Data Management

Question 1

What are Record IDs in Salesforce?

Answer 1

Every record within Salesforce is assigned a record ID when created. This ID is unique throughout your Salesforce org, and is referenced frequently when performing operations using existing Salesforce data.

Question 2

Describe the two version types of Record IDs in Salesforce.

Answer 2

There are two versions of the ID:

1. The 15 character ID (case sensitive), which is displayed in the user interface.
2. The 18 character ID, which is returned via the API by default. The 18 character ID is a combination of the 15 character ID with 3 characters added to ensure that it is unique on a case insensitive basis (this is to support legacy applications).

Question 3

What function should you use to derive the 18 digit ID within a formula field in Salesforce?

Answer 3

CASESAFEID

Question 4

Deleted Items Retention and eventual Purging.

Answer 4

Deleted records remain in the recycle bin for 15 days, and can be restored during that time. To permanently remove your deleted items before the 15-day period, administrators and users with the “Modify All Data” permission, can click Empty your Recycle Bin or Empty your organization’s Recycle Bin. After 15 days, deleted items are purged from the recycle bin, and once purged, they can’t be recovered.

Question 5

What are the two Import Wizards available in Salesforce.

Answer 5

Import Accounts & Contacts

Data Import Wizard

Question 6

Describe the Import Accounts & Contacts Wizard.

Answer 6

This wizard is specifically designed to accept pre-formatted data from common contact data sources (Outlook, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc.).
Up to 50,000 records can be imported each session.
Available to Admins and Users.
Catches Duplicates
Option to turn off Workflow
Does NOT Export Data
Does NOT Import Opportunities

Question 7

Describe the Data Import Wizard in Salesforce.

Answer 7

This is a general-use wizard and can import records into the following objects:
Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Solutions, Custom Objects
Use for more than 50K records.
Does NOT catch duplicates.
Workflow MUST be turned off.
Exports Data
Imports Opportunities
Can only import one object at a time.
Has Data Mapping Setup
Recognizes ONLY one field for the street address (Add 1 and Add 2 must be combined in source).
Matches on Record Ids ONLY.
Workflow will fire, need to turn off the Workflow if you don’t want the Workflows to execute.

Question 8

What is Upserting in the Data Loader?

Answer 8

Updating existing records and creating new records.

Question 9

What does Export All in Data Loader mean?

Answer 9

Exports all data, including Recycle Bin and Soft Deleted data.

Question 10

What are the 3 Steps to Complete Before Importing Data?

Answer 10

1. Clean Your Data = Accurate, Usable. Credible Data
   Impacts Adoption of System by users if data is dirty.
   Delete Duplicate Records
   Correct Spelling and Punctuation
   Enforce Naming Conventions
   Fill In Incomplete Records
2. Prepare Your IMport File
   Match Field Names (Export Data and match columns)
   Add columns for Record Owner (if you should not be listed as the owner).
   Add a Column for the Parent Record (Loader Only)
3. Prepare Salesforce
   Create Custom Fields where Needed
   Add Picklist Values
   Create External IDs

Question 11

What is the difference between the Wizards and the Data Loader?

Answer 11

The Data Loader is a desktop tool that uses the API to interact with Salesforce data. Your computer is requesting and making the changes to Salesforce data, whereas when using the import wizards you upload a file and it is then processed server-side by Salesforce.

You need the API in order to use the Data Loader (typically Enterprise Edition or higher, or a cost for lower editions).
The wizards offer options that are not available via the Data Loader (e.g. disable workflow rules when loading data — workflow rules will always be triggered by the Data Loader).
The permissions are different. Access to the wizards are driven by specific permissions (e.g. ‘Import Personal Contacts’ and ‘Import Leads’ permissions on profile/permission set), while Data Loader permissions are driven by the global ‘API Enabled’ permission on profile/permission set.
The import wizards can load files with up to 50,000 records per job. Transfer wizards can transfer up to 250 records at a time. The Data Loader, however, can process up to 5 million records per job. Therefore, if you need to process large volumes of data (e.g. create 250k accounts or transfer 10k accounts), use the Data Loader.
An administrator can save mapping using the Data Loader and even schedule jobs on a local server.

Question 12

Describe the capabilities of other data manipulation wizards.

Answer 12

Tools exist to mass transfer records, mass delete records, mass transfer approval requests, and mass update addresses. Not all tools can be used with all objects.

Question 13

Describe the capabilities of the Data Loader.

Answer 13

The Data Loader is used to manipulate Salesforce data via the API, and can load up to 5 million records per job.

It can also be run from command line (this allows Data Loader jobs to be scheduled on servers).

Question 14

Explain when to use an import wizard or the data loader.

Answer 14

Import wizards can import a maximum of 50,000 records per job. Transfer wizards can manipulate 250 records at a time. Use the Data Loader if you want to process jobs that are larger than the previously cited limitations.

Question 15

Explain how to use the upsert function of the Data Loader in conjunction with an external ID field.

Answer 15

Upsert can be used in conjunction with external IDs to keep relationships from data within external systems intact when importing or manipulating data in Salesforce.

Question 16

What is Dirty Data?

Answer 16

Dirty data is defined as inaccurate, incomplete or erroneous data, especially in a computer system or database.

Question 17

Examples of Dirty Data.

Answer 17

Duplicate records (e.g. two leads with the same information, a contact and a lead with the same information, etc.)
Incomplete records (e.g. a lead without an email address or phone number)
Inaccurate records (e.g. an opportunity with an inaccurate close date)

Question 18

What is Data Quality?

Answer 18

Data quality refers to the usability and accuracy of data. Completely de-duplicated, properly formatted, populated accurate data is considered clean, and of high quality.

Question 19

Guidelines for managing data quality in your organization.

Answer 19

Make sure your import files are clean (removed of duplicates, properly formatted, etc.) prior to importing data. Admittedly, this is not always possible or practical.
Use the leads object to store lower quality or unverified data. Only leads that are qualified and of high data quality should be converted to accounts and contacts.
Train users to search for existing leads/contacts prior to creating a new lead/contact.
Train users to search for duplicate records prior to working with unverified data (e.g. web-to-lead submissions).
Use Data.com Duplicate Management (free as of Spring ’15) or third party tools to prevent duplicate records from being created.
Use required fields (either via field configuration or page layout), validation rules (look at the REGEX function for complex formatting requirements, such as phone numbers), filtered lookups, and other tools and features to ensure data is entered completely and formatted properly.
Use Data.com Clean (additional license fee as of Spring ’15), another third party tool, or manually cleanse existing dirty data.

Question 20

What tools are provided in Salesforce to merge duplicate records?

Answer 20

Leads- Find Duplicates Button
Merge Leads
Accounts- Merge Accounts
Contacts- Merge Contacts

Question 21

6 Steps Towards Top Data Quality

Answer 21

Profile Your Data (Understanding)
Control Your Data (Data Accuracy and Right Access)
Integrate Your Data (Single Source of Truth)
Augment Your Data (External Information)
Monitor Your Data (Policies, Processes, Tools)
Assign Ownership- Users Understand Importance of Data Integrity

Question 22

Describe how to enable state and country picklists.

Answer 22

Salesforce introduced the capability to use picklists for state and country fields instead of non-validated text fields.

To configure this in your organization requires configuring settings, mapping the values of non-validated data to new picklist values, migrating the data, and then enabling the feature.

Question 23

Describe the capabilities of Data.com.

Answer 23

Search for New Accounts
Search for Contacts
Social Insights
Clean CRM Data
Insights and Dashboards

Data.com can be used to find new prospects, clean data associated with existing leads and contacts, and prevent the creation of duplicate records.

As of the Spring 15 release, using Data.com for duplicate management does not require a Data.com license (see Release Notes). Other Data.com features may require an additional license; contact your Salesforce rep for details.

Question 24

Describe an administrator’s ability to modify system fields.

Answer 24

The Audit Fields feature allows an administrator to populate the values in CreatedBy, CreatedDate, LastModifiedBy, and LastModifiedDate fields.

Values in these fields typically cannot be specified (including by a system administrator). Therefore enabling Audit Fields is a vital part of many data migration strategies.