Yes, Salesforce are in the process of deprecating Workflow Rules and Process Builder, leaving you with the Flow Builder. BUT!!! This ain’t happen over night. You’ve still got time to learn all about Flow Builder. And please know that Flow Builder is not rocket science. You will be able to learn Salesforce Flow, no matter what your background is, techy or not techy. Everyone can learn this. And I will tell you how! 👏🏻
Yes, Salesforce are in the process of deprecating both, leaving you with the Flow Builder. BUT!!! This ain’t happen over night. You’ve still got time to learn all about Flow Builder. And please know that Flow Builder is not rocket science. You will be able to learn Salesforce Flow, no matter what your background is, techy or not techy. Everyone can learn this. And I will tell you how! 👏🏻
In this article, we’ll talk about:
By when you need to learn Salesforce Flow
What will happen to existing Workflow Rules and Process Builders
What you need to know before you touch the Flow Builder
How to learn Salesforce Flow either as a Newbie or as an Experienced Salesforce Administrator
Supportive tools you need to know as an Admin
By When Do You Need To Learn Salesforce Flow?
First, let’s look at a rough (estimated!!) timeline of what Salesforce are planning. This was published during the recent Release Readiness session. Please ALWAYS refer to the Release Notes on the latest updates on these timelines:
Spring’22 – ‘Migrate to Flow’ tool released to migrate Workflow Rules (WFR) to Flow
Summer’22 – ‘Migrate to Flow’ tool supports even more WFR configurations
Winter’23 (Current)– Remove capability to create new WFR -> existing WFR can still be edited, activated, deactivated
Spring’24 – ‘Migrate to Flow’ tool to support Process Builders too
Summer’24 – Remove capability to create new Process Builders (PB) -> existing PB can still be edited, activated, deactivated
End of Support for WFR & PB some time in 2024-2025
As you can see, you should get started learning Flow around NOW. 🤓 But that’s no reason to freak out. You’re not alone on this journey! I’m here to support you, in fact the entire Trailblazer Community is here to help you skill up. 💪🏻
What Will Happen To Existing Workflow Rules and Process Builders?
As mentioned above, existing WFR and PB are going to be around for another while. Even though Salesforce provides a ‘Migration to Flow’ tool, not every organization will be able to migrate all their WFR and PB right away. It does involve a fair amount of testing to ensure the desired automations still run as intended after migration.
What does this mean for you as the Admin? This means, that WFR and PB can still be edited, activated and deactivated. Therefore, you still need to know how WFR and PB work.
🌶️ By the way: If you are not much familiar with either WFR or PB, you can still learn about both tools. Even now that Salesforce have removed the Create New capability from Workflow Rules, you can still create and learn Workflow Rules in your Trailhead Playgrounds or other Developer Orgs (for another while at least). Phew, Salesforce is not evil after all.
Before You Learn Salesforce Flow
Ask yourself how well you know the Salesforce platform yet? Are you brand new to Salesforce or do you already have a good amount of experience with the Salesforce Setup as an Admin or as an Admin-to-be?
👉 IF YOU ARE BRAND NEW! Please don’t jump into any Salesforce Flow course just like that. You MUST understand the fundamental elements of the Salesforce platform in order to make sense of what you are looking at when building a Flow.
There are many Salesforce Flow courses out there, but without the fundamental knowledge, you are going to get lost. Trust me! I’ve been there too and pulled my hair out. But going back to the basics and taking it step-by-step just made all the difference.
👉 IF YOU ARE ALREADY EXPERIENCED with the Salesforce Setup, then you may of course jump into learning Flow right away.
🌶️ Click the ‘Follow‘ button to save this Trailmix to your Favorites.
What Tools Are Provided To You By Salesforce
Migrate to Flow
Salesforce have introduced a migration tool, simply called ‘Migrate to Flow‘. It helps you easily turn your existing Workflow Rules and Process Builders into Flows, like a magic wand. 🪄 The tool currently only supports Workflow Rules but will add Process Builders as they go.
This migration tool supports most types of Workflow Rules. And for those that are not supported, you can refer to the comparison table to understand how to re-create a Workflow with the corresponding elements in Flow Builder:
You could see Salesforce List Views as mini Salesforce Reports. Because List Views work somewhat similar to Reports in a way that you can set filter criteria and thus focus on the Records that matter most. The biggest benefit is that Users can work directly from List Views without having to open individual Records unless required. Plus, Users can create their own custom List Views without any admin support. Let’s look at the different types of List Views and how they support daily productivity.
There are three main types of List Views, the Table View, the Kanban View and the Split View.
In the old Salesforce Classic days, we only had Table Views available. With the introduction of Lightning Experience, Salesforce added Kanban Views. And now, we also have Split Views which were originally limited to Service Cloud viewing features, but is now generally available to pretty much any Salesforce Cloud. This gives Users different ways of working with their records depending on what they need to accomplish.
Table View
List of records with inline editing capabilities of single or even multiple records at a time.
Kanban View
Summarized views allowing Users to manage things like their sales pipeline. Kanban Views can be displayed in different types of groupings such as Status, Industry, Priority, and others.
Split View
Users can work on individual records. At the same time they can still see a list of remaining records on the side, or new records being added. It’s almost like working through a to do list.
As you can see each type of List View has a different purpose, but they also have different editing features.
Salesforce List View Controls
List View Filters
You can add filter criteria just like in Reports and only display records that matter.
List View Charts
Adding a visible display of the results can provide a different perspective. Just clicking on the chart icon will open a pre-defined chart. You can choose different chart displays or even create an entirely new chart.
List View Search
When you have a long list of records in your List View but need to find a particular record, Salesforce now gives you a search field just for the List View right in front of you.
List View Inline Editing
Users can edit single or multiple records right from the List View. Kanban Views have even more editing options. Simply hover over the field and a pencil icon will appear.
🌶️ Beware editing of multiple records at a time! This can lead to accidental changes which are hard to identify. Admins can choose to turn off “Mass Edits from Lists” on relevant User Profiles or Permission Sets. This is particular relevant for data clean ups.
🌶️ List Views which contain a mix of Record Types are not editable. Either add a filter for the Record Type or create multiple List Views by Record Type.
Data Security and Sharing of Salesforce List Views
Any data security settings always apply! It doesn’t matter how Users look at records, whether it’s through Reports, List Views, Dashboards (except Static Dashboards), Search Results and so on. If they don’t have visibility to certain records, they won’t get them just by changing their view or display. 🤓
The same applies to sharing. Users can share List Views they created themselves by selecting the relevant sharing options. What they share is the design of the list view not the data. The results of records always depend on the type of record access set up in your Salesforce org.
🌶️ Beware proliferation! If you enable Users to create their own custom List Views your Salesforce org may end up with loads of redundant and irrelevant List Views. This can cause confusion and inconsistency. Hence, Admins can choose to turn off the “Manage Public List Views” permission on User Profiles or Permission Sets. Especially in larger organizations, List Views are often pre-created by Admins or by a small selection of Users, such as Team Managers.
And now, let’s take a look at List Views together and understand how you can build your own custom List Views specific to your business needs. You can follow along from your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT
Open the Sales app and go to the Opportunity tab. By default you will see the Recently Viewed list view.
Let’s select All Opportunities for now. Remember you can use the pin icon to make this your default view if you prefer this over Recently Viewed.
By default you will see the standard table like list view.
On the top right you will find a little table icon which you can expand. This is where you can choose your display options.
Let’s select Kanban which gives you the same results but with more information such as the process bar and sub-totals. Your records display as action cards under the related category, in this case the status. This little drop-down arrow allows you to edit, delete or change the owner of this particular record.
This Kanban is grouped by stage which means if you want to edit the stage you can simply drag and drop the opportunity action card. Hover over the card until your mouse turns into a little black cross, then click your mouse and drag the card over. It automatically updates the number of records and sub-totals.
You can manage how the grouping and sub-totals display. Go to the gear icon and expand. We will look at the other options shortly. For now go down to Kanban settings and select. You will see a pop-up with two drop-downs. Under the first one you can choose from the numerical fields available on your opportunity records. Here, we have two available. Let’s leave this as is. Under Group you can choose from picklist fields or the owner field. This will change the way how your process bar will look. Feel free to play around with this.
Let’s switch back to the table view. We want to see how you can create your own list view. It doesn’t matter if you’re creating it from the table or kanban view, this is more a personal preference.
On the top right go to the gear icon and expand. You have various options, such as new or clone the existing and simply edit into a new version.
Select New for this example. Let’s call this one “My Pipeline”. Click into List API name which will populate automatically.
Under Who sees this list view you can choose to keep it to yourself, or share with everyone or choose from groups of people based on their role. We will go with the first one for now and click Save.
The list has been created and now we need to add some filters to make sure it includes exactly what we want. In this list we want to see opportunities that belong to yourself and that haven’t been closed yet, meaning they are still in the pipeline.
You’ll notice that the filter pane on the right is already open and contains one filter. This comes up automatically. You can click on this filter and change the selection if you wanted to. However we’ll leave this as is. When you look at the Stage column you’ll notice that closed opportunities are listed as well as we haven’t added the filter yet. Since we want to see open opportunities only, we will add another filter on the Stage field to exclude closed opportunities.
On the right we’ll click Add Filter. This opens a pop-up on the left. From the top dropdown you’ll select the field which contains your filter criteria. In this case we’ll scroll down to Stage and select.
We’ll change the Operator to Not Equal To. And from the Value drop down we’ll select Closed Won and Closed Lost and then click Done. Once we save this you’ll get to see opportunities that belong to yourself and do not have the status closed won or closed lost.
Now click Save and notice how the list applies your filter settings. Let’s close the filter pane, click on the filter icon.
Let’s take a look at the column settings. Go to the Gear icon again and go down to Select Fields to display. On the right you can see the fields or columns displayed already. If you don’t want some of these, for example the Alias field, select it and click the arrow pointing to the left. On the left you can select fields you’d like to add as columns, for example the Delivery Status field. Select it and click the arrow pointing to the right. It’s automatically added to the end. However, you can use the arrows on the right to change the order, select and click the arrow up or down.
When you’re done, click save. Your new list view has been added to the list view dropdown and can also be viewed as a Kanban view.
Switch to Kanban. And one more thing. Notice the chart icon, you can even add a chart view on top of your list or kanban views.
And now go ahead and try one on your own. The more you play around with this the more you deepen your expertise. 🤓
Let me know in the comments what type of list view you created. I’d love to know!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Help Salesforce users navigate more efficiently through the user interface. The better the user interface the higher the user adoption, and the more successful the Salesforce organization will be. You’ve got a few user interface management tools, amongst which is the awesome Lightning App Builder. Plus, it’s a declarative tool, no coding skills are required! In this tutorial, you’ll get to know the basic components of the Lightning App Builder. And, you will build your very first Custom Lightning Page with me. 👏🏻
The user interface also referred to as the system front end, is what Salesforce users get to see and work with on a daily basis. You want to give users an intuitive user interface they enjoy working with and that helps them get their work done as quickly as possible. Nothing is more frustrating than looong loading times, too many manual clicks, and too many manual data entry points in general. 🤬
Here’s your toolset you can use to provide a super effective user interface:
Enable relevant User Interface Settings
This is a list of checkboxes to enable or disable features such as Collapsible Sections, Hover Details, Salesforce Notification Banner, and many more. These settings apply across the entire database, hence impact all users.
Beware: Many of these are only relevant to the Salesforce Classic User Interface. In Lightning, many of these are enabled by default and can’t be turned off, like the Inline Editing of List Views. You can only turn off Mass Edit through the Profile or Permission Set settings. Therefore, I’d recommend to test these out in a Trailhead Playground/Developer Org or Sandbox first.
Design smart Lightning Apps and Record Pages with the Lightning App Builder
This is where you can get truly creative and design a tailored experience for your Salesforce org by business function. You can create entire Apps, Home pages, or Record pages. You further tailor the experience by desktop, or mobile use, or both. Plus, you can assign these to either the entire org, or differentiate by App and/or Profiles. And that’s not all. You can even add filter settings and display buttons or fields based on predefined criteria. The Lightning App Builder is getting more powerful with each release and has been replacing a lot of what used to require coding.
Here’s an example of a Lightning Record Page for the Account Object:
Provide List Views and Kanban Views by Business Unit
Users don’t necessarily need you here, they can create List Views and Kanban Views by themselves. BUT! Similar to Reports, leaving this completely up to users can lead to proliferation and inconsistency.
This means, you can already specify the most common list views users are going to work with, and pre-create them. You can restrict access to selected List Views.
You can even restrict editing capabilities to selected Users/Profiles if required. You’ll need to enable the permission “Manage Public List Views”.
TIP: Did you know that Kanban Views are merely a display variation of a list view? Kanban Views are just another way to look at a list of specified records. Instead of a list (a.k.a. Table view), they are displayed as a Kanban.
Other Tools Relevant For The User Interface:
Tab Settings by Object & App Manager to arrange tabs visible in the Navigation Bar
Console views primarily used in Service Cloud
Quick Actions to display buttons, links
Reports and Dashboards to summarize critical business data
And more…
Let’s take a look at the user interface options together and then create a new Lightning Home Page. You can follow along from your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org. Simply click the gear icon ⚙️ in the upper right corner to jump into the Setup.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT
Go to the Setup. In the Quick Find type in User Interface.
You will notice that you get two results. One is the User Interface section which contains all your tools you can use to manage very specific user interface settings.
And then within this section at the very bottom you’ll find the general user interface settings. And that’s what we want to take a look at.
This contains a long list of features you can enable or disable for your users. A lot of these are more relevant for the Classic Interface like the ones at the top here and others are more relevant for the Lightning Experience interface like the Navigation Bar personalization or the transition assistant reminder.
Most of them are quite self-explanatory, others maybe not so much. You’ll find a handy link to the Help pages on the top right here, which explains them all.
When you take a look at these you’ll notice that some of them reference Classic or Lightning. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been done for all of them, hopefully, Salesforce will fix that at some point.
We won’t go through each of them, you can play around with these in your own time. However, let’s take one as an example so you can see how they work and how you can test them out. Let’s take this one here “Disable Navigation Bar Personalisation”. Before we tick this, hang on for a moment and don’t do anything. Let me quickly show you what this relates to. You may remember earlier when we walked through the navigation unit you learned about customizing the navigation bar using the pencil at the end of the navigation bar? That’s what this is about. So back to the user interface settings. Tick the checkbox and click save. Go to the Sales app and refresh your browser and the pencil is gone. If not, refresh again. If it’s still there, check your user interface settings again. Maybe it didn’t save. Let’s go back anyways and deselect again and save as we want to be able to use this later on.
Now let’s take a look at the Lightning App Builder. Before jumping in though, let’s have a look at what we want to use it for. Let’s go to the Sales app and select the Home page. The components you see here can actually be rearranged or removed or new ones can be added. Let’s go to the Account tab and select from your recently viewed or another list view. It doesn’t matter which one. Record pages like the Account page contain of a number of components like the highlights bar, the Activity tab, the Details tab and the other ones. These can also be re-arranged or removed or new ones can be added.
We will take the Home page as an example to see how you can achieve this. Let’s go back to the Setup, in the quick find type in app builder, in the search result click on Lightning App builder. You will see existing ones listed here that you can edit or create new ones. We will now create a new one.
Click New in the middle of the screen. You can now choose from three options, App, Home or Record Page. We have just looked at the Home and a record page. The App Page option is for entirely new tabs where you can add selected components like a report or dashboard which makes it something like a summary page and you can give the tab your own label. For the purpose of the example we want to go through, we will select Home page and click next. Let’s call it “Curious Home page” or give it any name you like and click Next.
You can create a page from scratch or clone an existing one. We will create one from scratch and use the Standard Home page which is preselected and click Finish. Though you’re not actually finished. But the page is created and now we need to add the components we wish to see.
This will now open a blank canvas. On the left, you’ll find a menu with the components you can choose from. At the top, you’ll have the standard ones and at the bottom, you would see custom ones.
For example, when you create custom pages or install an app from the app exchange, these options will become available in this section. At the moment we don’t have any custom components available.
On the right, you will be able to specify each component you selected. We will add four items for this example, we will use the List Views, Chatter Feed, Tasks and Events, some of the others are not set up in the Playground org.
So let’s start with the List View component. You click on it, keep the mouse clicked and drag it over into the top section. It highlights in green, which means you can drop it.
On the right-hand side, we want to select which records we want to see in the list. Account is selected by default. From the drop-down, you can select from any of your other record types. We will keep Account selected, click on it to close the drop down. Below it says All Accounts. From the drop-down, you can choose from the existing list views. Let’s change this one to My Accounts. Then you can choose the number of records to display. Let’s change this to 5.
We will leave everything else as in. Now let’s go back to the left and grab the next item, Chatter Feed, that we will drag and drop to the right of the list view. On the right we will select the Feed option that should display. Let’s change this to “To Me”. Then we’ll go back to the left, grab Today’s Tasks and add this below the list view on the left. That’s it for this one, nothing to do on the right. Now it might appear as if you couldn’t add anything else below Today’s Tasks however you can. It just represents a column to which you can add on. Let’s add Today’s Events below Today’s Task to see how this works. On the left grab Today’s Events, and hover over Today’s Task. It highlights in green and depending on where you are, further towards the top you will see a green bar or further towards the bottom which will then show the green bar there. And that’s where we want to add the Events. Hover over Today’s Tasks, green bar at the bottom and drop. And that’s it. Let’s leave it there for now. We will now Save this new page and select where and who we want to make this available to.
On the top right hand side you click Save. Give it a moment, a pop-up will appear. You can tick this box to hide this moving forward, however I like to have this as a reminder, especially when you get started with the Lightning App Builder.
Let’s click Activate. Again, wait a second or two, the pop-up changes. You will now choose where this new Home page should be available. You have three options. The Org Default means it will be available to anyone and anywhere. The App Default means you can choose specific apps that should use this new Home page by default. This will then change for all users using these apps.
The App and Profile options let’s you choose specific apps as well as specific groups of users. We will use the last one, App and Profiles, and click Assign to Apps and Profiles. You can now select Apps that are available in the Lightning Interface. Other apps may need to be converted to a Lighting App in order to become available. That’s why you may not see all of those you would find in the app launcher. Let’s go with the Sales app for this example. Tick and click next. Now you choose your groups of users by their profiles. We will talk about profiles soon. Let’s scroll down and select System Administrator which should be the profile selected on your user record if you are using your Playground org. And then click next. Review your selection and click Save. If you’re quick enough you might notice this brief “Activation successful” message. Would be good if it was there a bit longer. Let’s click the back space to return to the Setup.
Now let’s go to the Sales app, select the Home tab. Refresh your browser window and you should now be able to see your new Home page. Congratulations, you have build your first Lightning app page!
And now, go ahead and create another one. Maybe try out a Record Page instead and see how it works out. The more you practice hands-on using your own imagination (a.k.a. potential business use case), the better you’ll learn how to get the best out of the Lightning App Builder. 🤓
Do let me know in the comments what types of apps or pages you’ve been creating. Have you come across any challenges? I’d love to know!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
If you have been using multiple currencies in your Salesforce org you may have been wondering about how to keep the ever-changing exchange rates up to date. Have you? That’s why you are here. In the previous tutorial we’ve talked about how to activate and set up multiple currencies, and how to update the corresponding exchange rates. As promised, in this tutorial we’ll talk about how to manage dated exchanged rates with the help of Advanced Currency Management.
If we went back to the previous tutorial where we updated the exchange rate for an existing currency, what do you think would happen to existing Salesforce records? Exactly, they would get overwritten.
This may actually be acceptable. How come? Let’s look at Opportunity records, since this topic is most relevant to sales data (and for another reason I’ll explain later). As long as an Opportunity record is still open, it may not matter too much if the proposed sales price is still being evaluated. However, as soon as an Opportunity is successfully closed, you may not want the sales amount to change anymore. Because…changes to the final sales price will not only impact revenue tracking but also financial reporting.
Manage Dated Exchange Rates
In order to avoid closed Opportunities being overwritten, you’ll use Advanced Currency Management to manage exchange rates based on date ranges. It’s therefore referred to as ‘Dated Exchange Rates’.
How does this work? First, you’ll need to enable the Advanced Currency Management (ACM) feature. Once ACM is available, you can add multiple exchange rates to each currency you’ve set up. This means, for any given period of time, you’ll determine a specific exchange rate.
The amount on the record will then use the exchange rate of the period the Close Date falls into. Your periods can be days, weeks, fortnights, months, whatever is relevant for your organization.
Let’s look at monthly exchange rates as an example. In September we specify the exchange rate to be 0.6, in October to be 0.8 and in November to be 0.73. Each starting on the first of the month. Since our Opportunity record is closed in September, it will use 0.6 for the conversion accordingly.
Let’s see this in action. We’ll turn on ACM and find out where you need to go to add multiple exchange rates to every single currency in your Salesforce org.
You can follow along from your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org. Simply click the gear icon ⚙️ in the upper right corner to jump into the Setup.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT
In the Setup go down to the Company Settings and select Manage Currencies.
At the top you will find two options you can enable. The first one is the Advanced Currency Management and the second is the Parenthetical Currency Conversion. This is already enabled and displays the user’s currency in brackets in case it’s different to the currency on the record. You can turn this off if required.
You will now enable the first option, the Advanced Currency Management.
In the pop-up window tick the Yes checkbox to confirm and then click Enable.
A new window may open with the updated page which will now look different.
You will now see a new button at the bottom, Manage Dated Exchange Rates.
Click on this and then click Continue.
This will list all the currencies you have in use and displays the exchange rate for each based on the period that is selected on the top right.
To add a new exchange rate for a specific period, you simply click New Exchange Rates.
Select the starting day and type in the relevant exchange rate, I’ll do 1.3. In case you have more than one currency set up, feel free to add a new exchange rate for your other currencies as well.
And then click Save.
Let’s go to the calendar on the top right and select the date next week. Now you can see the exchange rates for that day and after. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the exchange rates for different periods side by side. So use the calendar to view them.
Advanced Currency Management Considerations
Dated Exchange Rates can only be used on Opportunity records and related Opportunity records such as Opportunity Products (Line Items), Opportunity Product Schedules, Campaign Opportunity fields, and Opportunity Splits.
Dated Exchange Rates are not applied in Forecasting or other types of records containing currency fields.
These are the two most important you need to be familiar with. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the full list of considerations.
Can you automate Dated Exchange Rates?
Very good question! The answer is Yes you can. BUT!!! Depending on the type of business of your organization, having exchange rates updated automatically can have a not-so-desired impact on critical sales data and reporting.
While exchange rate automation is not available out-of-the-box, there are quite a few partner apps available on the AppExchange.
Let me know in the comments if you have been working with exchange rates in Salesforce. Do you add them manually or do you use an app? I’d love to know!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Adding a new currency to your Salesforce org is the easy part, but how do you determine the correct exchange rate? Sales data including the value of the sales are critical to business success. In this tutorial, we’ll look at how you should determine the appropriate exchange rate for any currency and what it does to Salesforce records.
If you’ve been travelling, for personal or business reasons, to countries using a different currency than the one you grew up with, you’ve probably faced a conversion rate challenge.
Our brains are wired in a way that it’s easier if we are able to convert a foreign currency into our own currency, so we can better determine the value of an item or a service we’re about to pay for, or get paid for.
How do you know what exchange rate to use at the time you want to make or receive the payment? It’s as easy as hopping online and googling for “currency converter”, or using an app on your phone.
I’m not affiliated with any of these converters, but here are the ones I’ve enjoyed using:
It really doesn’t matter which one you use, just double-check you’re converting into the right direction. For example, from USD to EUR, or from EUR to USD.
🌶 TIP: When identifying the conversion rate you should understand which currency is your org’s default currency (=corporate currency) that you are converting to. This is relevant when you already have a few currencies set up in your org and you need to identify which one is the corporate currency.
Add a New Currency and it’s Exchange Rate
Once you’ve determined the exchange rate, you can go ahead and add your new currency to your Salesforce org.
Upon activation, you will find a new menu item in your Setup, the “Manage Currencies” item:
Therefore, if you can’t see the “Manage Currencies” item in your Setup, it means that you don’t have it activated yet.
Under the “Manage Currencies” menu item, you can add any currency your Salesforce users need to be able to access.
Choose Relevant Currency on Salesforce Records
When Salesforce users create a new Opportunity or other record containing a currency field, Salesforce will auto-populate the default currency of the user.
However, once you’ve added more currencies, the user can now open the picklist and choose any other currency relevant to this particular record.
Let’s create a new currency together and find out how the exchange rate is applied to Salesforce records containing a currency field. You can follow along from your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org. Simply click the gear icon ⚙️ in the upper right corner to jump into the Setup.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT
Go to Setup/Company Settings/ Manage Currencies
Click New
Select GBP
Enter Conversion Rate: [use your preferred currency converter]
Expand the drop down – other currency now available too
Advanced Currency Management
You’ve probably been asking yourself how you can possibly manage the ever changing exchange rates for each currency? Very good point! We’ll discuss this in the next blog article. So stay tuned for more!
Let me know in the comments which currencies your Salesforce org(s) have been dealing with. I’d love to know!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
The Company Settings in a Salesforce Org contain several vital information. This includes information about default settings, licenses, data and file space, and more. All of this pretty much builds the skeleton of your Salesforce Org on which everything else is built. In this tutorial, we’ll discuss why the Company Settings are so important and how it impacts other business processes you are planning to set up.
Before we dive into the details of the Company Settings, let’s take a look at the bigger picture first. Why? Because this will help you make more sense of the impact it can have in case you set them up incorrectly.
In general, we differentiate between three different levels of impact on your Salesforce users’ productivity:
The first level is the Company Profile which determines your organization’s default settings and will impact all users across the entire platform.
The second level is the User Profile which will impact only specific groups of users and defines their permissions and access to certain data sets.
The third level is the individual User Record which you will be using to manage an individual User’s specific requirements.
This means, that whatever you set up in the Company Profile and other Company Settings will apply across the entire Salesforce org, a.k.a. will impact all Salesforce users.
What The Company Profile Is Made Of
The Company Profile is a collection of details about your organization and comprises of three elements:
The first one is the Company Information which contains your Company’s Name and Address, your Default Locale, Default Currency or Corporate Currency, Data and File Storage available, as well as Licenses you have in use.
The second one is the Financial Information defining the Fiscal or Financial Year and the Currencies required. This will be relevant for display and reporting purposes.
And the third one is the Support Information which specifies Business Hours and Holiday periods, that are relevant for automated processes such as managing cases and escalations.
Why The Default Locale Can Become a Brain Twister
The Company Information contains one specific item, the Default Locale, which can cause some brain-twisting. It drives the display of formatting, language, and time zone. Therefore, let’s take a closer look at it.
Let’s start with the Formatting part. This is relevant for date/time & number formats, first and last name order, and address formats. Let’s take Date and Number formatting as an example.
In the US the date is displayed with the month first, followed by the day, and then the year. In Europe however it’s day first, then month, then year. This can be quite confusing so you want to get this right for your users depending on where they are based. Just imagine what happens to customer appointments with users based in various locations across the globe.
When it comes to numbers, in the US 10,000.00 Dollars would be displayed with a comma and a dot. In Europe, it would be the exact opposite, like EUR 10.000,00. Imagine what happens to sales numbers if you get this one mixed up. 😱
Next up, let’s talk about Language and Time Zone settings. Language settings are relevant when reading text on records or viewing the online help pages. Time Zone settings will impact calendar entries and recording of data entries like your created dates or modified dates.
Since you have three levels of impact as mentioned at the start (Company Profile, User Profile, User Record), let’s understand how you need to manage the Default Locale, Language and Time Zone:
You’ll start on the Company Profile to set a default baseline, for example, you’ll choose the US. This will now apply to all users no matter their geographical location.
This default baseline is now automatically applied to all User Records. Great! But, what happens to Users that are based in a different country, or same country but different time zone (think of the US or Australia), or same country but different language (think of Switzerland or Canada)?
While the User Record will inherit the default settings, you can simply change the locale, language and/or time zone on the individual user record level, for example to the UK.
Best practice tip: In order to avoid having to change every single User Record, consider where most Users are based and make that the default setting.
In this video tutorial, I will walk you through the Company Settings. We’ll explore a few more elements you need to keep in mind when setting up your business processes. You can follow along from your own Trailhead Playground or Developer Org. Simply click the gear icon ⚙️ in the upper right corner to jump into the Setup.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT
Go to Setup/Company Settings
Select Company Information
Find information on left, default settings on right
Show storage and View links
To make changes, click Edit, then Save
Scroll down to see list of licences
Go back to menu / select Business Hours
Click Default
Click Edit
Select Business Hours from menu again
Show New button
Go back to menu / select Holidays – use to suspend business hours, e.g. Easter or Christmas, it’s like putting a pause on automated notifications or escalations
Go back to menu / select Fiscal year – You can choose between Standard or Custom Fiscal Year. The Standard Fiscal Year is the most common and follows the Gregorian calendar, meaning your classic 12 months 365 day calendar, and always starts on the first of the month. You would select the starting month and whether the year is based on the starting or ending month. If you’re not sure, think about what it means when you talk about the Fiscal Year with your colleagues, for example the fiscal year 2019. Does it mean that it started in 2019 and ends in 2020 or does it mean it started in 2018 and finishes in 2019. The Custom Fiscal Year is relevant in case your company requires 13 months instead of 12 or 13-week fiscal quarters or your fiscal year doesn’t start on the first of the month. If this is relevant for the company you work for, be aware of this warning which says that you can’t turn this back off. So you notice that all Company wide settings are managed through this section.
Go back to menu / click Company Information – some default settings do not apply to a user
Go to User/Users
Open Margaret Wiseman
Scroll down to Locale settings
Play around with the Company Settings yourself. If you are familiar with logging in as another User, see how these settings apply to their user interface. Do let me know how this is working out for you.
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
It’s Salesforce’s app store. But wait! Why would you even care about the Salesforce AppExchange? The Salesforce platform can already do everything you need it to do, right? How about we find out! In this tutorial, we’ll discuss use cases, and at what point you should consider adding an AppExchange App to your Salesforce Org.
Let’s Talk About Declarative Development First. It’s Your Best Practice Approach, Isn’t It?
Even Salesforce says so! Salesforce Administrators should always consider declarative development whenever possible. Salesforce already provides a huge range of tools and features out-of-the-box to make most common business scenarios work. So YES, this is your Best Practice Approach!
Declarative development tools include the Lightning App Builder, Object Manager, Validation Rules, Approval Processes, just to name very few. These tools are incredibly powerful already if you know all their capabilities. Always start there first!
The Salesforce AppExchange Exists For A Reason
Now there must be a reason why the AppExchange has become so big! Actually, there is more than one reason. The main reason though is that all declarative tools have their limits. While they can usually cover common business processes, some organizations don’t follow common practices. Not because they don’t want to, but because of the way their business is set up.
The apps on the Salesforce AppExchange are an extension to a Salesforce org to support specific business needs. These include industry-specific requirements, for example, the finance industry or the health industry. These also include specific requirements for more complex business processes like large data management.
Use An AppExchange App As Your Next Best Practice
Salesforce Developers are not too happy to hear this, but before you even consider getting a developer involved to write code for you, make sure to have a look at the AppExchange first!
Why? Because the Salesforce AppExchange hosts a large range of Salesforce Applications that have been developed either by Salesforce themselves or by Salesforce’s community of AppExchange Partners. This means you get access to pre-built solutions, referred to as Managed Packages or Unmanaged Packages.
That depends! Here is a list of questions you need to ask yourself first:
Don’t Forget To Run A Test Drive Of The AppExchange Listing
Don’t take the AppExchange Offers for granted. They often require adjustments and proper installation. In most cases you can sign up for a free trial version to verify whether the solution works for your specific Salesforce Org. And that’s where your Sandbox comes in. It allows you to run a test drive of the app in a safe environment. Never install a new app straight into your Salesforce production org. You have been warned! 🤓
You will find the downloaded app in the Setup menu under “Installed Apps” where you can view all of it’s components. As part of the test drive, you will be able to determine whether there are any potential interferences with other apps, any feature gaps, or unwanted functionalities. Also, get some of the impacted users try it out too.
Finally, once you’ve completed the test drive and you’re happy with it, you can deploy the app into your production environment.
AND ONLY in case both the declarative tools, as well as the AppExchange offers, can’t solve your business problem, ONLY THEN should you consider a programmatic solution.
In this video tutorial, I will also walk you through the AppExchange and how to verify potential solutions.
VIDEO TUTORIAL WALK-THROUGH SCRIPT: (AppExchange demo starts at 2:14)
Open a new browser window
Type in the URL “appexchange.salesforce.com”
Here you go. Right at the top, you have a search bar where you can search by keyword or for a specific app you may already have heard about
In the menu below, you can browse for apps by type or collections. You can even search for consultants or developers
On the top right hand side, you can log in with your Salesforce account and you will get personalized listings according to your role, industry, expertise and other information provided on your user profile.
Let’s select Solutions by Type, then Apps. From here you will find additional filter options, such as pricing, editions, ratings and more
And to view more details about an app that sparked your interest, just click the app – let’s use the Conga Composer as an example
You can view a preview, see the pricing on the top right, read more details under the Overview tab, read through reviews
When you scroll down you can see a few action items like save, watch demo, get it now to install. The action items vary by app.
Additional Information You Should Know About The Salesforce AppExchange
Did you know that the Salesforce AppExchange can do much more than apps? Initially, the AppExchange was born as a marketplace for Salesforce Partner Apps. As Salesforce is evolving not only their amazing products but also their entire ecosystem, so is the AppExchange.
You will essentially find three main sections on the AppExchange:
1 – Solutions to extend Salesforce to your business’ needs
2 – Experts to work with, including a Job Marketplace
3 – Community to learn from and support each other
Take a look around the AppExchange. Do let me know if you’ve already installed an app from there and how it worked out. I’d really love to hear about it!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Salesforce as a Cloud-based Software as a service (SaaS) Platform
Salesforce is a SaaS platform that provides its customers and partners with everything they need, all in one place. And we’re not just talking about customer data management. We’re talking about creating custom applications, automating business processes, and integrating additional functionality, seamlessly.
The Salesforce Multitenant Cloud – Like Living In An Apartment Building
Salesforce brings all their products, like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and so on, together onto the same platform. The Salesforce platform is built on a multitenant architecture, which allows customers to share resources and data. Salesforce also calls the platform the Multitenant Cloud. Because it’s like an apartment building where the tenants in all the apartments benefit from the network of power supply, storage facilities, facility management tools and so much more. This saves development and maintenance costs.
Source: trailhead.salesforce.com
The Core Architecture of Salesforce And Its Robust Framework
The Salesforce architecture offers a lot more than that. Salesforce Objects and Applications are all coming together on the one and same Lightning Platform. This ensures a seamless integration across all the Salesforce applications as well as applications from other providers that are built on the Lightning platform. All declarative and programmatic tools are shared across the entire platform and make it easy to add new apps or even develop completely new applications.
The Salesforce platform offers a robust framework for data services, artificial intelligence like Einstein, and API integrations. Plus you automatically get release updates three times per year. And since it’s all happening in the cloud, you don’t need to install a thing.
Can You Trust the Salesforce Platform?
And with all of that, one very critical component is most certainly…trust. Salesforce takes data security within its platform very seriously. And not only that, but Salesforce also cares a lot about the customizations you are building into your Salesforce org for all your vital business functions and ensures they run reliably.
Have a look at the Salesforce dedicated trust site trust.salesforce.com. You will find information about compliance, service availability and performance, how data is secured, and more.
Source: trust.salesforce.com
The Concept of Metadata Elements
Everything you are building and all the data you are storing on the Salesforce platform is driven by Metadata. Metadata is the data about your data. 🤯 It defines the structure of your fields, page layouts, user profiles, reports, dashboards, etc.
In the example below, the Account Name field represents the metadata, a.k.a. the type of field. This is where the data about the name of the company this contact works for, is stored in.
Metadata is used for different purposes. For example when changes are made in a Sandbox environment and then moved into the Production environment or when data is integrated through external resources. It identifies existing items like fields, page layouts etc. by its metadata.
In our example, the Account Name is actually just the label that appears to the user. The metadata itself is the Field Name or API name. If you changed the label to ‘Company Name’ for example, the metadata or API name would remain unchanged so it can still be identified.
Understanding the Salesforce Architecture isn’t too hard or too boring, right? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Salesforce showed me how much more productive (and stress-less) life can be when you simply get organized. This should be a no-brainer. Yet it’s not! We have arrived well into the 21st century, and still so many companies use manual time-consuming processes for repetitive task that rob them of so much valuable time. And not only that. Losing time with admin tasks, means losing time you’d rather spend with getting to know your customers and making sales. In this article, we discuss common use cases where using the Salesforce platform has helped organizations make huge improvements. And it’s not always about making more sales, but having the time to focus on what matters most: Making an impact!
This article is not only for potential Salesforce customers out there. It’s for Salesforce Administrators, Business Analysts, Consultants and others too. It helps you understand the importance of getting Salesforce set up for any business department, in the right way. Therefore, let’s find out how Salesforce can help businesses and different business functions.
Typical Business Challenges
Have you come across long winded convoluted email trails, outdated Excel spreadsheets, inconsistencies across documents, tedious and repetitive manual steps? Then we’re onto something to fix.
These are not only problems of sales reps or marketers. It may appear Salesforce only offers solutions for sales processes or marketing strategies or customer service.
Even though Salesforce’s key products are named after these (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud), the Salesforce platform can be extended to pretty much any other business function.
Depending on the complexity of the requirements, you can already integrate other business needs into the Salesforce edition you or the company you work for have already signed up for. If the integration however becomes too complex, you may want to look at Salesforce’s product range or explore solutions on the AppExchange instead.
“Always explore the capabilities of what you can do with what you are already paying for.”
Unknown
Therefore, let’s see what you can already do with the Salesforce org you got in front of you.
Explore Salesforce Business Use Cases
The challenges I mentioned earlier are the same across any business function. Salesforce’s core products already have solutions for these common business processes built into the platform out-of-the-box (e.g. Tasks, Chatter, List Views, just to name a few). You just need to make use of them and apply them across your Standard and Custom Objects and Apps.
IT – can use Salesforce to track and analyze requests, automate email confirmations on status updates or track hardware used by employees.
HR – can use Salesforce to capture and monitor performance reviews. Or manage on-boarding and other training plans as well as holidays and other leave.
Finance – can use Salesforce to manage pricing, budget and contracts.
Which business function would you like to see integrated into Salesforce? Leave me a comment below.
WHAT ELSE…
This video tutorial is part of our Complete Salesforce Certification Courses. They cover everything from Salesforce Basics to advanced Salesforce features and functionalities every Salesforce professional should know about.
Being new in the Salesforce job market can make you feel tiny in this vast Salesforce ecosystem. Many job ads seem to be looking for applicants with 2-3 or more years Salesforce experience. And you may not have any of that at all and you may feel like you will never find that Salesforce dream job. In this article we discuss how you can still stand out from the crowd and showcase your Salesforce talent… in your unique way!
Showcase Your Salesforce Experience – Even if you don’t have any
Being new in the Salesforce job market can make you feel tiny in this vast Salesforce ecosystem. When you see a job posting, in most cases they seem to be looking for applicants with 2-3 or more years of Salesforce experience. And you may not have any of that at all and you may feel like you will never get a job in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Now, keep in mind that all those experienced Salesforce Admins or Salesforce Consultants have started just like you. Hence, they must be coming from somewhere. And with the Salesforce job market growing constantly, the Salesforce ecosystem is in need of building out more Salesforce professionals, just like YOU.
However, this also means there are a lot of newcomers competing with you. How can you still stand out from the crowd and showcase your Salesforce talent?
Prove your Salesforce Talent in your next Salesforce Job Interview
It’s about the big picture. It’s about understanding the Salesforce platform, how it can improve business processes and how you can contribute with your skills to your future employer’s success. Recruiters and Hiring Managers are looking for a well-rounded skill profile. They are not just looking for your Salesforce Admin Certification or other certifications. They want to see how you can apply your technical knowledge in combination with your soft skills. There are three key aspects employers are looking for:
Creative Thinking
This means, thinking outside the box. Can you identify what a business needs and what a potential solution may be? This can include setting up Custom Apps and Custom Objects to manage business-specific processes with all corresponding details in one place.
Problem Solving
What do you do when you don’t seem to find a declarative solution? This is a common scenario. Do you have to take it to the next level with more complex automations or should you look for a solution on the AppExchange?
Forward Thinking
This means helping a business look into the future. How can they get business insights and identify potential improvements for future business success and growth, for example with Reports and Dashboards. Maybe consider the integration of Salesforce external data with tools like Tableau.
This doesn’t mean you have to know the apps on the AppExchange or tools like Tableau inside out. That’s impossible. However, having an understanding of the potential capabilities will go a long way. So just step outside your Trailhead zone and take a browse through Salesforce’s product range as well as the AppExchange. Maybe get a free trial for Tableau (or other Salesforce products) or watch some demo videos.
Just like Albert Einstein used to say:
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
Albert Einstein
This means you don’t need to know everything but you need to know when and where to look for answers.
The next question is how you can build up these qualities to prepare for your job interview meaning for your Salesforce dream job.
Build Your Own Salesforce Experience
Even if you don’t have on-the-job experience with Salesforce, you can start building your very own technical experience and soft skills. It all starts with your hands-on practice, a.k.a. experience on Trailhead ▶️ (Video Guide included). And then … taking all that Salesforce knowledge and converting it into a tailored build completely done by yourself.
Does this feel unachievable? No need to pull your hair out! Let’s take it step by step:
Gaining Salesforce Hands-on Experience starts by Learning Salesforce
As mentioned earlier, your Salesforce learning and experience journey starts with Trailhead. Get a Trailhead Account and start learning.
A good starting point is the Salesforce Administrator Certification Trailmix, even if you’re not sure yet whether or not you want to get certified. It covers all fundamental knowledge and hands-on practice every Salesforce professional needs to have, even those that choose not to get certified.
What I’ve done with the official Trailmix though, I’ve tweaked it a little to add a bit more logic and additional learning units, that I know will serve you better grasp the contents. This will give a more comprehensive learning experience:
If self-guided learning feels to overwhelming, how about taking a Salesforce Course. Have a look at our guided video tutorials and study workbooks to complement your learning success.
Once you’ve got your fundamentals covered, you are ready to take it to the next level. This means, start completing more advanced Trailhead Modules and Projects. This will not only help you prepare better for your Salesforce Certification Exam but it will help you deepen your expertise.
Here are some recommended Trailhead Modules and Projects:
You can also choose to complete one or more Superbadges. They are provided by Trailhead to give you real-life business use cases of the type of challenges you’ll be confronted with in a real Salesforce Admin job role or similar.
While Superbadges won’t take forever they still do require some time and patience to be completed. You may as well skip them for now (but not forever) and see how far you get with what you’ve already learned. Why not give it a go and build your very own business use case.
🌶 Because…eventually, this part is what will set you apart from the competition.
Build your own Salesforce Custom App based on your own Real World Experience
And this is where you can truly prove that you can think outside the box and come up with customized solutions. Now how does this work?
By building your very own app in Salesforce. You are essentially replicating a real-life business process in Salesforce. Simply look around you. What types of shops are in your area? Are you a member of a sports club? Think about how these shops or clubs would manage their day-to-day to-dos. Think about how they would manage their customer details, their memberships, their sales, donations, equipment, and so on?
🌶 KNOW THIS: It doesn’t have to be perfect, a potential employer just wants to see how you can approach solving a business problem.
Let me give you a couple of examples you can use to create a Custom App on your own:
Salesforce Custom App Example 1 – Manage your job applications:
Track best job portals (a.k.a. Custom Object)
Identify suitable positions and corresponding job applications (a.k.a. Custom Objects)
Use a dedicated workspace for job applications (a.k.a. Custom App)
Store Recruiter contact details (a.k.a. Account and Contact Standard Objects)
Manage different types of jobs you may be interested in such as Volunteer, Full-Time, Part-Time etc. (a.k.a. Record Types, Page Layouts)
Track your application progress (a.k.a. Paths Settings)
Set up automated follow-up reminders (a.k.a. Flow Builder)
Monitor time and effort (a.k.a. Reports and Dashboards)
Salesforce Custom App Example 2 – Manage your running club:
Set up club departments, sponsors (a.k.a. Account Types = Record Types)
Set up club members (a.k.a. Contacts)
Manage equipment (a.k.a. Custom Object)
Track donations (a.k.a. Opportunities)
Use dedicated workspaces for club internal details versus sponsorship details (a.k.a. Custom Apps)
Set up automated sponsorship renewals (a.k.a. Flow Builder)
Monitor sponsorships and donations over time (a.k.a. Reports and Dashboards)
🌶 Struggling to find ideas? Then check out the Salesforce Customer Success Stories. They range from small businesses to larger organizations that have decided to solve their business issues with Salesforce. You can read about the types of challenges and which Salesforce products they chose to overcome these challenges:
Once you’ve created your personal business use case, a.k.a Salesforce Experience, it’s time to tell the world about it!
Share Your Salesforce Experience
Don’t be shy to share your work with Recruiters and Hiring Managers, even if it’s not the typical on-the-job type of experience. It still shows that you’ve developed your Salesforce skills plus soft skills to match the criteria employers are looking for.
Therefore, add your Salesforce experience to your resume. And even better, add it to your LinkedIn profile, because that’s a common place where Recruiters and Hiring Managers are looking for talent. And you want to make sure you can be found.
And don’t forget to add your Salesforce Certification as well as your Trailblazer.ID.
Closing Remarks
Gaining Salesforce experience has different faces. They include practicing hands-on with Trailhead, completing Superbadges or building your own Salesforce App. Other ways to gain experience is through volunteer opportunities and of course real-life Salesforce jobs. As I always like to say: Take it step-by-step, and you will get there!
Let me know in the comments if you managed to create your very own Salesforce app. What did you set up? I’d love to hear about it. 👏🏻
