Salesforce Summer '23 Release Notes Summary: Exciting Features and Updates

Image courtesy of Salesforce

August 14, 2023

This article was written by Anderson Mok, Salesforce Consultant and Linh Tran, Salesforce Consultant.

The Summer ‘23 Release of Salesforce’s annual changes is here! As we dive into this latest update, get ready to learn all about the newest features, enhancements, and capabilities that will empower your organization like never before. Prepare to be inspired and equipped with new knowledge to take your Salesforce experience to the next level.

Here are some exciting features from the Salesforce Summer ‘23 Release:

Nonprofit

Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)

This is the existing package that most nonprofit groups leverage. Built on top of the Salesforce platform, this managed package acts as a separate application. Within this release, there are no changes made to the NPSP product directly but rather indirectly through common add-on packages via Program Management Module (PMM) and Case Management. All nonprofit related information within this release will only pertain to Nonprofit Cloud.

Nonprofit Cloud (NEW!)

The new Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud combines several existing clouds and managed packages together. It’s built within the core Salesforce platform. Designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, Nonprofit Cloud is a transformative platform that will measure impact with one integrated platform. It’ll allow you to strengthen relationships, integrate your favourite tools, and streamline your operations to unlock insights. New features include Program and Case Management, allowing you to adapt programs to deliver more effective outcomes.

Facilitate Cross Industry Collaboration with Other Products

Implement and take advantage of other products Salesforce has to offer, such as features found in Service Cloud. Historically, NPSP’s data structure limited additional features to managed packages, add-ons or third-party tools. Now, with the Nonprofit Cloud, utilizing the same data architecture allows for faster implementation of new functionality and use of existing tools; significantly reducing complexity overall.

Expectation Setting for Nonprofit Cloud

There is currently limited Nonprofit Cloud documentation, with Trailheads and additional materials still in progress. We predict that in the near future, Nonprofit Cloud will be up to date with the latest cutting edge features. Users will have expertise as early adopters for the newest Cloud, and it’ll be an opportunity to grow and find value together.

General Enhancements

Salutation in Lightning + Gender Neutral Salutation

You will now be able to manage and update pick-list values under the Salutation field in Lightning Experience. The Mx. Salutation pick-list value is now available by default, allowing you to honour your constituents by using titles that align with their pronouns. You can also customize the Salutation field to include other non-binary or honorific titles specific to your company. One of the key advantages of this feature is the ease of modifying salutations without having to switch to Salesforce Classic. It also empowers organizations to reflect the diversity of their constituents by offering gender-neutral salutations, ensuring that everyone feels recognized and respected, regardless of their gender identity.

In-App Guidance

For new users who are not familiar with the Salesforce platform, there are now targeted fields for in-app guidance. This feature improves the onboarding process by providing more precise and specific guidance tailored to the needs of new users. It also allows for better user experience on the platform by guiding users in the right direction, providing a refresher from training modules, and allowing for greater adoption on using Salesforce features to its fullest potential.

App Clone

This feature will allow users to effortlessly clone custom apps instead of creating new apps from scratch. This will be a major time-saver for different departments or business units within your organizations that have similar use cases. The impact of this feature will allow for greater time saving and efficient app management.

Field-Level Security for Permission Set

Salesforce administrators will now be able to set field-level security on permission sets rather than profiles during the field creation process. This will allow for field access control at the permission set level. As Salesforce is moving away from profiles and towards permission sets, this makes it easier to follow the best practice of using permission sets to control your users’ access, rather than profiles.

Calendar (Event) Changes

There are numerous updates to the Calendar section on Salesforce. You will now be able to:

• View more events at a given time (500)

• Enable more events for shared calendars (50)

• Click and drag events to reschedule time

• Select an event to preview (instead of hovering)

• More visibility improvements (shading, overlapping, expanded text)

These enhancements will make it easier than ever to schedule important calls and internal meetings, as you will be able to associate the meeting to specific objects and existing records. It will streamline your workflow and allow you to save time with these new visibility and user experience updates.

News Component Retirement and Account Changes

The news component feature that automatically displayed various articles of any related accounts is set to be removed on Oct 13, 2023. In addition, when searching for an account, automated suggestions of account names and logo feature will also be removed in October 2023. The original purpose of this feature was to easily find US-based companies and attach their logos automatically. Moving forwards, Salesforce Administrators and Power Users should ensure that all new and existing account names be labeled in a clear and specific manner.

New Dashboard Features

There will be numerous new dashboard features that will be introduced during this update, including:

• New widget options to enhance the viewing experience of dashboards

• Maximum filter limit increased from 3 to 5

• Ability to share dashboards on Slack

The introduction of these new features will enable the ability to create filters within dashboards, and also assist in removing the creation of redundant dashboards with slight changes to how they are displayed. The ability to create more creative dashboards will allow users to view information in a more focused way that tailors to their needs. Note that these features are only available with the Unlimited Edition License.

New Analytics Tab

Introducing a brand new Analytics tab to manage all your reports and dashboards! This feature allows for a centralized and streamlined environment to manage all the analytical data in an improved manner. Users will be able to directly access all reports and dashboards on one tab, and easily find all the information needed by categorizing various charts under collections.

Add-on Module & Managed Package

Program Management Module & Case Management (Managed Package) Enhancements

With a better information sorting and filtering for Bulk Service Deliveries, users now can intuitively find the right Cohort, Service or Program Engagement in alphabetized lists, and filter out Program Engagements or Services that are no longer active. The pick-list that users select from becomes more concise and relevant than ever, which ensures an efficient recording of services delivered.

Nonprofit Cloud

Program Management

Action plan templates allow users to create repeatable task templates and associate them to Programs and Benefits. With action plan templates, you can define task checklists, milestones and necessary documentation for Programs and Benefits to ensure timely and effective program/benefit delivery. The impact that this feature makes will reduce the amount of time needed to create similar tasks, allowing you to focus on what matters most.

Accounting Subledger

Similar to Accounting Subledger that we’ve seen for NPSP, Accounting Subledger is now also available for Nonprofit Cloud with two editions: Starter & Growth. This feature captures transactions from Salesforce CRM and automates transformations to reconcile this data in an accounting-ready format. By consolidating data between Salesforce CRM and your accounting system, you will better understand how and where funds are received, paid, and allocated with unparalleled performance.

Grantmaking

Grantmaking in Nonprofit Cloud was made available starting July 18, 2023. Grantmakers are now equipped with an Experience Cloud portal and a preconfigured portal template, which are helpful to kickstart creating an external site for applicants and grant reviewers. This accelerates implementation and the length of time-to-value so grantmakers can focus less on setting up their systems and more on funding important initiatives. Another key data model shift is the ability to support Person Accounts. This facilitates the ability to track and manage relationships with individuals for scholarship or fellowship awards.

That concludes our favourite features from the Summer ’23 Release. We look forward to seeing you unlock new possibilities across the Salesforce ecosystem. For more detailed release notes, click here to view the full Salesforce Summer ’23 Release Notes. We’ll see you all in the next update!

Ready to start your digital transformation journey with Salesforce? Let Belmar’s industry experts guide you in the right direction. Contact us below!