

This Setting Makes Me Mad
It feels like a major violation of Trust that Salesforce has installed a new setting defaulted to ON that allows them to use YOUR data to train AI models

Michael Kolodner
Apr 294 min read


Attach a File to an Email in Flow
Flows have become an extremely powerful way to automate communications for program management. But some tasks can be harder to figure out than others.

Michael Kolodner
Apr 223 min read


It's Natural: Sometimes People Don't Finish
Be careful not to build screen flows that won’t take their final actions.

Michael Kolodner
Apr 83 min read


We Need to Talk
The nonprofit Salesforce community needs to come together to discuss the future for organizations on the platform. Right now things are uncoordinated and that is unhelpful.

Michael Kolodner
Mar 254 min read


Upsert Contacts to a Campaign
You can use the NPSP Data Importer to efficiently match contacts, create new ones when needed, and add them to a campaign.

Michael Kolodner
Mar 114 min read


Time for Change at the Top
Marc Benioff's recent "joke" at Salesforce's annual sales kickoff was insensitive and off-putting. It's time for change at the top.

Michael Kolodner
Feb 253 min read


Mute Tips
Did you know you can make the annoying Flow tips box go away?

Michael Kolodner
Feb 112 min read


Test Data Formula
A quick and easy trick to keep track of your test records that live in prod.

Michael Kolodner
Jan 285 min read


These Are Not Turnkey Products
Nonprofit Success Pack and Nonprofit Cloud are not products. They're additional metadata on the Salesforce platform. Don't treat them like you can just turn a key to start them up.

Michael Kolodner
Jan 145 min read


Rollup and Report on Who
My solution to make clickable links to reports that show the total of the records that meet those report filters.

Michael Kolodner
Dec 31, 20253 min read


Platform Not Product
Salesforce makes a very good platform but not necessarily always good products.

Michael Kolodner
Dec 17, 20257 min read


MLP for Bridge
My initial thoughts on a minimum lovable product for nonprofits using Salesforce.

Michael Kolodner
Dec 3, 20255 min read


A Bridge to the Future
Introducing Nonprofit Bridge, a new Open Source Commons project focused on providing a choice for small organizations that want to use the power of the Salesforce platform to work with individual people.

Michael Kolodner
Nov 19, 20255 min read


Holding My Nose
Marc Benioff's recent comments in the news are extremely disappointing. In the end I'm holding my nose and continuing to use Salesforce because it's a powerful platform. But I think we should always keep the full context top-of-mind.

Michael Kolodner
Nov 5, 20257 min read


How I Do Perms
The five steps I take to get profiles and permissions transitioned to the future of user access.

Michael Kolodner
Oct 22, 202510 min read


Baking Your User Access Layer Cake
Personas and User Access Policies allow Salesforce admins to determine what permissions people need and to automate it so that new users get the right permissions.

Michael Kolodner
Oct 8, 20253 min read


Perms Are Not for Hair- Understanding User Access
User access in Salesforce is based on permissions granted at several levels. This is the first in a series exploring user access and how to manage it effectively.

Michael Kolodner
Sep 24, 20255 min read


Platform Users Usage Tips
A few notes about how to manage platform users that I had to discover the hard way.

Michael Kolodner
Sep 10, 20254 min read


NPC Platform Users?
Can you use platform licenses with Nonprofit Cloud or Industries-based solutions. Technically, I suspect Yes. But it's probably not the right question.

Michael Kolodner
Aug 27, 20253 min read


Platform Users: Cheap and Powerful
An introduction to the use and pricing of Salesforce Platform Licenses.

Michael Kolodner
Aug 13, 20255 min read


Introducing IceTea!
Introducing IceTea, an extension tool for CumulusCI that helps you work with your stored datasets. (Created by my son Arden!)

Michael Kolodner
Jul 30, 20253 min read


An Improved Reports/Dashboards Tab?
The new Analytics Home that Salesforce released a few years back is not all it's cracked up to be.

Michael Kolodner
Jul 16, 20254 min read


Chatter on Reports and Dashboards
With a few clicks you can turn on Chatter for reports and dashboards, which makes collaboration easy and grounded in the right context.

Michael Kolodner
Jul 2, 20253 min read


Thing I Learned: Flow Entry Formulas
I learned that flows on outdated API versions can leave you in the dark when it comes to where fields are used.

Michael Kolodner
Jun 18, 20254 min read


Stack Platform Licenses
Did you know that you can _stack_ Platform Licenses to save money? Depending on your system design, this can be a great use for a basic system.

Michael Kolodner
May 28, 20254 min read


How I Solved It: File Deletion Flow
Working with Files in Salesforce is hard. Users can't delete files they don't own. Here's my screen flow solution to that challenge.

Michael Kolodner
May 14, 202510 min read


Thing I Learned: NPSP Contact Role Triggers
The NPSP triggers that automate opportunity contact roles are built on the assumption that nobody will ever manually update those roles.

Michael Kolodner
Apr 30, 20255 min read


Pick Your Partner With Care
When choosing an implementation partner make sure to follow the money and ensure that you're getting unbiased advice. Caveat emptor!

Michael Kolodner
Apr 16, 20256 min read


Don't Go to Salesforce First!
Don't sign a Salesforce contract until you've found an implementation partner on your own. They can guide you to save money and not overbuy.

Michael Kolodner
Apr 2, 20256 min read


You Don't Need Docusign (or Adobe Sign, or ....)
There are many options for gathering signatures electronically that don't have to involve an expensive e-sign platform.

Michael Kolodner
Mar 19, 20256 min read


A State Processing Engine
This is how I built a flow-based state processing engine using platform events. It allows for high volume asynchronous processing of records

Michael Kolodner
Mar 5, 20257 min read


What I've Learned about Platform Events
Platform events can be a powerful addition to the Salesforce Admin's toolkit. I share some learnings and limitations.

Michael Kolodner
Feb 19, 20255 min read


"Why do you hate NPC?"
Why do I hate Nonprofit Cloud? I don't. It's just not a product that's part of my day-to-day.

Michael Kolodner
Feb 5, 20253 min read


Give Lively Can Use Free API Integration User
Despite what Give Lively's documentation says, it's possible to use a free integration user. Here's what you need to do.

Michael Kolodner
Jan 22, 20259 min read


Barrier to Entry
Though it used to be easier, there are now barriers to organizations self-implementing Salesforce. It can be done, but keep your eyes open.

Michael Kolodner
Jan 8, 20257 min read


Id Key Prefixes
Discussion of the use and format of Salesforce key prefixes, the three characters at the start of a record Id that tell you what object tabl

Michael Kolodner
Dec 11, 20244 min read


Reading Salesforce URLs
A guide to Salesforce URLs, including what's in them and how to reconfigure them to go to other records.

Michael Kolodner
Nov 27, 20244 min read


Bifurcating the Market
Salesforce has divided the nonprofit market in two: large organizations and everyone else. Nonprofit Cloud is only for large organizations.

Michael Kolodner
Nov 13, 20244 min read


The Future of NPSP
The Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is not going away any time soon. Don't let fear cloud your decisions about Salesforce for nonprofits.

Michael Kolodner
Oct 30, 20244 min read


Thing I Learned: Enabling Files Upload in Mobile
Enabling users to upload files to records in the Salesforce mobile app works...differently than you might expect. Here's how to do it.

Michael Kolodner
Oct 16, 20244 min read


Free Like a Beer: Salesforce Reports
Reports and dashboards in Salesforce are so built-in that we barely even think about them as "features." They're the secret sauce!

Michael Kolodner
Oct 2, 20242 min read


Whiz-Bang at What Cost?
It's not yet clear what the price is going to be for organizations to use Salesforce's genAI features like Agentforce and EinsteinGPT.

Michael Kolodner
Sep 18, 20245 min read


Freebie's Dreamforce Tips
My tips for surviving and thriving at Dreamforce and other Salesforce conferences and events.

Michael Kolodner
Sep 4, 20247 min read


Cooler Than Validation Rules
Before save Flows can show a custom error component to serve as validation. A powerful feature, but validation rules still have their place.

Michael Kolodner
Aug 21, 20242 min read


Design for User Success: Think About Text
Text is an important part of your Salesforce page design. Think about placement and balance in field labels, types, and even help text.

Michael Kolodner
Aug 7, 20245 min read


Design for User Success: Button Order
How to apply design sensibility to the placement and order of buttons on your Salesforce pages.

Michael Kolodner
Jul 24, 20246 min read


Design for User Success: Screen Flows
Screen flows can be elements you use to design your record pages, adding options beyond the standard layout controls.

Michael Kolodner
Jul 10, 20243 min read


Design for User Success: Eye Movement
When designing your Salesforce page layouts, think about the ways people's eyes move around the page and use that to guide users.

Michael Kolodner
Jun 26, 20244 min read


🌈 Design For User Success: Add Interest through Color
Suggested tools and ideas to add visual interest to your Salesforce pages by taking color into consideration.

Michael Kolodner
Jun 5, 20243 min read


Design for User Success: Field Placement
Key principles of field placement and page design to enhance user experience and efficiency in Salesforce.

Michael Kolodner
May 22, 20246 min read


