Salesforce Certification Exams have arrived in Spring ’23 Release. What’s new?

Author: Peggy Schael | Salesforce Trainer | WeLearnSalesforce

Attention if you are currently preparing for your Salesforce Certification Exam! The exam release cycle has just switched to Spring ’23. Yes, that’s right. Even though Salesforce orgs have been in Spring ’23 for a while, the exam cycle is always a little behind to give you a chance to catch up. If you haven’t already, it’s about time you familiarize yourself with the release notes. Keeping up to date with new features and functionalities is part of becoming an outstanding Salesforce professional, and is part of your exam too. 

Here are my TOP 10 picks:

#1 ‘Migrate to Flow’ Tool Now Available For Process Builder

Since Flow is becoming more and more important for Salesforce Administrators, I’ll place it right at the top. You are probably aware by now that Workflow Rules as well as Process Builder are being retired. The ‘Migrate to Flow’ tool had already been available for Workflow Rules, and can now be used to migrate Processes over to Flows too. This means, you can still create Processes with Process Builder BUT YOU SHOULD NOT! Instead, use Flow Builder for any new automations. And for existing Processes, we recommend migrating them over to Flow.

Tip: Re-evaluate your existing processes first though. There may be redundant processes you may no longer need, or that should be optimized for better performance.

#2 Dynamic Forms Extended To Case and Lead Records

While Dynamic Forms were initially only available for Custom Objects, Salesforce has been adding more and more Standard Objects. Starting with Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities, they have now added Cases and Leads too.

TIP: Dynamic Forms are enhanced Lightning Record Pages bringing in capabilities from the Page Layout editor. In order to turn a Lightning Record Page into a Dynamic Form, select the Record Detail component and click the ‘Upgrade Now’ button.

#3 Dynamic Actions Extended To ALL Standard Objects

Similar to Dynamic Forms, Dynamic Actions have been made available to Standard Objects step by step. Salesforce had started with Accounts, Contacts, Cases, Opportunities and Leads, and now opened it up to ALL Standard Objects. 

TIP: Dynamic Actions are enhanced action buttons (think Edit or Delete buttons) that you find/place in the Highlights Panel on your Lightning Record Pages. Therefore, in order to turn your buttons into Dynamic Actions, you’ll select the Highlights Panel and hit that ‘Upgrade Now’ button.

👉 All of this and more is covered in my comprehensive Salesforce Administrator Certification Course, including video tutorials, study workbook and practice exams:

#4 Lightning App Builder Can Now Do Forecasts Pages Too

We love Lightning App Builder for allowing us to get really creative in building customized record pages. You can now take your creativity to build even more meaningful Forecasts Pages too, given your Salesforce org has (Collaborative) Forecasts enabled.

TIP: If Forecasts is not yet enabled, use your Trailhead Playground to turn it on and test it out. Enabling Forecasts will make this option available in your Lightning App Builder.

#5 Manage Field Access With Permission Sets

Data Protection is one of the more complex elements to keep your Salesforce org and its data in safe hands. Salesforce is aware and is adding more features to simplify the process.

Thus, you may have heard that Salesforce is planning to move away from Profiles in order to manage user permissions. This change won’t happen before 2026, however it’s going to make your life as a Salesforce Administrator a thousand times easier if you start planning and acting now already (where appropriate).

This means, permissions are going to be managed mostly through Permission Sets and Permission Set Groups. This will have a severe impact on how you manage access to Objects and its Fields. As part of this transition, Salesforce is now giving you the option to assign Field-Level-Security through Permission Sets instead of Profiles. This is still in Beta but worth testing out.

BEWARE: This transition is going to require a fair amount of planning. If you want to test it out, make sure you do so safely in a Sandbox or Developer Org/Trailhead Playground.

#6 Field History Tracking For Activities

Tracking historical changes of data on records is part of data management and data integrity. Salesforce has now extended the history tracking capability to Activities. To be specific to the Task and Event Objects (not the Activity Object).

TIP: Custom Fields created via the Activity Object can be selected for historical tracking through either the Event or Task Objects.

NOTE: Different to other objects allowing you to select up to 20 fields for tracking, you can only track up to 6 fields.

#7 Manage Picklist Fields In An Orderly Fashion

Picklist fields and their values can become rather messy over time. You’ll be adding new values, deactivating old or unused values and so on. Here are some amazing new features to help you tidy up your picklists and keep them consistent across your records:

Clean up inactive values

BEWARE: This is only available for Custom Picklist fields. Once deleted, you can’t take the values back.

Bulk Manage Picklist Values

#8 Change Sets Was Yesterday – Meet DevOps Center

Change Sets are of course still going to be around for a while, but if you have used them, you may be aware of their flaws. Salesforce understand the pain and have introduced the DevOps Center. Don’t worry, you do NOT need to be a developer to understand and use the DevOps Center.

TIP: Enable DevOps Center in a supported org such as a Developer Org/Trailhead Playground, install the package from the AppExchange and follow the instructions.

BEWARE: DevOps Center is not available for Sandboxes, but of course you can connect to your development orgs, release orgs etc.

#9 Make Reports and Dashboards Even More Engaging

There have been quite a few amazing updates to Reports and Dashboards. Here are my highlights:

Create Dynamic Report Filters

If you want a report filtered by the Opportunity Owner without having to use their actual name, you can now simply use a relative value. Think Dynamic Dashboard using the “The dashboard viewer” option which displays the data based on who’s currently logged in viewing the Dashboard. 

In Reports we can now pretty much replicate this scenario. Using the relative value “$USER” Salesforce automatically recognizes the viewer and only displays the records where the viewer is the Opportunity Owner. 

Report on Report Subscriptions

It’s been quite the hassle to analyze report subscriptions. They do have an impact on the limit of scheduled jobs, data security etc.

You can now create a comprehensive report on report subscriptions including when subscriptions run, who set them up, who the running user is.

Source: help.salesforce.com

TIP: In order to use this type of report, you need to create a Custom Report Type first. Follow these steps.

Source: help.salesforce.com

#10 Organize Your Reports and Dashboards

This one is in Beta but will hopefully stay for good. With this new feature, you can create your personal collection of reports and dashboards you or your team cares most about. We all know how painful it can be finding the right reports and dashboards within the jungle of reports and dashboards many of our Salesforce orgs consist of. You can create your very own collection and keep to yourself, or share with your team or manager for effective collaboration.

TIP: If you haven’t already, you may need to enable the “Unified Experience for Analytics Home” in the Reports and Dashboards Settings in the Setup. This will make the Analytics Home Page available from the App Launcher.

WHAT ELSE…

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