Field impact

Field impact analysis; Field documentation; Field usage; % population; How is field impact calculated; What is field impact;

Ksawery Lisinski avatar
Written by Ksawery Lisinski
Updated over a week ago

Field impact feature is like being two steps ahead of yourself, not only analysis is done in automagical way, but three (Low/Medium/High) impact assessment levels points you straight to where your attention is needed most.

Article outline

  • Prerequisites

  • What is field impact?

  • How is impact calculated?

  • Field % population

  • Usage

  • Documentation

  • Breakdown of impact by objects

  • Reporting on field impact

  • You might be also interested in

Prerequisites

  • Registered and verified Elements account

  • Sync'd Salesforce Org

What is field impact?

We automatically calculate the impact of custom, standard and managed package fields in your Salesforce Org based on where, how often and how much it is populated as well as the level of provided documentation. We then display the impact score (High/Medium/Low) in the Org model, so you can easily identify fields you may need to delete or take additional action on.

TIP This impact calculation takes place after the full sync of your Org model.
 For managed packages, you will need to additionally manually fetch field % population data. 

How is impact calculated?

To understand why a given custom field was marked as high/medium/low, roll over the field impact label in the documentation or usage tabs for the selected field. In the popover, you will see what impact criteria were met by the selected field.

The calculation method is pretty simple: we mark a field as either low/medium/high in 3 categories, and then we extend the highest awarded impact value in one of the categories to the field (e.g. a field may have "Low" impact in terms of documentation but "High" in % population, so we treat it as a "High" impact field in general).

The criteria are:

Field % population

  • If a field is 0% populated = "Low";

  • Anything between 0%-2% = "Medium"; 

  • Anything above 2% = "High"

TIP Exception: for formula fields we only take into account usage & documentation as they are likely to always have 100% population.

TIP Managed packages: for standard & custom fields in your core Org, we fetch % population automatically after the sync. To get this data for managed packages, however, you need to manually request it for the package (to do that you have to select the managed package node and in the right - click menu select "Update % population") or its objects. You can do it from the context menu in the Org model tree or from the right panel. 

Usage

  • Field is not used anywhere or just on any page layout = "Low"

  • Field is used on any email template, report, field set and/or global action = "Medium"

  • Field is used on any apex, formula field, approval process, workflow rule, workflow field update, process builder workflows, validation rule, flow and/or sharing rule = "High"

Documentation

  • Field with either description or no documentation at all = "Low"

  • Field has help text = "Medium"

  • Field has any documentation (notes, images, process links, requirements, stories) = "High"

Breakdown of impact by objects

You can see the aggregate breakdown of fields' impact from the object level to assess whether you can delete any fields or whether the object itself is useful.

You can also check the breakdown of custom fields impact in SF Analytics for all objects. 

Reporting on field impact 

When you report on fields in your Org, the impact value as well as the full criteria assessment will be a part of the produced spreadsheets. 

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