Author: Peggy Schael | Salesforce Trainer | WeLearnSalesforce
The Spring’21 Release has arrived, most Salesforce Orgs have been updated. Your Trailhead Playgrounds are usually the last ones to receive the updates.
If you want to find out which version your Salesforce Org is on, you can go to https://status.salesforce.com, search for your Org’s instance and view the details.
BTW, if you are not sure which instance your Salesforce Org belongs to, check the Company Information page in the Setup.
As always, even if you don’t have to complete any maintenance modules, you should keep up-to-date on the latest and greatest Salesforce features. Make sure to check the Certification Maintenance Schedule so you don’t miss yours!
You may have seen this message across the original Release Notes page:
The Release Notes are moving all the way into Salesforce Help. It’s best to bookmark the page in your browser, so you can easily find them again.
And without further ado, here are our Top 10 favorite features:
#1 Catch Potential Duplicates Before Saving
Duplicates are a pain in the b… so the good news is, Duplicate Management is getting better and better. In combination with Dynamic Forms, Users will already get an alert while they create or edit a Lightning Record Page. On other pages, Users will only get an alert after they hit the Save button.
Tip: Set up Matching and Duplicate Rules for the relevant Object.
#2 Accounts can now be added as Campaign Members
Still in BETA and may not last, but for now we are super happy it’s here, and very much hope it will stay on. Accounts can finally be added as Campaign Members. This means you start planning your Marketing Campaigns using List Views and Reports based on Accounts instead of individual names which you may not have yet.
Tip: Enable Accounts as Campaign Members in the Setup.
#3 Collaborative Forecasts adjustments now available on the Salesforce Mobile App
If you are working in a competitive sales driven environment and you are on the go most of the time, you’ve certainly had your frustrations with your Salesforce mobile access. There is one more item which has been enabled: your Forecast predictions. Some days are more productive than others and you want to be able to track your progress in real-time. Now you can adjust your Forecast numbers on the fly to the next Customer.
No tip, just use it. 😉
#4 Opportunity Products can be referenced on other Objects too
Opportunity Products are the specific Products which are added as line items on an Opportunity, referred to as ‘OpportunityLineItem’. There wasn’t much else you could do with it. Now, you can. You can reference these OpportunityLineItems on other Objects. Let’s say you have a Shipment Object and want to reference the specific OpportunityLineItem which is being shipped, you can create a Lookup Relationship and select the Opportunity Product.
Tip: Create a Lookup Relationship field on a Custom Object and select ‘Opportunity Product’ from the Related To picklist.
#5 Convert Leads to a Business and Person Account simultaneously
This is for Salesforce Orgs that have Person Accounts enabled. When you convert a Lead and the Company field is left blank, it turns the Lead into a Person Account automatically. However, sometimes you need both the Business and Individual. Just think about bank accounts or insurance accounts where you have couples or families and you need to bundle the individuals into “Family” accounts. You can now have the converted individual Lead added to Business Account. It does require a Custom Flow though. There are new arguments made available for LeadConvert() class.
Tip: Enable the Contacts to Multiple Accounts feature if you haven’t already.
#6 Lightning Sync to be replaced with Einstein Activity Capture
We all love syncing our inbox and calendar with Salesforce, and while Lighting Sync did the job, Einstein Activity Capture is the future. And the future is arriving faster than you’d think. Hence, Lightning Sync won’t get anymore support. Einstein Activity Capture is the way to go.
Tip: Disable Lighting Sync before you enable Einstein Activity Capture. Do it carefully, you don’t want to create a mess. 😉
#7 Add Multiple Fields to Your Reports
Really? This one was a mystery to me. What Classic Reports could do so nicely long ago, Lightning Reports couldn’t. Creating Reports from scratch with Lightning was really something to get used to, if you were like me, moving from Classic to Lightning. Another milestone with Reports has been reached, you can now select multiple Fields to add to your Report.
No tip, just go for it. 😉
#8 Salesforce Mobile now has a Home Page
The Home page used to be a privilege of the Desktop User Interface, and now it can be set up for the Salesforce Mobile menu as well. This is in Beta and only for iOS Users but totally worth checking it out.
Tip: Set up a Custom Attribute in the Manage Connected Apps settings for the relevant mobile app, e.g., the Salesforce for iOS.
#9 Standard Read Only Profile becomes a Custom Profile
Salesforce has been extending the permissions available in this Read Only Profile over time. Since it used to be a Standard Profile it was not editable. This is going to change. Salesforce will turn this into a Custom Profile. It’s never been a good idea to assign Standard Profiles to your Users anyways, unless you have signed up for a Salesforce Edition which does not support Custom Profiles. Now, this change will be automated, you don’t really have to do much. BUT, the Metadata API is changed from ‘ReadOnly’ to ‘Read Only’. Therefore, if you are referencing this in Apex code, calls, files etc. you will need to change the reference.
#10 Manual Sharing has arrived in Lightning
Yeah! This has been a handy feature in Classic already. I call this the “last resort” sharing option which you can use when a record isn’t already shared through the Role Hierarchy, Sharing Rules or other sharing settings. It allows Users to choose if and with whom they want to share a particular and possibly sensitive record.
If you wanted to use this in Lighting you had to install an app from the AppExchange and make numerous customizations to get the action button onto record pages.
Tip: The Sharing action button only appears if the Org-Wide Defaults for the Object are not already Public Read/Write.
Getting up-to-speed on all these exciting release features is only half as exciting if you cannot earn any points to add to your shiny Trailblazer Profile. Therefore, check out more Salesforce Spring’21 Release Highlights with this Trailhead Module:
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/modules/spring-21-release-highlights
There’s so much more to explore, we can’t possibly put it all in one article. What are your favorite new features? Let us know in the comments.
WHAT ELSE…
Are you a Salesforce Beginner or want to freshen up on your Admin skills? Then check out our complete Salesforce Administrator Certification Course. It covers all the basics you need to know as a successful Salesforce professional with lots of hands-on exercises.
And if you are not sure what you know or don’t know, how about you test your knowledge with our realistic Practice Exams. You get lots of business scenarios and the results include detailed explanations and plenty of learning resources.
