Math not your thing? Stuck in a functionality rut? Join us to learn a few key tips and tricks for using Salesforce MVPs to write kick-butt formulas. Walk away with actual formulas that you can immediately put to use. NOTE: This session is Community-Led: created BY the Salesforce community FOR the Salesforce community

1. Become a Formula Ninja
Math not your thing? Stuck in a functionality rut? Join us to learn a few key tips and
tricks for using Salesforce MVPs to write kick-butt formulas. Walk away with actual
formulas that you can immediately put to use.

2. Safe harbor
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This presentation may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such uncertainties materialize or if
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3. Introductions & Agenda
• Steve Molis
• Jared Miller
• Mark Passovoy
• Francis Pindar

4. Steve Molis
Salesforce Administrator, Epsilon
@SteveMoForce

5. Formula Ninjas
• The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and Functions
• Using $User to create dynamic Reports and List Views

6. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions
ISNEW()
$User
Opportunity: IsClosed
Opportunity: IsWon

7. Using a Validation Rule to prevent new Accounts
during Lead Convert
Business Requirement
• Prevent user from creating new Accounts but allow them to
convert Leads to new Contacts and Opportunities
Solution
• Use a Validation Rule to block new Account create.
Fields Referenced (optional)
• $Profile.Name
• $Role.Name
• $User.Id
Function Used
• ISNEW()

8. Using a Validation Rule to prevent new Accounts
during Lead Convert
Formula: AND( ISNEW(), $Profile.Name <> “Inside Sales User")

9. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions
Field: IsClosed
Boolean field located on the Opportunity object, automatically set by
Opportunity Stage.
Use: Validation Rule to ensure users update Close Date on Open
Opportunities.
AND(
IsClosed = FALSE,
CloseDate < TODAY (),
$Profile.Name <> "System Administrator")

10. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions
Field: IsWon
Boolean field located on the Opportunity object, automatically set by
Opportunity Stage.
Use: Validation Rule to ensure users update Loss Reason (custom field)
when an opportunity is Closed/Lost.
AND (IsClosed =TRUE, IsWon = FALSE,
ISBLANK(TEXT( Loss_Reason__c)))

11. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions
Fields: IsWon, IsClosed
Use: Formula(Text) field to display the “summarized” Opportunity Status in
List Views, Reports and Dashboards.
IF(IsWon = TRUE , "Won",
IF(IsClosed = FALSE , "Open",
"Lost"))

12. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions

13. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions

14. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions

15. Using $User to create dynamic Reports and List
Views

16. Using $User to create dynamic Reports and List
Views
Business Requirement
• Dynamically show in a list view, all activities that were created by the user logged in, not just activities that were
owned by them
• Users can easily see activities that are owned by them with the ‘My Activities’ list view
Solution
• Evaluate the CreatedBy User.Id field and compare it to the current User.Id to return a simple True/False result.
Fields Referenced
• CreatedById
• $User.Id
Function Used
• IF(logical_test, value_if_true, value_if_false)

17. Step 1: Creat custom field, ‘CreatedBy$User’
Field Name: CreatedBy$User
Datatype: Formula
Return Type: Number, 0 decimals
Formula: IF(CreatedById = $User.Id , 1, 0)

18. Step 2: Create the Dynamic Report or List
Now just add a simple filter:
When using this field, no more cloning and editing reports for each user! Just change the running user.

19. CreatedBy$User: Result

20. The Island of Misfit Toys, Formulas, Fields, and
Functions
Opportunity:
TotalOpportunityQuantity
HasOpportunityLineItem
OpportunityProduct:
HasRevenueSchedule
HasQuantitySchedule

21. Jared Miller
Senior Project Manager, Configero
@jaredemiller

22. Formula Ninja
• Jared Miller
• Configero
• Co-Leader of the Tampa User Group
• Known to troll the twitter and #askforce

23. Formula Ninja
• Use the ABS function to give your dates more flexibility
• Use the LEN function to improve data quality
• Formula Talk – My favorite formula tips

24. Date Flexibility: Using the ABS Function
• Business requirement
• Due to shift scheduling, a contract end date may be within a few days (plus or minus) of the actual end
date
• Not all early ends, are actual early ends, however, an early end would need to be tracked differently
• Solution
• We will give the user flexibility on “early end” by giving them a plus or minus on the end date
• Fields referenced
• Scheduled End Date
• Actual End Date
• Function used
• ABS(number)

25. Creating the Validation Rule
• Create your 2nd Date field – in our case, it is Actual End Date
• Rule Name: Actual End Date Near Scheduled End Date
• Formula: ABS(Scheduled_End_Date__c-Actual_End_Date__c )>7
• Error Message: Actual Contract End Date is not valid.

26. Creating the Validation Rule

27. How the ABS Function works
• From Help & Training
• Calculates the absolute value of a number. The absolute value of a number is the
number without its positive or negative sign.
• Example
• 9/18/2012 – 9/12/2012 = 6
• 9/18/2012 – 9/28/2012 = -10
• ABS(9/18/2012 – 9/28/2012) = 10

28. Further validate information – text fields
• Business requirement
• Users are filling in a text field with 1 character in order to bypass an ISBLANK Validation Rule
• Using an “other” value in a picklist
• Solution
• This information is important so we will be using the LEN formula to count the number of characters
• Fields referenced
• Payment Terms
• Special Payment Terms
• Function used
• LEN(text)

29. Typical “Other” scenario and validation rule
• Using our payment terms example
• Putting a “1” will not meet the validation rule criteria

30. How we can use LEN to get better data
• Using our payment terms example
• Putting a “1” will not meet the validation rule criteria

31. Creating the Validation Rule
• What you already have: 2 fields (picklist and text)
• Rule Name: Special Payment Terms must have Terms
• Formula:
AND(
ISPICKVAL(Payment_Terms__c, "Special Payment Terms"),
LEN(Special_Payment_Terms__c)<5
)
• Error Message: If Payment Terms are “Special Payment Terms”, please enter
the terms.

32. Formula Talk – My favorite formula tips
• CASESAFEID (id)– Converts a 15-character ID to a case-insensitive 18-
character ID
• ISCHANGED(field) – Checks the field to determine if the value has been
changed. This is useful in validation rules and workflow rules.
• When thinking through your formula – or when you are working on a complex
formula – use comment tags
• /* comment here, Name, Date */
• Comments will count against your character limit and byte size

33. Mark Passovoy
Consultant, Appirio
@markpassovoy

34. Formula Ninja
• Mark Passovoy
• Appirio
• Will respond directly to @ mentions on Twitter
• Answers maniac (but not as much as @SteveMo)

35. Everyday use of Formulas
• Validation Criteria
• Workflows Criteria
• Approval Process Entry Criteria
• Formula Field
• Simple Examples:
• Amount > 1
• Number of Employees < 10

36. Real Life Examples
1.
2.
3.
4.

37. Concept: Dynamic formulas using only variables
• Business Requirement
• Users must apply different logic to Opportunities from
each of the 5 regions that the company operates in.
• IT does not have the bandwidth to update formulas in
Salesforce in a timely manner and is continually backed
up with requests to update criteria or logic of formulas,
workflow, validations, approvals, etc.

38. Solution
• Create an object to compare data for each region
against
• Formulas will reference relationships between the
Opportunity and the custom Region object without using
any actual values
• User will select region on creation of Opportunity, or
process can be automated with a trigger
• Benefit – Formulas can be updated easily, without
access to Setup, if important

39. Solution

40. Validation Rule
• Hard-coded numeric
values
• Completely dynamic,
no hard-coded values

41. Formula Field
• We created a formula field to determine the overall risk of an
Opportunity
• This field will give the Opportunity one of 5 possible values,
depending on the information in the Opportunity and the selected
Region

42. Approval Process
• We created an Approval Process to approve Opportunities
• It will use information from the Opportunity, as well as the
related Region for entry criteria and step criteria

43. Formula Talk – My favorite formula tips
• & - Can concatenate text and merge data together to make a
string
• HYPERLINK( “00U/e?retURL=%2F006x0000001T8O,&what_id=“ & Id, “Create Event”)
• BR() – Will insert a line break in a text string. Make sure to
surround this function with &
• & BR() &
• IMAGE() – Can insert an image from Salesforce into a field,
and even be used in Email templates

44. Francis Pindar
Technical Consultant
@radnip
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/francisuk

45. Formula Ninja
• Francis Pindar
• Freelance technical consultant
• Hang out on Answers (never able to keep up with
@SteveMo!!)
• Apex & VisualForce developer discussion boards
• London Salesforce user group & developer user group

46. Business Requirements
• Reduce the risk of negative social media storms by using
social influence
• Ability to prioritize cases based on social influence
• Use social influence to aid marketing activities to target
influential customers

47. Web-To-Case Solution

48. IMAGE Function
Syntax:
IMAGE(image_url, alternate_text [, height, width])
Text Formula Field:
IMAGE(“http://socialimage.herokuapp.com/getImage.php?Ne
tworkScreenName=“+Twitter__c+”&NetworkPlatform=twitter&Klo
utAPIId=4abgffbxzyg7sufuvpjqsx9w”, “No Image”)
Get API Key from:
http://developer.klout.com/

49. Business Requirement
• Make reports more actionable.
• Allow data to be SEEN without READING
• Ability to see Account metrics from account records without
the need to run reports.

50. Solution

51. Solution: Google Charts

52. Solution: Google Charts
• Formula image function
can call any chart URL
• Google chart wizard offers
dynamic build environment
• Easily add merge fields
into the chart URL

53. Solution: Google Charts
Search Google “Image Chart Wizard”

54. Solution: Google Charts

55. Solution: Google Charts
Value
Label

56. Solution: Google Charts
Value
Label
IMAGE("http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chxl=0:|negative|average|positive&chxt=y&chs=250
x125&cht=gm&chd=t:" +
TEXT(Overall_Satisfaction_Percentage__c) +
"&chl=" + TEXT(Overall_Satisfaction_Percentage__c) +
"%&chma=0,0,5", "No Image Available" ,125,250)
&chd=t:82
&chd=t:" +
TEXT(Overall_Satisfaction_Percentage__c) + “

57. Google Charts: Special Notes / Limitations
• HTTP / HTTPS Mixed Content
• Specify Height & Width on Image Function
• Google Chart Wizard is NOT SSL Encrypted

58. Steve Molis Jared Miller Mark Passovoy Francis Pindar
Salesforce Administrator, Senior Project Manager, Consultant, Appirio Technical Consultant
Epsilon Configero @markpassovoy @radnip
@SteveMoForce @jaredemiller