How to Create an Admin Page Layout

In case you haven’t noticed, but Salesforce Admins are special.

As a Salesforce Admin you have to be special because you are the first one called on if there is a problem. Let’s take a simple problem, but one I run into more often than not- like data being populated in a field and troubleshooting the reason for a user. Often this problem requires me to see all of the fields related to a particular object.

The Administrator View

As a best practice I set up at least one page layout for every object that shows me (the Salesforce Administrator) all of the fields. This ensures that when I view an Account, Contact, or another object I can see everything possible to help trouble-shoot something for a user. But I use this for more than just trouble shooting, this is also great for reporting and when I meet with a department to look at expansion of their build out. In general I use the naming convention “[Object] Layout- ADMIN”  that way I know its the Admin view and set it so that all System Admins can see every field.

Here’s how I do it.

Page Layouts are associated with Record Types, and a record type can have multiple page layouts. In fact, I often use page layouts to enforce field security without dealing with Field Level Security. This process is something you implement right away for existing record types or when you create a new one. So let’s get started! To begin lets navigate to the Page Layouts by following these steps.

• Click on  Setup | Build | Customize
• Choose the object that we will create the Page Layout for- Leads, Account, Contacts, Opportunites, etc.
• Then choose- Page Layouts and click the “New” Button

For this example I’m going with Accounts. If you have an existing page layout or a “Master” layout you can clone it, or choose none and start from scratch. Remember, this page layout is for you the Admin so customize it to how you work best.

The second step is to create your page layout and add all of the fields. I would suggest keeping the sections in the same order that they appear for the users that way its not too confusing for you. One best practice you can do is name the section based on the record type that it is used on. So for Accounts we have Customer Record Types and Prospect Customer Record Types, each had fields that the other doesn’t so for my Admin view I have a Section called “Customer Fields” and a section called “Prospect Fields”. Below is an example of an Admin Page Layout.

The final step is to associate your Admin Page Layout with your Admin profile. To do this click on the “Page Layout Assignment” Button. This will take you to the Edit Page Layout Assignments, click edit and select the Record Type to associate the Page Layout to your Admin profile. From the drop down change the page layout to the Admin view. Click Save and your all set.

Now anytime you visit a record you can see all of the fields available which makes troubleshooting faster. So as an Admin how do you use Page Layouts to be more effective?