Every Salesforce administrator needs to ask themselves the following questions:
- What are the password policies within your Salesforce org?
- Are user licences being wasted on those who don’t use the system?
- Where is all the data coming from? Is it quality data?
- How much storage is available and can you maximize it more?
The answer to these questions will be found through a Salesforce audit.
Auditing a Salesforce Org is a comprehensive task. The jobs involved include: maintenance, data and software integration, training, security and coding. Whoever completes the task must know the platform inside out but what are the fundamentals for this audit? Purus have put together a guide that will support in giving your Salesforce Org a health check to keep everything running smoothly.
Reports & Dashboards
The easiest place to start is within reports and dashboards. All users who access Salesforce can generate their own reports. This is likely where you’ll find a lot of trash that can be removed. Users likely create one-time reports for specific tasks or meetings but never return to delete them. Since the Summer ‘14 release, all admins can delete reports using filter criteria within Setup UI.
Administrators should work with their stakeholders to identify what should be deleted from the platform. This can be done by generating a report on reports and looking at the last run date to understand which reports are still being used. From there, you can choose how many reports you want to delete – it could be none, a few or even as many as a 1000.
How to Delete Reports in Salesforce
To delete reports in Salesforce, click Setup | Data Management | Mass Delete Records | Mass Delete Reports. From there, you can filter any criteria you are looking to remove.
AppExchange Apps
Thanks to the Salesforce suite of applications, a lot can be installed but are then forgotten but they need attention from time to time. You should evaluate all the apps installed during your audit and review if they are being used or not. If not, then remove them from the platform.
Deleting AppExchange can be tedious depending on the app that has been installed. Sometimes the app has infiltrated processes within the org so uninstalling it can be a tricky business.
Once all unused apps have been removed, you can turn your attention to the apps you want to keep. Do any of them need to be updated? Not all apps notify customers that a newer version is ready. By navigating to Help & Training in My Account, you can find the updates available for download.
Click the update button for the AppExchange programs that require updating which will take you through the install process. Monitor the changelog for all apps you update to ensure no negative impact has been felt in the org.
User Permissions
If you have multiple admins on your Salesforce org, it is important to audit current user permissions. If there have been recent changes to profiles and permissions sets, it is imperative you check over them. Salesforce prides itself on the security measures in place so businesses can be compliant to data protection regulations such GDPR. Make sure your org is secure by auditing permissions of all admins and users.
Workflows, Validation Rules and Email Templates
When workflow and validation rules are turned off, most businesses leave them in place in case they need to be reactivated. You will probably find during the audit that there are several workflow and validation rules that could be deleted. Review the rules and remove the unwanted ones. You can also update the description fields if needed which will help identify what each rule does.
Your business will use various email templates over time for various campaigns. These are prime candidates for deletion – especially those linked with inactive workflows. Tidy up your template folders and delete what isn’t being used any more.
Completing a DIY audit of your Salesforce Org can be difficult and time-consuming but Salesforce consultants Purus can do it for you. Our Salesforce Support team are waiting to help businesses with their every Salesforce need. Get in touch with us today for more information!
For more Salesforce Admin Tips, check out our blog!