News and updates about the platform
Salesforce Schema Builder is Setup's object-model canvas: what it's good for, how to use it, and where it stops for documenting or sharing your data model.
The standard Salesforce data model: how core objects relate — Account at the hub, Contacts and Opportunities off it, junction objects, and where Leads fit.
How to make a Salesforce ERD — Schema Builder, drawing tools, or the metadata API — what each is good and bad at, plus a free standard-object reference.
Salesforce Case fields: CaseNumber, Subject, Status, Priority, Origin, read-only IsClosed — what each is for and how status, queues, and escalation interlock.
Salesforce Lead fields: Name, Company, Status, LeadSource, read-only IsConverted and Converted* lookups, plus conversion field-mapping gotcha that loses data.
Salesforce Contact fields — Name, Email, Phone, AccountId, MailingAddress, ReportsToId: what each does, the compound-field gotchas, and Person Accounts.
Salesforce Opportunity standard fields — Amount, StageName, Probability, forecast category — how the stage drives several, and the Amount-and-products gotcha.
Salesforce Account fields — Name, Type, Industry, AnnualRevenue, billing address, hierarchy — what each is for, the gotchas, and your org's custom fields.
How to document a Salesforce flow without the XML: flows hide your org's logic and there's no export of what they do. A free template and the honest shortcut.
Flows vs triggers vs validation rules in Salesforce: the fixed order they fire decides which automation wins. What runs first and when to use each.
The Salesforce order of execution: the exact sequence automations run when you save a record — verified against the official docs, plus a free cheat sheet.
Salesforce field types explained: when to use each, reporting and data-loss gotchas the docs skip, plus a free Excel cheat sheet.
Salesforce deployment checklist: pre-flight, deploy, validate, and the rollback plan — a free Excel workbook. Know the blast radius before you push.
Salesforce naming conventions for objects, fields, flows, permission sets, and validation rules — plus a free Excel standard to adopt and audit against.
Free Salesforce org health-check: Excel workbook with 41 checks across the six areas orgs go wrong, severity ratings, and a scorecard that tallies as you go.
NPSP managed fields can't be deleted, but unused custom fields layered on top can be removed. Use population and impact to tell vestigial from load-bearing.
NPSP adds hundreds of fields to Salesforce across five namespaces (npsp__, npe01__, npe03__, npo02__, npe5__). A plain-language reference to what each is for.
A nonprofit Salesforce data dictionary has an NPSP wrinkle: half the schema is a managed package you can't edit. Build one that's useful and stays current.
Document an inherited NPSP org in the right order: separate managed from custom, find what's actually used, map who sees donor fields, and keep it current.
Can't delete a field in Salesforce? It blocks one dependency at a time. Find every reference first: Where is this used?, Dependency API, and a metadata grep.
Can't see a Salesforce field? Field-level security is only one of five layers. How to tell if it's FLS, page layout, record type, or sharing — fast.
Free Salesforce data dictionary template in Excel: four working sheets with dropdowns and sample rows, plus how to fill the Structure and Context halves.
Blank Salesforce field descriptions: inventory via the Tooling API, bulk-deploy via the Metadata API, and the real bottleneck no tool solves — writing them.
Who can see a Salesforce field? Audit every profile and permission set by hand, or run one SOQL query against FieldPermissions for a one-screen answer.
Find unused fields in Salesforce: spot the ones nobody fills in, learn why empty isn't the same as safe to delete, and retire them with dependencies visible.
Comparing profiles to permission sets field by field: prove your new permission set grants exactly what the old profile did before you move off it.
Field-level impact analysis in Salesforce traces the automations, reports, and dependencies that rely on a field, so you can change it with confidence.
Salesforce schema drift is the slow accumulation of changes nobody tracked — until a report breaks or an integration fails. Why the audit trail isn't enough.
Salesforce documentation goes stale the moment you save it. Why manual docs and spreadsheets can't keep up, and what living documentation looks like instead.
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