by Chris Taylor 
It is straightforward to create a field in Salesforce. The flexibility of Salesforce is one of my favourite things about the platform. However, with this, you must also take on the responsibility of ensuring the platform is meeting the needs of the business.
As it is common knowledge that creating a field in Salesforce is simple, it leads to business users requesting fields instead of asking for help with a problem. This can become a burden as these updates are deemed ‘quick and easy’. However, if not managed correctly, this can get out of hand.
Finding purpose
When adding a new field into Salesforce, think does it support or ruin the flow of work?
What is the purpose of this data, and how will it be used?
What’s the worst that could happen if this data is not recorded?
By asking yourself these simple questions, you will get a steer on what is required. A page layout in Salesforce should not look like the cockpit of a plane. You should keep pages as clear as possible to enable users to do their job, not hinder them. However, simplicity is easier to talk about than it is to achieve. You need to ask the tough questions. Gather the real purpose behind why a value is being captured. Is it due to a legal compliance reason? Does it align with the business goals set by the board? Is it part of a process that no longer exists?
You can look for solutions once you discover what needs to be captured. The answer may be a new object, leveraging an existing object, introducing a standard field, or creating the initially requested field.
3 common field request scenarios
Below are three examples of field requests for which you should ask additional questions. This is not to say you should never create these fields, but you should be checking that the request is valid. The person requesting may need to be made aware of the impact of their request or that it could be achieved in another way.
Could you add a new number field on the Opportunity page to store the number of licences we have sold?
Fields are not scalable. What happens when you have the same request for another 5 products? How are you calculating pricing? You should use products with families, which will allow the reporting of licence numbers and provide a more accurate pricing structure.
I need a compliance checkbox which a salesperson checks to say they have reviewed the deal with the compliance team and, if not checked, stops a salesperson from closing the Opportunity.
Avoid adding fields whose only purpose is blocking users from updating a record. It will frustrate users, and they will habitually check this box without considering why it was there. Checking a box does not prove anything has happened. Consider using an approval process, which would track who reviewed the deal and when approved.
We need to know the email addresses of the individuals at the company we are working on the deal with. Please add a large text field so we can add these to the Opportunity?
Using text fields to store data, such as email addresses, can lead to numerous issues, including reporting limitations and data processing. Instead, consider using contact roles on the opportunity. Not only will it solve the problem the business has, but it will also enable features such as Einstein Activity Capture and Account Engagement to link records to your opportunity automatically.
Nick ClarkCommercial Director
Looking for help with Salesforce?
Nick Clark
Commercial Director
Looking for help with Salesforce?
Bad data is worse than no data!
It is common to be asked to create many validation rules to ensure fields are populated in Salesforce. However, often this leads to more problems than you may initially think. When you create a validation rule, you are disrupting the user’s workflow. As such, these should only be added to the system with thought. When you block a user from doing something, they can get frustrated, leading to them putting invalid data in a field so they can bypass the rule. Have you ever seen a picklist where the 1st value is the most popular option being selected? Try moving that option down the list and see if it is still the most popular option or if the new top value is not the most popular. This is a classic case where a user selects the easy choice so they can bypass a rule.
If you are not collecting quality data, what is the purpose of gathering that data at all? Even worse, what happens if your business uses that data to drive decisions? That can be a costly mistake. Not only that, you start a cycle where people put poor quality data in, don’t trust the data that comes out of the system and drive them to use spreadsheets and other unstructured non-trackable tools.
What Next?
When you look into your Salesforce instance and look at record pages, does it spark joy? If not, it’s time to determine if you need those fields. Contact one of our Salesforce consultants today if you need help figuring out where to start.