Michael Kolodner
6 days ago4 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.
140 views
Michael Kolodner
Nov 134 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.
575 views
Michael Kolodner
Oct 304 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.
573 views
Michael Kolodner
Oct 164 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.
108 views
Michael Kolodner
Oct 22 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!
318 views
Michael Kolodner
Sep 185 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.
311 views
Michael Kolodner
Sep 47 min read
Freebie's Dreamforce Tips
My tips for surviving and thriving at Dreamforce and other Salesforce conferences and events.
396 views
Michael Kolodner
Aug 212 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.
437 views
Michael Kolodner
Aug 75 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.
286 views
Michael Kolodner
Jul 246 min read
Design for User Success: Button Order
How to apply design sensibility to the placement and order of buttons on your Salesforce pages.
291 views
Michael Kolodner
Jul 103 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.
425 views
Michael Kolodner
Jun 264 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.
540 views
Michael Kolodner
Jun 53 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.
415 views
Michael Kolodner
May 226 min read
Design for User Success: Field Placement
Key principles of field placement and page design to enhance user experience and efficiency in Salesforce.
606 views
Michael Kolodner
May 83 min read
Band-Aid for New Cloud Reporting
I've built a workaround to allow fundraising reporting the Nonprofit Cloud otherwise doesn't support.
670 views
Michael Kolodner
Apr 2410 min read
Extension Objects: There’s Nothing to Like
Extension Objects are the "on core" place to put fields that really belong on objects like accounts and contacts. They are a problem.
963 views
Michael Kolodner
Apr 107 min read
These Are Not The Components You're Looking For
Salesforce's "Industries" solutions come with access to many new components. I wish they worked better.
656 views
Michael Kolodner
Mar 276 min read
Deeply Skeptical About Person Accounts
Despite being the official solution for dealing with individuals on Salesforce, Person Accounts are difficult to use.
1,293 views
Michael Kolodner
Mar 1315 min read
The Emperor's New Clouds
New Nonprofit Cloud and Education Cloud are more expensive and less functional than NPSP and EDA. Most nonprofits should stay away.
5,069 views
Michael Kolodner
Feb 282 min read
Thing I Learned: Email Encoding Has Changed
Salesforce's default email encoding has switched to UTF-8 (unicode). Make sure you update yourself and all existing users.
404 views
Michael Kolodner
Feb 145 min read
My FlowLog Object
I use a custom object to log when automation fires and what steps are completed. Here's what I built and how I make it easy to reuse.
412 views
![Email to someone not [yet] in Salesforce](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/77ee92_2f0868da58db485ea0f16730deba9a89~mv2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_1260,h_948,fp_0.50_0.50,q_90,enc_auto/77ee92_2f0868da58db485ea0f16730deba9a89~mv2.jpeg)
Michael Kolodner
Jan 317 min read
Email to someone not [yet] in Salesforce
How I solved the challenge of emailing someone that might not be in Salesforce and still relating that message to the right record.
379 views
Michael Kolodner
Jan 173 min read
Things You Don’t Need: Sales+Service
Nonprofits should only pay $432/user/year, a Lighting Enterprise Edition or Sales Cloud license. They're often sold more expensive licenses.
487 views
Michael Kolodner
Jan 34 min read
Things You [usually] Don’t Need: A Full Sandbox
Nonprofits rarely need or should pay for a full copy sandbox. Unless you have a specific project that's going to need it, save your money.
442 views
Michael Kolodner
Dec 20, 20235 min read
Things You Don’t Need: Premier Success
Nonprofits do not need to pay for Premier Success. Save your money to give your admin professional development.
336 views
Michael Kolodner
Dec 6, 20233 min read
Things You Don’t Need: Unlimited Edition
Why nonprofits should not pay for Unlimited Edition. Save your money because the benefits are not worth the cost.
753 views
Michael Kolodner
Nov 21, 20233 min read
In Praise of "Clicks not Code"
The fact that Salesforce is easy to build and automate without code is a gift that has built community and careers.
195 views
Michael Kolodner
Nov 8, 20234 min read
Prices Go Up (Discount Goes Down)
News Flash: Salesforce announces 9% price hike. Nonprofit prices rise 14.6%. I try to understand why.
786 views
Michael Kolodner
Oct 25, 202310 min read
Platform Events — My New Favorite Tool
An introduction to Platform Events and the cool things I've found to do with them.
1,311 views
Michael Kolodner
Oct 12, 20232 min read
Unlimited Edition Means No P10!
A quick update about an unethical AE sales tactic.
277 views
Michael Kolodner
Oct 11, 20238 min read
Spoiler Alert: AEs are Salespeople
The sales incentives at Salesforce do not always result in the best outcomes for nonprofits. Buyer beware!
574 views
Michael Kolodner
Sep 27, 20233 min read
No Dreamforce Wrap-up From Me
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I didn't publish a post-TDX wrap up, nor anything in particular...
238 views
Michael Kolodner
Sep 13, 20231 min read
Smiley Faces Form
A cool javascript update to a FormAssembly that my son helped figure out. Rate something 1 to 5 using emoji faces!
180 views
Michael Kolodner
Aug 30, 20233 min read
Free Things I Always Install: Unofficial SF
UnofficialSF is a treasure trove of flow extensions, code snippets, and more. There are some tools I always know I'll need and others I keep
1,084 views
Michael Kolodner
Aug 16, 20231 min read
Free Things I Always Install: DLRS
I always install DLRS into new orgs or existing ones. It's just a great tool that can solve so many needs!
331 views
Michael Kolodner
Aug 2, 20232 min read
Free Things I Always Install: Mopsy
Another free thing I always install: Mopsy. It improves upon the Today's Tasks component so your users see their To Do items.
665 views
Michael Kolodner
Jul 19, 20233 min read
Free Things I Always Install: Lightning Messaging Utility
Lightning Messaging Utility from Salesforce Labs is a handy tool for displaying messages that fit the Salesforce design pattern.
1,384 views
Michael Kolodner
Jun 27, 20234 min read
Apsona: The Golden App for Bulk Data Operations
Apsona for Salesforce is my favorite app. I consider it so important that I require my clients to install it.
545 views
Michael Kolodner
Jun 14, 20233 min read
Rollup to Relationship: A Cool DLRS Trick
A rollup summary trick to create a direct relationship to the last child record.
553 views
Michael Kolodner
May 31, 20235 min read
FormAssembly’s Price Increase
FormAssembly is raising their pricing. A lot. It still might be worthwhile for nonprofits.
1,815 views
Michael Kolodner
Apr 26, 20235 min read
Always Build in a Sandbox. (Except When You Don't. Or can't.)
We always say you should never build in production. But I say sometimes it makes sense.
435 views
Michael Kolodner
Apr 12, 202312 min read
Setting Up the Free Integration Users
A step-by-step guide to using the free Salesforce integration user licenses.
3,811 views
Michael Kolodner
Mar 29, 20236 min read
Tools I Love: DLRS (the Declarative Lookup Rollup Summary tool)
DLRS, the Declarative Lookup Rollup Summary Tool, gives your rollup summary fields superpowers.
1,284 views
Michael Kolodner
Mar 15, 20238 min read
The TL;DR on the “New Nonprofit Cloud”
What does Salesforce.org's announcement of the new Nonprofit Cloud mean for you and your org?
4,431 views
Michael Kolodner
Mar 14, 20234 min read
Actual Free Stuff! Five No-cost Integration Users Announced at TDX23
Salesforce is making at least five free API-only integration users available to every org. Better security and auditability for less cost!
496 views
Michael Kolodner
Mar 1, 20235 min read
My First Einstein Prediction
What can you expect when you install Einstein for Nonprofits? And what will you learn about your data from the predictions?
602 views
Michael Kolodner
Feb 15, 20235 min read
Naming Convention Flows
How to make text-named records have consistent and useful names.
618 views
Michael Kolodner
Feb 1, 20233 min read
One Form To Rule Them All
Use a single webform for many uses with URL parameters and save yourself time.
364 views
Michael Kolodner
Jan 26, 20231 min read
Sprinty's Community Resources
Announcing Sprinty’s Community Resources, an online library of Salesforce content for nonprofits.
140 views
Michael Kolodner
Jan 18, 20234 min read
i++ (or For Loops) in Flow
How to create a For Loop in Salesforce Flow. (Increment a counter like i++.)
208 views