Resources from the AMER Ask Me Anything (AMA) Session from the 20 March 2024

Here are some of the resources shared as part of the live AMER Ask Me Anything Session 

THANK YOU @Rob OBrien @Dar Veverka @David Cheng and everyone else who joined in the chat and who contributed today @Bill Florio @Michael Kolodner -- thank you for participating and hosting a thoughtful conversation (and THANK YOU also to @Yvonne Small @Akash Mishra @Vicki Moritz-Henry who hosted the session for EMEA timezone today too, what a group effort!)

These live AMAs are not recorded to allow for open, honest conversations. Here are some written follow-up resources, as promised!

Deploying NPSP Github codebase to org?

Hi Folks, I wanted to work on the NPSP Codebase in my salesforce dev org. We have steps to install as a managed package but no documentation related to deployment to dev org. So how do I proceed to have the codebase in the dev org?

• Check out the Sprint group in the Trailblazer Community - in the group details, if you see 'show more' and scroll down you can see projects created by the community, you'll see a link to GitHub, take a look!
• Anything in particular you were wanting to do?  No specifics; Just wanted to dig into the code.

I have a nonprofit client that wants to pull a report based on custom dates they choose at the time they pull the report. I’ve never done that and would like advise. Still a newbie. :)

• https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?language=en_US&id=sf.data_about_analytic_snap.htm&type=5

Aside from reading release notes and using a sandbox, what are some best practices for releasing updates in Salesforce?

• Salesforce release: https://admin.salesforce.com/blog/2021/salesforce-release-overview
• Release management article: https://www.flosum.com/blog/top-7-salesforce-release-management-best-practices - more about releasing new functionality not necessarily SFDC
• Trailblazer community thread on release management best practices: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trailblazer-community/feed/0D54V00007T47f6SAB

Test scripts of critical functions - you may not have time but you could do test scripts

• I usually start with the happy path scenarios, as a start. Depending on the time I still have at what level of testing I will do (ie. negative testing). The idea is that at the least, the core feature are working and usually those are the happy path scenarios.
• Test Script post: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trailblazer-community/topics/simpletestscripts?sort=LAST_MODIFIED_DATE_DESC
• Log in as an end user
• And when Dar says “scripts,” she does not necessarily mean code. She means a script that users might follow to test that things work as expected. (Create contact. Then create opportunity. Then look at this report, etc....)

As an association we deal with both corporate clients and individuals. Individuals register through portals and end up as person accounts (Experience Cloud), so internally person accounts are normally read-only, have unique emails etc. Busines customers are managed internally by the corporate relations team, so the team has a lot of flexibility in adding and changing accounts and contacts (with duplicates), without ever using person accounts. There is overlap between Contacts and Person Accounts (by design). We are now in the process of implementing the Service Cloud, where Email-to-Case and Web-to-Case functionality will be used. The challenge is linking cases to person accounts and/or contacts + business accounts. Another challenge is that Web-to-Case can have unverified emails, so we probably don't want to link them before verification. I am looking for some standard practices or ideas on how to implement this.

• Intentional duplication
• Person Accounts: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.account_person.htm&type=5

I'm wondering if there exists a list of standard objects and fields in NPSP?

• Help documentation: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sfdo.NPSP_Data_Dictionary.htm&type=5
• NPSP is all custom fieldns and objects, see NPSP objects and fields, “view npsp objects and fields: Help documentation: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sfdo.NPSP_Data_Dictionary.htm&type=5
• NPSP ERD is also on the Architect site: https://architect.salesforce.com/diagrams/template-gallery/nonprofit-success-pack-data-model
• Nonprofit Cloud Data Model: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.nonprofit_cloud.meta/nonprofit_cloud/npc_data_model.htm

Does it cost you to get a quip account?

• Should be free, just sometimes wonky to access

We currently use NPSP Contact Merge but would like a faster, more automated solution, ideally with a queue of duplicates we can review. Many duplicate contacts also have duplicate Pardot accounts. One vendor told me that no vendors on the market can simultaneously merge SF/Pardot accounts. However, another vendor said that their platform could merge both simultaneously (which I will soon try to validate in a sandbox.) Should we plan to tackle SF and Pardot duplicates separately?

• Duplicates - people are annoyed with multiple emails; creating reputational risk
• I think that Pardot probably considers email address to be a unique identifier. But that is not the case in Salesforce, since people may have more than one email....
• This is not just a Pardot problem, it’s true for basically every email marketing system.
• Pardot channel in Ohana slack: https://salesforceohana.slack.com/archives/C6X1LEXB2
• Specific pardot slack: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsWWBGTQWF0FcI9ssvFJQCgbTH4bqeH5xaqJyHw8tN3DbBgA/viewform
• Pardot Sandbox Article: https://www.salesforceben.com/salesforce-pardot-sandboxes/

Salesforce Formula Question: Is there a quick way to show a Date-Time field to a text based on the timezone that the data is reflected in the record (e.g. Event Start Date-Time)? Also display the time in 12-hour format? I was able to do it but I really have to spend time massaging the data first.

• Their time and also the clients time
• Trailblazer post about time formulas: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trailblazer-community/feed/0D54S00000A8OwiSAF
• Salesforce FAQ: Time/Date: https://salesforcefaqs.com/salesforce-formula-date-to-text/

Any tips how to make life easier using DevOps, it’s a step up from using Change sets, however, I’m still having difficulty moving the changes from a Sandbox into Production because of some errors. Just wanna know if there are best practices, or a checklist to follow that before migrating the changes (outside testing) to avoid those errors.

• start with the error and work backwards and then develop best practices
• check out other tools like copado or geaset, paid tools
• Troubleshoot DevOps Center Errors: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.devops_center_troubleshooting.htm&type=5
• DevOps Center Trailblazer Group: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trailblazer-community/feed/0D54S00000PeQAKSA3

Thanks again to our hosts and everyone who attended! Hope to see you all again at a future session, see links in the group sidebar or above^ woo! 

#AskMeAnything #Nonprofit