Reports are a great way to see data you have gathered in an easy-to-digest format. However, what if I told you haven’t really “seen” until you have worked with Salesforce Dashboards?
Keep reading to learn more about dashboards AND how to create your own!
What are Dashboards?
Dashboards are a graphical representation of Reports used in Salesforce. They show data from source reports as visual components. These components provide a snapshot of key metrics and performance indicators of the organization at a glimpse. Who doesn’t enjoy customization!? With Dashboards you can individualize components to display data that suits your style, and view your key metrics.
Dashboard Components
Components are what make Dashboards come alive! They are the building blocks of your Dashboard and a gateway to Salesforce Narnia (not a real place). So, what are Dashboard components? What are the different types? Dashboard components can be charts, tables, gauges, metrics, and Visualforce pages. In simpler terms, components are pictures of your data.
Here are steps to follow:
Step 1: Create Salesforce Dashboards
Step 2: Select Report
Step 3: Add Component(s)
Step 4: Save Dashboard
There you have it! A nice, clean look at your data. Dashboards allow you and your team to see the data that really matters to you.
SalesforceDashboards Fun Facts:
Dashboard Filters
Dashboard filters make it easy for users to apply different data perspectives to a single dashboard. Filtering rules apply to fields from the dashboard’s source reports. After filters are defined, a user viewing the dashboard can select a filter to visualize the data of most interest. The filtered view is remembered – the next time the user visits the dashboard, the same filtered view is shown.
Subscribe to/Schedule Dashboards
Set up automatic dashboard refreshes and receive refreshed dashboard results by email on a schedule that you set. If you start your week by reviewing your Sales Overview dashboard, expedite your morning by subscribing to the dashboard. After subscribing, you can have it automatically refreshed and in your email inbox each Monday morning at 8:00 AM.
You can add up to 20 components to view on a Dashboard.
And there you have it! Now you can create dashboards, add components to better view reports, and customize & edit to your liking! If you’d like to learn more about using platforms like Salesforce, integrating existing systems with Salesforce, or custom platform development, we’re here to help. Drop us a line any time!
Salesforce duplicate records, who needs them, who wants them! Am I right?
With Lightning, there is an easy way to find these lurkers in our records. This agent of truth appears like the following.
This Hero is known as the Duplicate Matching Component and is fueled by Duplicate Rules, Matching Rules, and justice.
These rules can differ from company to company, but they serve as the primary identifier of duplicates. For example, in our organization, a duplicate will only be flagged on Contacts if three of the following criteria are met. 1) First and Last Name Matches 2) Email Matches 3) Account Name Matches 4) Phone Number Matches.
Finding and Merging Salesforce Duplicate Records
Like all true and good Heroes, it knows that the real work must come from all and thus will not take action against these duplicates. That is the responsibility of the masses. When found, these duplicate records must be merged and properly subjugated to the correct account.
This is done by clicking “View Duplicates”.
An important note: When a Duplicate is merged, the second record will be destroyed and the Merge CAN NOT be undone.
From here, select the records you would like to merge. Click next.
When a record is merged all related records will be moved over as well. The Chatter Feed will only be preserved on the master records. Best to look through and see if there is any information that needs to be kept. Files uploaded to the chatter feed or saved to the records will be saved on the merged records.
Merged Records
In this next screen we will decide which record is the master and which record is going to be merged into the master.
Best practice is to use the oldest of the two records or the record that has the most records related to it. By that I mean if a Contact has 10 more Opportunities attached it, that one should be used.
Click Next.
Here our good and faithful hero explains to us again the importance of this task and reminds us the Merge CAN NOT be undone.
When you are sure that you gathered the correct information and most current information. Click finish. Lean back and know that you did good work.
Well done. Our Hero solutes you.
If you have questions about how to identify and delete duplicate records, or any other Salesforce questions, the crew at ForceMedic Design would love to help. Give us a shout here!
Salesforce debuts a comprehensive release of new features and apps three times per year (Winter, Spring, Summer). These bring all sorts of goodies to the platform. The Salesforce Winter 2022 release is here and there are several new features we’d like to put on your radar.
It’s part of our job at ForceMedic to review these new features and ensure they play nicely with our build. The following three play very well and we think you’ll love them too!
3 New Salesforce Features for 2022
Inline Editing of Report Data
The ability to update data through inline editing on reports has been in beta for 6 months. Now it’s finally being released for all Salesforce orgs, platform-wide. As a result, we can update reports more efficiently because we don’t lose our place clicking back and forth. On October 2nd, we can edit date, picklist, and lookup fields without leaving a report to find the record and update fields from there. This could save hours in productivity.
Email Template Builder Updates
Salesforce made a lot of updates to the Email Template Builder over the last several releases. Several more are coming in the Winter 2022 release. These offer more options in creating and using custom email templates.
Add Rows and Columns to Your Email Templates
Use the Layout component to easily add a row to your Email Template Builder or Email Content Builder template. Select a layout with no columns or a set of up to four.
Add Column Padding
Padding between columns in Email Template Builder gives them definition. Before, you could pad content in an individual column. Now, you can evenly pad space between all columns.
Add Indentations to Emails Templates
Indenting creates visual variety and organizes text in your templates. Varying indents emphasize text and make it easier for email recipients to notice it.
Create Longer Subject Lines
The Subject field in Lightning email templates and email templates from Email Template Builder can now be up to 1,000 characters, up from 230 characters. As a result, you can engage readers with more descriptive or eye-catching subject lines.
Send List Emails via Your Email Provider (BETA)
List emails let us run marketing campaigns from Salesforce to as many Contact or Lead records as we want (up to 5,000 emails per day). These emails were once sent using only Salesforce, and the system was notorious for formatting issues, bounces, and spam flags.
Because of these issues, Salesforce is running a pilot program that sends list emails through Outlook. Now, the Lightning for Outlook app links these email campaigns to our Lead/Contact records. This give a 360-degree view of communications we have engaged with those records on.
Excited for the Salesforce Winter 2022 Release?
The team at ForceMedic is always excited about a new Salesforce release, but we hope we’ve built some excitement on your end too. If you’d like to learn more about working these, or any other, features into the way you use Salesforce, we’d love to help! Please contact ForceMedic Design to learn more.
Did you know that in Salesforce Lightning, you can directly reference recently accessed Salesforce records in Chatter by using the forward slash ( / )? The ability to directly tag records in Salesforce Chatter is an important tool for streamlining communications and increasing sales team synergy. Directions on how to do this are below.
1. Enter a forward slash (/) in the body of a Chatter post.
Entering a forward slash into your Chatter post tells Salesforce where you want to insert your link.
2. Start entering the record name.
Begin typing the name of the record you want to link and Salesforce will begin populating a list of recently viewed records with names that contain those words.
3. Select a record from the list.
IMPORTANT: Records on the list are returned as the result of a search, and the search returns only the records that you’ve looked at recently. So, if you’ve never viewed or interacted with a particular record, or if it’s been a very long time since you have, it will not appear on the list.
4. Finish writing your post or comment and click Share.
The users who can access the record can also see the record name as a link within the Chatter post. The users who can’t access the record, due to their assigned role or permissions-based limitations, will see a Record Not Available message instead of a link to the record.
Using these direct links to tag records in Salesforce Chatter will make your team’s communication clearer, cleaner, and faster! If you would like to know more about this or any other Salesforce functionality, bookmark this page for more tips (weekly) on using Salesforce more efficiently and effectively. If you’d like to dive even deeper and explore system integrations or custom tools, please contact ForceMedic Design, where we love talking platform development.
