Common Mistakes New Salesforce Users Make (And How to Avoid Them)
- Ohana Focus Team
- Jan 24
- 6 min read
By Ohana Focus Team| January 18, 2025 | 17 min read
Every nonprofit migrating to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud faces a predictable pattern: excitement during implementation, confusion in the first weeks, and frustration when staff realize they've been entering data incorrectly for months. The problem isn't Salesforce—it's the gap between how people think systems should work and how Salesforce actually works.
This guide identifies the seven most common mistakes new users make, why they happen, and how to prevent them before they create problems.
The Cost of Common Mistakes
Before diving into specific mistakes, understand their cumulative impact:
• 20-40 hours monthly cleanup time for preventable errors
• 15-25% duplicate rate in the first 6 months without training
• $8-15K cost of fixing accumulated data quality issues
These aren't scare tactics—they're actual metrics from nonprofits that didn't invest in preventing common mistakes upfront.
Creating Duplicate Contacts
The Mistake: Staff assume a donor isn't in Salesforce and create a new Contact record without searching thoroughly, leading to multiple records for the same person.
Why This Happens
In Raiser's Edge, creating duplicates was immediately obvious because the system prompted 'Do you want to link to an existing constituent?' Salesforce doesn't force this check upfront—it relies on users to search voluntarily. Staff coming from RE expect the system to stop them, so they don't develop the search-first habit.
Additionally, Salesforce's global search is powerful but not intuitive to new users. They search for 'Bob Smith' when the record is entered as 'Robert Smith.'
How to Avoid It
Train the search-first habit relentlessly:
• Make 'ALWAYS SEARCH BEFORE CREATING' the first rule of Salesforce training
• Show staff the global search bar at the top of every page
• Teach multiple search strategies: email address, full name, phone number, variations
• Demonstrate that partial searches work ('Smith' finds all Smiths)
Enable duplicate rules:
• Salesforce Setup > Duplicate Management > Duplicate Rules
• Activate standard Contact duplicate rules
• Configure to 'Alert' for first 90 days, then 'Block' after training
Weekly duplicate report review: Run a report showing Contacts created in the past 7 days with the same email or the same name + same zip code. Review as a team. Merge immediately.
Misunderstanding NPC
Rollup Fields
The Mistake: Staff enter a gift, look at the Contact record, see that 'Total Gifts' hasn't updated yet, panic, and either re-enter the gift or call IT to report that 'the system is broken.'
Why This Happens
NPC rollup fields (Total Gifts, Last Gift Date, Largest Gift) are calculated through scheduled batch jobs, not in real-time. This is fundamentally different from Raiser's Edge, where gift totals are updated instantly.
New users don't understand batch processing. They expect immediate updates. When they don't see them, they assume something's wrong.
How to Avoid It
Explain rollup timing in training:
• 'Rollups update overnight' (or whatever your schedule is)
• 'If you just entered a gift, rollups won't show it for up to 24 hours. This is normal.'
• 'To verify a gift entered correctly, look at the Opportunity record, NOT the rollup fields.'
Manual rollup trigger for immediate needs:
• NPC Settings > System Tools > Run NPC Batch Jobs
• Select 'Rollup Donations Batch' and run manually
Common rollup issues to check:
• Opportunity Stage: Must be 'Closed Won' to count in rollups
• Contact Role: If a gift is entered on the Organization Account, the Contact must have a Contact Role
• Close Date: Rollups filter by Close Date, not created date
Ignoring Data Validation Rules
The Mistake: Staff encounter a validation rule error, get frustrated, ask the admin to 'turn off that annoying rule,' and the admin complies. Data quality erodes.
Why This Happens
Validation rules feel like obstacles when staff are rushing. They seem arbitrary. Admins, wanting to be helpful, disable rules without understanding why they were created.
How to Avoid It
Explain WHY rules exist:
• 'The Campaign field is required because we track which appeals generate revenue.'
• 'Email validation prevents typos that cause bounce issues.'
Design rules thoughtfully:
• Only create validation rules for truly critical data
• Write clear error messages explaining why the field is required
• Consider conditional rules
Building Too Many Similar Reports
The Mistake: Staff create separate reports for every variation: 'Donors Who Gave in January,' 'Donors Who Gave in February,' etc. The report folder becomes cluttered.
Why This Happens
In Raiser's Edge, queries were static. New users don't realize Salesforce reports are dynamic and can be filtered on the fly.
How to Avoid It
Train on report filters:
• Build one 'Donor Giving Report' with all relevant fields
• Show staff how to add filters: Click the 'Filters' button, add date/amount filters
• Demonstrate that filters can be changed anytime without affecting others
Report building best practices:
• Before building a new report, search existing reports
• Build versatile reports with ALL relevant fields, then filter down
• Use standard filters for common needs
Misusing Campaigns
The Mistake: Staff either never assign gifts to Campaigns or assign every gift to one generic 'Annual Fund' campaign, losing meaningful attribution data.
How to Avoid It
Mandate Campaign Association:
• Create validation rule: 'Primary Campaign Source is required for Opportunities > $100'
Design a clear Campaign structure:
• Create Campaigns for all fundraising initiatives
• Use Campaign Hierarchy: Parent with children
• Create 'Unsolicited' Campaign for spontaneous gifts
Entering Gifts on the Wrong Record
The Mistake: Staff create Opportunities on Account records when they should create them on Contact records, or vice versa. Gifts don't appear in rollups.
How to Avoid It
Clear rule for gift entry:
• Individual/personal gift: Create Opportunity on Contact record
• Corporate/foundation gift: Create Opportunity on Organization Account
• Household joint gift: Create Opportunity on Household Account OR primary Contact with soft credit
Neglecting Ongoing Data Hygiene
The Mistake: Organization invests in migration data cleanup, then assumes Salesforce will 'stay clean' automatically. Six months later, data quality has eroded.
How to Avoid It
Weekly data quality review (15 minutes):
• Run 'Duplicate Contacts Report' → Merge immediately
• Run 'Opportunities without Campaign' report → Assign campaigns
• Review email bounce report → Update bad addresses
Monthly data quality dashboard:
• Create a dashboard showing duplicate rate, incomplete records, bounced emails
• Review in staff meeting
Quarterly deep clean:
• Run comprehensive duplicate detection
• Audit a random sample of records
• Update validation rules
The Pattern Behind Common Mistakes in Salesforce
The above Salesforce mistakes share common themes:
1. Raiser's Edge habits don't transfer: Success requires unlearning old habits and building new ones.
2. Training focuses on 'how' not 'why': Staff learn button-clicking without understanding underlying concepts.
3. Immediate convenience wins: Skipping steps seems faster in the moment. Consequences appear weeks later.
4. No accountability: Without regular monitoring, errors accumulate invisibly.
Creating a Culture of Data Quality
Organizations that maintain high data quality share these characteristics:
Leadership models good behavior: When the executive director searches before creating and follows validation rules, staff follow suit.
Data quality is everyone's job: Not just database staff. Everyone who touches Salesforce is responsible.
Errors are learning opportunities: Response is 'Let's understand why' not 'You broke the system.'
Quality is measured and celebrated: Track metrics monthly. Celebrate improvements.
Partner with Ohana Focus
Build data quality into your Salesforce foundation. Schedule your free consultation today.
Ohana Focus helps nonprofits prevent common Salesforce mistakes through comprehensive training, smart system configuration, and ongoing support. We don't just teach button-clicking—we build understanding of why Salesforce works the way it does. Our approach includes:
• Role-based training customized to how each staff member uses Salesforce
• Validation rule design that guides good behavior
• Duplicate management strategy
• Data quality monitoring processes
• Report structure that answers real questions
• Campaign framework for attribution
• Ongoing support as your team evolves
• Quarterly refreshers preventing skill degradation
About Ohana Focus
Ohana Focus is a certified Salesforce consulting partner specializing in nonprofit implementations and training. We've helped hundreds of organizations transition from Raiser's Edge to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, and we've seen every mistake that new users make.
Our training philosophy is simple: Understanding beats memorization. We teach you why Salesforce works the way it does, not just how to click buttons. Staff who understand underlying concepts make good decisions even in situations we didn't explicitly cover in training.
We also recognize that preventing mistakes is exponentially more cost-effective than fixing them. Our training programs, validation rule design, and data quality monitoring processes are designed to identify and correct errors at their source.
Topics: Salesforce Training, User Adoption, Data Quality, NPC, Nonprofit Cloud, Best Practices, Common Mistakes
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