Salesforce History Tracking Tutorial

Salesforce history tracking is a feature that enables administrators and users to monitor the changes made to specific fields in records. It provides a clear audit trail of data modifications which is critical for various business processes. Here’s a closer look at the benefits of Salesforce history tracking.

 

1. Accountability

With history tracking, organizations can identify which user made a specific change and when. This promotes a sense of responsibility among users and discourages any unauthorized modifications.

2. Data Integrity

It’s easy for data to become inconsistent or incorrect over time. History tracking allows administrators to review changes and restore accurate data when necessary.

3. Regulatory Compliance

Certain industries have strict regulations regarding data storage and changes. History tracking provides the necessary audit trail to meet these regulatory requirements.

4. Improved Data Analysis

By monitoring changes, businesses can understand data trends, user behaviors, and other insights that might be crucial for strategic decisions.

5. Enhanced Security

Detecting unauthorized changes becomes easier with history tracking. If there are anomalies or unexpected modifications, they can be quickly addressed.

6. Conflict Resolution

In scenarios where there’s a discrepancy regarding data changes, history tracking provides a definitive record to resolve conflicts.

Training Tutorial: Salesforce History Tracking

Enabling Field History Tracking:

1. Login to Salesforce. Make sure you have the necessary permissions to customize the object.
2. Navigate to Setup.
3. In the Quick Find box, type the name of the object you want to enable history tracking for (e.g., “Accounts”).
4. Click on the object name and then select Fields & Relationships.
5. Find and click on Set History Tracking.
6. Check the Enable [Object] History checkbox. For example, if you’re working with Accounts, it’ll be “Enable Account History.”
7. Select the specific fields you want to track by checking the boxes next to them.
8. Click Save.

Viewing Field History:

1. Once history tracking is enabled and changes have been made, the changes are logged in a related list on the record.
2. Navigate to a record of the object you’ve enabled history tracking for.
3. Scroll down to find the [Object] Field History related list. For example, for Accounts, it’ll be “Account Field History.”
4. Here, you can view the changes made, including the date, the user who made the change, and the old and new values.

Example:

Let’s say you want to track changes to an Account’s phone number and industry.

1. Follow the steps mentioned above to enable history tracking for the Account object.
2. Enable tracking for the “Phone” and “Industry” fields.
3. After making a few changes to these fields in some account records, when you view an individual account record, you can see the Account Field History related list, which will display changes like:
   • Date & Time: 09/24/2023 2:15 PM
   • User: John Doe
   • Field: Phone
   • Old Value: 123-456-7890
   • New Value: 098-765-4321
   • Date & Time: 09/24/2023 2:20 PM
   • User: John Doe
   • Field: Industry
   • Old Value: Finance
   • New Value: Healthcare

By following these steps and utilizing Salesforce history tracking, organizations can maintain data integrity, meet regulatory requirements, and ensure accountability among users.