As an admin and a mom, I am constantly faced with trying to ensure that my users (and kids) are doing the right things at the right times.

• Users:
  • Project records are created with the ‘right’ fields
  • Updates are being made in a timely manner
  • Billable/non-Billable time is being logged accurately (and approved accurately)
• Kids
  • Chores are being done as instructed (those last two words are important)
  • They are treating each other with respect
  • Social media guidelines are being followed

The lists for each could go on and on! In Salesforce, we have a plethora of reports and dashboards and workflows to help stay on top of anomalies. Validations don’t always work because sometimes there is judgment involved – example: We have a team of users that create project records. They fill everything out based upon our SOWs and then turn the project over to the PM to manage. They sometimes forget to change the record owner to the PM. Sometimes they will forget to uncheck a box. Those are things you can’t always capture with a validation rule.

So we (as admins) would setup reports to show ‘All Projects Owned by the Project Creation Team’, and ‘All Opportunities Closed Won without a Related Project’ and ‘Timecards Manually Excluded from Billing with no Audit Notes’. Next was to create a dashboard with elements linked to each of these reports. I’d pop the dashboard on my Home page and keep my eye on it – the goal is to always have it show nothing. If something popped up on the dashboard I would get with the right person to correct the data.

ENTER Report Subscriptions! <insert raucous cheers here> 

Now I can simply setup subscriptions to my reports. Just add a filter to say when the record count is greater than zero, send me an email!

My Six Sigma/Kaizen brain LOVES this Concept – it’s like JIT (Just in Time) production. I don’t ever have to go looking for anomalies again. They get PUSHED to me by the system. Every day, at a time of my choosing, the reports are run with my filter in place and if there are more than zero records showing, I get an email telling me there is an issue! Who doesn’t love that! No more checking the dashboard! Wait – even better – no more dashboard to maintain!

Now…if I could figure out how set this up with my children? Hmmm….

Have you used Report Subscriptions yet?

It’s a very simple way to empower your users and let the system do work for you!