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Records
A Record is a single instance of a Salesforce Object (i.e. an individual Lead, Contact, Opportunity, etc.). For example, “John Jones” might be the name of a Contact Record, and “City of Miami” might be the name of an Account Record.
Account
An Account is an organization or company that you want to track. Examples: City of Albany; Solar City.
Activity (Tasks/Events)
Planned task or event, optionally related to another type of Record such as an Account, Contact, Lead, or Opportunity. Examples: Call to confirm status; Email an application.
Campaign
A Campaign is a grouping of contacts used for marketing outreach. It can be the vehicle for a direct mail program, seminar, print advertisement, email, or other type of marketing initiative. Campaigns have been organized into a hierarchy reflecting the NYSERDA Organizational Chart.
The Program Campaign type allows program staff to create their own non-marketing campaigns in order to organize contacts, leads, and accounts.
Chatter
Chatter is a Salesforce collaboration application that helps you connect with people and share business information securely and in real time. Groups may also be created to collaborate with a group of users. For more information on creating Chatter groups, take a look at the “Chatter at NYSERDA” and “NYSERDA CRM Naming Conventions” documents referenced in the Appendix at the end of this document.
Contact
Contacts are the individuals associated with the Accounts.
Lead
A Lead is used to track prospects. It has the lowest data quality threshold (it only requires that you enter a name and a company), and it will often be the initial place an individual enters the system.
Convert
Convert is the button on the Lead record that allows you to change a qualified Lead into an Account, Contact, and, optionally, an Opportunity. Information from the Lead fields are transferred into the appropriate Account, Contact, and Opportunity fields.
Objects
Objects represent database tables that contain your organization's information. All the tabs in the top menu bar are objects i.e. Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Campaigns, etc.
Opportunity
An Opportunity can be added to an Account or Contact and used to track interactions such as a response to a NYSERDA offering or an indication that an Account is a prime candidate to partner with NYSERDA.
Reports
A Report returns a set of Records that meets certain criteria and displays it in organized rows and columns. Report data can be filtered, grouped, and displayed graphically as a chart. Reports are stored in folders, which control who has access.
Related Lists
Related lists are information sections of data on an object’s record. You can view campaigns, opportunities, notes and more that are related to that record. To view a record’s Related Lists, click the Related tab.
Example: The Related Lists shown below are Project Activities, SQA Inspector TimeOff Details, and Projects Roles.
Salesforce Applications
Salesforce includes prebuilt applications (or “apps”) for customer relationship management (CRM) ranging from communication and outreach tracking to partner relationship management, marketing, and customer service. The 2 most used/relevant apps are NYSERDA CRM and NYSERDA Program.
Example: When you log into Salesforce you want to make sure that you are in the “NYSERDA CRM” or “NYSERDA CRM Lightning” Application. This will be indicated in the top left of the screen.
To switch between different apps, click the 3 by 3 square of dots in the top left corner. You can search for an app in the bar or click View All to see a list of all apps.
Tabs
Tabs display those Objects and other content embedded in the current application.
As users of Salesforce must follow the guidelines set forth in the Information Security Policy and Procedure Manual. In the discharge of related duties, each employee shall observe the highest standards of business and personal ethics, while promoting NYSERDA's objectives and interests, and conduct themselves in a manner that will withstand public, media, legal, and organizational scrutiny.
Personal Private and Sensitive Information (PPSI)
As a general principal, Personal Private and Sensitive Information (PPSI) should not be entered into Salesforce. If you have data or artifacts that can be classified as Personal Private and Sensitive Information per NYSERDA’s Data Governance guidelines, please seek out your Salesforce Liaison and to discuss how best to proceed with storage of this data. Your Liaison can then work with you to identify if a Salesforce Case should be submitted for review by the Salesforce Governance Council.
There are two user interfaces for Salesforce that look and work a little different. The Lightning interface is preferred when you are using the CRM. When you login to Salesforce you may see the classic view which looks like:
If you see the “Switch to Lightning Experience” link, then you have been granted access to switch to the Lightning interface if you prefer that one or want to use the CRM (which is recommended). If you do not have this link you can request it via a helpdesk ticket.
The Lightning Interface looks like:
If you need to switch back to the Classic interface, you can find the link to switch back under the icon in the upper right. You should see the “NYSERDA CRM Lightning” in the upper left, but if you don’t, click the 3 square box in the upper left and search for “NYSERDA CRM Lightning” so that you are in the right place.
A search bar called Global Search is located at the top of every page within Salesforce, and you may search for any Object or Record. It is important to search for an existing Record (i.e. Contact or Account) before creating a new Record to help avoid creating duplicates. Type in your inquiry and press Enter to view results.
To broaden your search results, you may use an “*” to bring up results that include any Object or Record that contains those characters.
Once you have searched Salesforce and confirmed that there is no existing Record, you can click the drop down arrow next to any Object tab to create a new Record.
OR click into the specific Object (i.e. Lead, Account, Contact) that you would like to create a Record in and click on the “New” button near the top right of the screen.
Use Case: Sally Smith from Capital Solar called and asked to be emailed an application.
Search for the existing Account. Remember to press Enter to view all results.
If the Account exists, Click on the Account.
If the Account does not exist, create a new Account by performing one of the 2 options outlined above in the Creating a New Record section.
Once you are in the Account, scroll down to the related list titled “Contacts” and Click “New”, then fill in the required information for Sally and Click “Save”.
The purpose of utilizing this shared system is to allow anyone at the Authority to search for and obtain any pertinent information about a NYSERDA stakeholder. Therefore adding new and relevant information to each Record is imperative.
Use Case: Sally Smith emailed you her completed application and you want to attach it as a file.
Login to Salesforce and search for and click on Sally Smith.
Scroll down to the “related list” in Sally’s Record called “Notes and Attachments”, and Click “Upload Files”. You can also drag and drop the file.
Select the file from your computer and Click “Save”. Now this application will be available for anyone at NYSERDA to access.
When adding a new account, you will be asked to choose a “Record Type” for which there are 2 choices.
Business Account just means this is a company under which you will be adding contacts. This should be used the majority of the time.
Individual Account is for residential customers or individuals that are not representing a company in the CRM. This would rarely be used. The name would be something like ‘John Smith Individual Account’ and it would have one contact under it, “John Smith”.
Campaigns are a way to group all of your contacts together in a list which allows Marketing to send out an email to all the campaign members. To add an individual to an existing Campaign you must first open the Lead or Contact Record.
Once you are in the Contact or Lead record, scroll down to the “Campaign History” related list and click the “Add to Campaign” button.
Enter the campaign name and press Enter.
Click the name of the campaign then click Next.
Once you select the Campaign you would like to use, you will be brought to the “New Campaign Member” Record and must select a status for the Record and click Save. You can leave the default information and just click Save.
Only Salesforce Administrators and Marketing and Communications staff can create new Campaigns to be utilized for mass email purposes. Program staff members can create new Program Campaigns without submitting a help ticket or going through marketing. These campaigns are not to be used for mass email sends.
Click the drop-down arrow next to Campaigns in the navigation menu and click New Campaign.
Select the Program Campaign record type (it will default to it) and click Next.
Enter the Campaign Name and select Program-managed Campaign for the Type, then click Save.
Additional details can be added to the campaign record, but this is all that is required to create the campaign.
Click the Related tab and then click Add Contacts or Add Leads to add people to the campaign.
Reports allow you to view a collection of data points and filter them in different ways. Reports can be stored in a public folder to be shared with others or saved in a private folder. Reports can be scheduled to run at any specified time, and they can also be exported into Excel documents.
Access the Reports tab.
Click New Report.
Search for a report type, select it, then click Start Report.
Selecting Report Types
To see a list of all report types, click the All category. You can then type in the object on which you want to report. You can also select a category based on the type of report you want to run. For example, a report about Contacts would be in the Accounts & Contacts category while a report about Campaigns would be in the Campaign category. Reports about Emails, Tasks, and Events will be an Activities report. Before clicking Start Report, you can see a list of fields that are available in the report to ensure the information you need is available.
Select the fields to include in the report. The fields list may be collapsed, initially. Click the arrow to expand and view the available fields.
Update the filters to narrow down the data as needed
Save, Run, or Save & Run the report. You’ll be prompted to name and save the report in a private or public folder.
It is possible to run a report that someone else has saved in a public or shared folder.
Open the Reports tab.
To search for the report itself, click All Reports in the left panel. To search for the report folder, click All Folders in the left panel.
Type in the name of the report or folder in the search bar in the top right inside of the Reports window.
To run a report click the drop down arrow at the far right of the screen on the report line and click Run.
To export a report click the drop down arrow at the far right of the screen on the report line and click Export.
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