Salesforce Administrator Full Descriptive Notes (Beginner to Advanced)
1. What is Salesforce? Salesforce is a leading cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
platform used by organizations to manage customer data, track sales, deliver services, automate processes,
and integrate with other systems. It offers cloud solutions for Sales, Service, Marketing, and more. Since it's
cloud-based, users can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. It's known for its scalability,
reliability, and extensive ecosystem.
2. Role of a Salesforce Administrator Salesforce Administrators are responsible for the configuration,
maintenance, and ongoing support of a Salesforce org. Their duties include user management, setting up
profiles and roles, building reports and dashboards, automating workflows using tools like Flow, ensuring
data quality, and staying compliant with security standards. They act as the bridge between users and the
technical Salesforce team and ensure the system aligns with business processes.
3. Salesforce Editions Salesforce offers various editions to meet different business needs: - Essentials:
Basic CRM for small teams with limited customization. - Professional: More robust CRM with campaigns
and customizable tabs. - Enterprise: Full-featured CRM with advanced automation and access control. -
Unlimited: All Enterprise features plus 24/7 support, more sandboxes, and premier services.
4. Standard vs Custom Objects Objects in Salesforce represent database tables: - Standard Objects: Built-
in objects provided by Salesforce (e.g., Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Case). - Custom Objects:
Created by users to store data unique to their business. Custom object names end in __c . Admins can
create custom fields, page layouts, and relationships for these objects to customize business processes.
5. Fields and Field Types Each object consists of fields that hold individual data points: - Basic Types: Text,
Number, Date, Email, Phone, URL - Advanced Types: Picklist (single/multi-select), Checkbox, Formula
(calculated fields), Lookup (relationship to another object), Master-Detail (tight relationship, parent controls
child record lifecycle), Roll-Up Summary (calculations from related records) Admins also define field-level
security and validation for data integrity.
6. User Management Admins manage the lifecycle of users: - Create/Deactivate Users: Assign
usernames, email addresses, profiles, and roles. - Reset Passwords: Assist with login issues. - Login Access
Policies: Set login hours and IP ranges. - Permission Audits: Regularly review user access for compliance.
7. Profiles and Permission Sets - Profile: Each user has one profile that defines their object, field, and app-
level access. It determines what the user can see and do. - Permission Set: Grants additional permissions to
users without changing their profile. Useful for assigning access based on responsibilities or projects.
Admins use permission set groups to bundle permissions logically.
8. Roles and Role Hierarchy - Roles control data visibility through the role hierarchy. - Users higher in the
hierarchy can view, edit, and report on records owned by users below them. - The hierarchy supports
reporting and sharing access, especially in large orgs.
9. Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD) and Sharing - OWD sets the baseline record access level (Private,
Public Read Only, Public Read/Write). - Admins use Sharing Rules to automatically extend access to users
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based on criteria. - Manual Sharing allows one-off record access. - Teams (Account, Opportunity, Case
Teams) enable record-level collaboration.
10. Page Layouts, Record Types, and Lightning Pages - Page Layouts control the arrangement of fields,
buttons, sections, and related lists on a record page. - Record Types allow different business processes,
picklist values, and layouts for different users. - Lightning Pages are customizable pages that support
components, actions, and tabs. Admins use these tools to create user-specific and process-specific UI
experiences.
11. Validation Rules - Used to enforce data quality. - Prevent users from saving records with missing or
invalid data. - Built using formulas that evaluate to true or false. Example: CloseDate < TODAY() to
prevent selecting past close dates.
12. Automation Tools - Workflow Rules: Automate tasks like field updates, email alerts. Limited actions. -
Process Builder: Allows branching logic and multiple criteria. Being replaced. - Flow: Most powerful tool to
automate business logic with visual interface. - Types: Record-Triggered Flow, Screen Flow, Scheduled Flow,
Auto-Launched Flow. - Can perform CRUD operations, send emails, loop through records, and more.
Salesforce recommends Flow for all new automation.
13. Reports and Dashboards - Reports help users view and analyze Salesforce data. Types: - Tabular:
Simple list - Summary: Grouped rows with subtotals - Matrix: Grouped rows and columns - Joined:
Combine multiple views - Dashboards display reports visually via charts, gauges, and tables. Admins build
and schedule dashboards for decision-makers.
14. Data Management - Data Import Wizard: Simple tool for importing up to 50,000 records, supports
standard and custom objects. - Data Loader: Desktop app for importing/exporting millions of records,
supports insert, update, upsert, delete. - Duplicate Rules and Matching Rules: Prevent or alert on
duplicate data. - Mass Transfer: Move record ownership in bulk.
15. Sandbox Types - Developer: For development/testing. Minimal storage. - Developer Pro: More storage.
- Partial Copy: Includes a sample of production data based on templates. - Full Sandbox: Complete copy of
production data and metadata. Used for staging and UAT. Admins refresh sandboxes based on project
needs.
16. AppExchange - Salesforce’s app marketplace. - Offers free and paid apps, components, and consulting
services. - Apps can be installed as managed (locked code) or unmanaged (modifiable). Admins evaluate
apps before installing to avoid security and performance issues.
17. Security Settings - Password Policies: Set password strength, expiration, lockout. - IP Restrictions:
Limit access to trusted networks. - Login Hours: Restrict access during certain times. - Multi-Factor
Authentication (MFA): Enhances login security. - SSO: Federated identity using Okta, Azure, etc., via SAML/
OAuth protocols.
18. Metadata and Deployment - Metadata: Structure of Salesforce (objects, fields, automation, layouts). -
Change Sets: Push customizations from one org to another (e.g., Sandbox to Production). - Salesforce CLI /
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ANT: Command-line tools for advanced deployments. - DevOps Tools: Copado, Gearset help manage
releases and version control. Admins validate and test metadata before deploying.
19. Development Basics for Admins Admins don’t code but should understand: - Apex: Salesforce's
backend programming language. - Triggers: Automated code executed before/after DML. - Visualforce:
Legacy markup language. - Lightning Web Components (LWC): Modern UI development framework.
Admins test and monitor development done by developers, and help in deployments.
20. Common Interview Questions 1. How do you implement record-level security? 2. Difference between
Profile and Permission Set? 3. What is a Validation Rule? Give an example. 4. When do you use Flow vs
Workflow? 5. How do you manage data import/export? 6. What are Record Types used for? 7. How do
Sharing Rules work? 8. What tools do you use for deployment? 9. How do you troubleshoot Flow errors? 10.
Explain the types of Sandboxes and when to use them.
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