Summer '13 Release Series: Customizable Price Books

Customizable Price Books:

Price books in Salesforce have always been a bit limiting. They have been static and difficult to use because you couldn't customize them. Well with Summer '13 that is all going to change. Now you can add fields, track history, validation rules, field sets, record types, and triggers on Price Book records. There is also a handy dandy new Price Books Tab in Summer '13 (But you do have to enable it if your org isn't new).

1. Adding new fields or updating Price Books is just like you would for any other object. Go to Setup->Customize->Price Books
   
2. Adding the new Tab is something you don't really need to do that often in Salesforce. Usually it just appears and all is good with the world. In this case you have to "Enable" it. Which is odd, but whatever. Here's what you do: 
1. Pull up the profile that you want to enable the tab for, then click edit. 
2. Go to the tabs section and find Price Books. Change the Tab value from "Default Off" to "Default On" and it will become visible.
   

With the Salesforce Summer '13 release this is just one more thing that you can now do in Clicks and not Code.

Summer '13 Release Series: Opportunity Splits

Opportunity Splits:

In the Salesforce.com Summer '13 release it is now possible to create Opportunity Splits. This is a feature long waited for, that we have seen hit pilot once before but was never official G.A. Now it is, and here is what you need to know:

1. There are two different kinds of opportunity splits. They are:
1. Revenue Splits, which must equal 100% of the opportunity amount. These are typically to be shared across those who have direct influence on the sale.
2. Overlay Splits, these are to be shared with anyone who helps in the sale, but may not have direct influence on the revenue. This can be any percentage of the actual opportunity total up to and even exceeding 100%
2. Now that we know about the kinds of splitting, how do we set it up? Well, first we need to enable Team Selling as Splits and Team Selling go hand in hand. You do this by going to
   Setup->Customize->Opportunities->Opportunity Teams->Settings. Click the "Enable Team Selling" checkbox as seen below:
   
3. You'll then have the ability to add the  Opportunity Team Related List to the Page Layouts that you have for Opportunities. You can do this later if you don't do it now.
4. You also now have an expanded menu within Opportunity Teams that includes the "Opportunity Splits" category as seen here:
   
5. This is where you can "Enable Opportunity Splits", doing so presents you with a few options and one big yellow box. These boxes and warnings like this usually are important. Make sure you read this before proceeding.
   
6. If you desire you can edit the labels of the types of splits to have names that match your organization here.
7. Click Save. You've now enabled opportunity splits for your organization, and all opportunities going forward will have them included.

This is just another way that you can provide additional features and functionality for your Sales Teams using Clicks and Not Code.

Summer '13 Release Series: Forecasting Using Quantities

As part of Summer '13 Salesforce has finally released the ability to use customizable forecasting with Quantities. This is long overdue. Here's how you can set it up:

1. Go to Setup->Customize->Forecasts->Settings. You will need to ensure that Forecasts are first Enabled for the Org by clicking this checkbox:
   
2. This will then enable a lot of options for you. Specifically under "Data Source" you now see a new checkbox for "Quantity" as shown below. Make sure to enable this.
   
3. You need to make sure that you are using products and price books so that you can add opportunity line items in order for quantities to be part of the Oppty total. Once you have created an opportunity with an associated product which  has it's quantity, you can see that in your forecast as seen here. You must use the drop down on the right to see quantities as at first it will display the dollar amounts as usual:
   
4. That's all you have to do to enable Quantity based forecasting, but if you are setting up forecasting for the first time, you want to look at the other settings closely to ensure that they work for you and your business.

This is just one more thing that Salesforce has made possible for you to do in Clicks not Code.

Summer '13 Release Series: Improved Setup User Interface

Improved Setup User Interface:

The new improved setup user interface is actually quite nice. It is a feature with Summer '13 that can be found in Setup->Customize->User Interface. It is located at the bottom and is labeled as "Enable Improved Setup User Interface." But what does it do?

Here are the changes you will notice if you enable this feature:

1. Setup will change. The layout of the sections on the left hand page will change. See this side by side comparison:
   
2. Your upper right Menu bar will change. Setup is now broken out, for those who can see setup and config. Other end users don't see Setup, but do see My Profile and My Settings.
1. Admin Users See:
   
2. End Users See:
   
3. Finally, what does My Settings look like? Well it's completely different and if you ask me a direction that Setup should take in general. Hopefully that's the plan for SFDC as we all know that Setup was due for a UI overall five years ago. Here's the landing page:
   

As you can see, this is a much cleaner interface with a more Web 2.0 view. This makes the end user experience much more cohesive. From what I can tell the options are all the same, as the old "My Settings" but the interface is just a lot nicer. This is yet another thing that you can do in Summer '13 release in Clicks Not Code.

Summer '13 Release Series: Global Actions

Define Global Actions

Global Actions, what are they? Global Actions are a new feature in Summer '13, allowing you to create records from a chatter post within SFDC. This is taking the Social Enterprise to a whole new level. You can create any object record right from your feed. Making your feed the one stop shop for all interactions.

How do I setup Global Actions?

Setup of Global Actions is actually very straight forward and easy to do. Here are the steps to doing so:

1. First ensure that Chatter is enabled in your org. Go to Setup->Customize->Chatter->Settings and make sure the enabled Checkbox is set to "True" as seen here:
   
2. Next Scroll Down on the same page and click the, "Enable Publisher Actions" this is what allows you to add/edit and update the Chatter feed buttons and icons:
   
3. Now you need to create a Global Action. This is a new menu found under
   Setup->Create->Global Actions shown here:
   
4. A Global Action as you will see can be made for any object, or it can be custom designed to do something extra that you wish. For this example, I will create a simple Global Action for Accounts:
   
5. Now you are prompted to create a page layout. These are the fields that will be available in the chatter feed when the user clicks on your new button. Keep these to a small number as much as possible. ONLY use essential fields as seen here:
   
6. Now that you have a page layout, you can set "Predefined Fields" if you may in fact know fields ahead of time based upon who would be creating these records. This can be done with system fields and formulas like a profile of the user creating the record.
   
7. Now that you have setup your Global Action, you will need to add it to your Publisher Layout. Wait! What is a publisher layout? Well, it is a new menu added when you enabled Publisher Actions to your Chatter section in the Admin menu. Found at
   Setup->Customize->Chatter->Publisher Layouts. These are the actual layouts that are shown in the chatter feed. These can be customized on a per profile basis. This is HUGE, for enabling new buttons and controlling chatter a little more. Now you can control who can run polls, attach files, and even post to chatter based upon profile. Here we add the new button to the layout:
   
8. Now check out what you've done in the feed:
   
9. And as with any page layout you can change things up to make the new button more prominent for users to see:
   

Now you have officially setup Global Actions for your org. You can now go crazy by creating a new Publisher Layout for any and all profiles. You can create Global Actions for all of your objects or just a few that make sense. Have fun, and experiment with one more thing that you can do in Clicks and Not Code.