce Flow

Salesforce Menstruation Examples + eight Top Tips

Trailhead trail: Automate Your Business organisation Processes with Salesforce Flow

Setup Audit Trail

With Setup Audit Trail yous can proactively check any metadata changes performed by users in your org. This could include anything that occurs in Salesforce setup, for example, changes to page layouts, automation, field-level security (and the list goes on…)

As the Salesforce Admin, don't permit any changes to become unnoticed 'under the radar', and hold others accountable for bad Salesforce configuration practice.

Learn more!

17 Free Means to Monitor Your Salesforce Org

Global Picklist Value Sets

Picklists are a Salesforce field type that restricts which values users can select when populating a field in Salesforce. In other contexts, they are called 'dropdowns'. While picklists are highly valuable to admins who need to maintain data consistency (rather than giving their users free reign to blazon in free text!), have yous stopped to wonder how to keep all values consistent across multiple picklist fields? If you have a picklist on two objects, and someone adds/removes a value from one, how will you remember to reflect that in the other picklist field?

That'south where Picklist Value Sets come in. These effectively create a single listing of values that can be referenced past picklist fields on multiple objects (hence 'global'). With picklists tied together, if a change is made, it will be reflected on every picklist using that value prepare.

The well-nigh mutual use example for this is for lead conversion field mapping (lead fields to contact/business relationship/opportunity fields). Come across a standard example in your org – "lead source" is used beyond multiple objects.

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Create a Global Picklist Value Set

Trailhead module: Share Values with Global Value Sets

Tape Types

Record Types are a way of grouping many records for one type for that object, because these records have a lot in common. Record Types permit yous to take a unlike page layout, with dissimilar fields, required or not, and with different picklist values. They can exist applied to whatsoever standard or custom object in Salesforce.

In terms of your Salesforce career, working with record types is a milestone to laissez passer – as Stacy O'Leary said: "Record Types are one of the most misunderstood and misused features of Salesforce".

Sometimes using tape types instead of simply a new folio layout is the best option, however you should always know when to use record types to avoid over-technology your Salesforce org.

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Salesforce Record Type Best Practices + Tutorial

Record Type, or Not? six Questions to Inquire When Planning Salesforce Record Types

When to utilize Tape Types Vs Folio Layouts?

Trailhead: Create Record Types

Case Formulas

You may have confused this type of Salesforce formula field with the Salesforce Case object – however, case formulas are used only in specific circumstances.

A case formula: "Checks a given expression against a series of values. If the expression is equal to a value, returns the corresponding outcome. If it isn't equal to any values, information technology returns the else_result". Read this great article for a relatable example of how Example formulas work.

Dynamic Interactions

Dynamic Interactions are interactive components such equally a listing, a information entry form, a chart or a map. Whilst the initial component is created by a developer, it tin then be added to Salesforce layouts by the Administrator who tin control how the component interacts with other components on the page and what action it should take. These components are reusable, then they only demand to be created once, and can then exist used repeatedly.

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New Lightning Components: Salesforce Dynamic Interactions

Einstein Opportunity Scoring

Salesforce Einstein Opportunity Scoring gives each opportunity a number between one-99 that indicates the chance that the opportunity will finish up Closed Won. Permit Einstein guide your sales teams and enable them to prioritize a sure win, or escalate at-run a risk pipeline, depending on the Einstein Opportunity Score, as well equally handy hints on the factors that contributed to the score.

In March 2020, this feature was made bachelor, for gratuitous – so take advantage of Einstein'southward intel!

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What Is Salesforce Einstein Opportunity Scoring? Overview & Deep Dive Tutorial

Trailhead module: Sales Cloud Einstein

Business relationship Teams

Salesforce Account Teams received a major upgrade in the Winter 'xx release, which resolved the multiple limitations it had since the feature transitioned to Lightning. An Account Team is simply a grouping of users who piece of work on an air conditioning

count together, identifying who is working on an business relationship, by Team Roles.

Admins should consider enabling this feature to manage larger sales teams that crave more than flexibility in account ownership.

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Best Practices for Using Salesforce Account Teams

Trailhead module: Sales Team Collaboration

Row-level Formulas

Formulas can be used in reports for group records, calculations, or to compare data inside a record. Row-level Formulas were added to the Lightning Study Builder equally a highly requested feature from the Salesforce community; beforehand, Admins would need to create a custom field on the object, which is now not necessary in the majority of cases thanks to these formulas.

Row-Level Formulas use to a single record, and appear on each row of the study you create the formula on. An case would exist to check if two fields on the same record take the aforementioned value.

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Summary Formulas vs Row Level Formulas in Salesforce Reports (+ Examples)

Trailhead project: Evaluate Written report Data with Formulas

The Analyze Push (Page Analyzer)

The 'Analyze' push, available within the Lightning App Architect, provides a predicted page load time for desktop and a folio performance index for mobile, too as best practices and suggestions for improving page load time for a better end-user feel.

This analyzes the fields, Related Lists components, and metadata of a record page.

As much as we love Lightning (and want you to love it besides), there's no getting abroad from a topic that comes upward…load time. Run this test to meliorate yours (similar magic!)

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The Analyze Button: Improve Your Salesforce Lightning Page Load Speed

URL Hacking

You may remember the popular Salesforce URL Hacking tutorial that Ben wrote dorsum in 2015. You may also remember that Lightning Experience didn't initially back up URL hacking, which was replaced with Custom Actions.

However, early in 2020, Salesforce decided to bring back URL hacking. A URL Hack is a custom built push button that creates a new tape, and presets some default values using static or dynamic fields based on the tape you're currently on.

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Salesforce URL Hacking for Lightning – Tutorial

Salesforce Data Mask

Salesforce Information Mask is a managed bundle that secures sensitive information in sandbox orgs (hence 'masking'). Employ this so that anyone developing/testing in sandbox environments doesn't see information that would breach any information compliance policies your organization has regarding customer data.

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Trailhead module: Salesforce Data Mask

Debug Mode

No doubt you've come across Lightning Components, the powerhouses backside modern Salesforce. Occasionally a component can get rogue and throw a scary fault message! However, don't fret, debug mode is a wonderful tool subconscious away in the setup area that tin can be a real nugget in finding the crusade and eventually squashing those bugs!

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What is Debug Mode for Lightning Components?

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Source: https://www.salesforceben.com/features-every-salesforce-professional-should-know/