Salesforce Associate Certification Guide

The Salesforce Associate credential is designed for Salesforce professionals who possess the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience to understand and utilize the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform. Candidates should have a basic understanding of how an integrated CRM platform can connect departments and customer data. They should be familiar with the Salesforce platform as a user or learner and be knowledgeable of common business use cases. This exam is suitable for those who are new to the Salesforce ecosystem and may be looking to pursue a career in Salesforce or become a Salesforce Certified Professional.

There are 4 areas of knowledge that are covered by the Associate certification.

Associate Topic Weighting Chart

The following are the core topic areas of the Associate certification and what you’re expected to know:

This topic includes the following objectives:

             Salesforce provides a range of resources for users to enhance their Salesforce skills and stay up to date with the latest industry trends. Among these resources are Trailhead and the Trailblazer Community, Salesforce Help, and Salesforce Trust.

Trailhead is Salesforce's free, online learning platform designed to help users learn Salesforce technology and gain certifications. With a range of learning paths and modules available, users can choose the most relevant courses for their learning goals and track their progress. The Trailblazer Community, on the other hand, is a platform that connects Salesforce professionals from around the world, allowing them to share knowledge and experiences.

Salesforce Help, meanwhile, is a resource that provides users with the information and tools they need to troubleshoot and resolve issues with Salesforce applications. Salesforce Trust site is a resource that provides transparency and assurance to Salesforce customers by sharing information about the platform's security, privacy, compliance, and performance.

          Salesforce is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides businesses with a suite of tools to manage sales, customer service, and marketing efforts. Its multitenant environment allows multiple organizations to share the same infrastructure and software while maintaining security and separation of their data.

The Customer 360 platform will provide businesses with a unified view of their customers by combining data from multiple sources and systems into a single customer profile. This topic will also introduce the basic concepts that are needed to understand Salesforce architecture.

          Companies use Salesforce as a centralized platform to manage customer data, track customer interactions, automate sales and marketing processes, and gain insights to improve customer engagement and overall business performance.
Salesforce is highly customizable and flexible, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs and requirements. Salesforce provides both declarative and programmatic customization options that will be further explained in this topic.

            Salesforce is a dynamic and ever-growing technology company that offers a diverse range of job roles, including both technical and nontechnical positions. Technical careers in the Salesforce ecosystem refer to roles that require a high level of technical skill and knowledge.  On the other hand, nontechnical careers primarily focus on utilizing the platform to meet business objectives, manage customer relationships, and support overall business operations.

There are career paths for students interested in entering the Salesforce ecosystem, including the various certifications and skills required for entry-level positions and the opportunities for growth and advancement.

The Salesforce ecosystem offers a variety of career paths, including certifications, skills, and experiences that are necessary for advancing from entry-level positions to senior-level roles and beyond. These career paths in the Salesforce ecosystem encompass a wide range of positions, including software development, solution architecture, sales, marketing, and customer service.
Building a career in the Salesforce ecosystem involves obtaining the necessary skills, certifications, and experience, and creating a plan to advance towards one's desired career path.

This topic includes the following objectives:

        In the Lightning Experience UI, Salesforce offers a user-friendly interface that allows quickly navigating to information and tools that are needed to manage data and execute processes efficiently.

This topic will cover some user interface aspects and thoroughly explain the function of the key elements used when navigating the Salesforce platform such as the navigation bar, global search, App Launcher, and Setup.  This topic will also describe different user interface settings and considerations related to default and custom list views, and other features used in Salesforce like the Recycle Bin and Favorites feature.

        Businesses have different requirements, such as functionality and customized experiences, that cater specifically to their unique internal processes. Salesforce is capable of fulfilling these requirements by providing extensive customization options to tailor the org accordingly and meet each business need.

This topic will cover important Setup tools for configuring the Salesforce platform such as Company Settings, Object Manager, Schema Builder, Lightning App Builder, etc., as well as the AppExchange marketplace for alternative solutions.

This topic includes the following objectives:

          Understanding the difference between standard and custom objects is crucial. Standard objects, such as Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities, are pre-built and come with Salesforce. Custom objects, on the other hand, are created by the user to meet specific business needs.

Custom fields allow users to add specific information to their objects. It is important to know the different field types, such as picklists, formulas, checkboxes, and date/time fields to ensure that the data is captured in the most accurate and efficient way.

Schema Builder is beneficial for managing objects and fields. It allows for quick visualization of object relationships and the ability to make changes to the configurations from a single location.

         Salesforce is a widely used CRM platform that allows businesses to manage their customer data, sales processes, and marketing activities. The platform provides various access control features to ensure the security and privacy of data within the system.

At the highest level, organization-level settings regulate overall access to the Salesforce platform. Object-level settings restrict access to specific objects such as accounts or contacts and control the ability of users to view, edit, or delete records related to those objects. Record-level settings further limit access to specific records within an object, authorizing certain users to view or modify only their own records or those they have been authorized to access. Finally, field-level settings define access to specific fields within an object, enabling certain users to view or edit only specific fields while blocking access to others.

By utilizing these access control features, organizations can effectively manage their data securely and ensure that sensitive information is safeguarded, while enabling users to perform their necessary functions within the Salesforce platform. 

        To ensure data quality, Salesforce provides several tools such as validation rules, which are customizable checks that help maintain consistency and integrity of data entered into the system. Formulas are another powerful feature that allow users to perform simple to advanced calculations on data within the platform. Summary and picklist fields provide additional functionality for aggregating data and providing users with predefined options for data entry.

Record types are another useful feature in Salesforce that allow businesses to customize the user interface based on the type of record being created or viewed. Duplicate management is a key feature that allows businesses to maintain data quality by identifying and merging duplicate records within the system.

This topic includes the following objectives:

             The Report Builder is an essential feature that allows users to create reports to analyze and present data in a meaningful and concise way, making it a valuable tool for data-driven decision-making.

Salesforce provides several features when working with reports. For example, filters enable users to filter report data according to specific criteria. Subscription and scheduling options facilitate scheduled report delivery to subscribers. Report folders allow users to organize reports. Reports can be exported in specified formats to allow offline or third-party access to report data.

Salesforce provides several other features for enhancing reports that will be covered in this topic.

               Dashboards are visual representations of data from one or more reports that are useful for gathering insights across several reports, monitoring changes, and implementing automated delivery of up-to-date dashboard data via email. Dashboards maintain report data privacy by restricting access to unauthorized users. Different types of dashboard components can be used to display data from reports that will be described in the following sections.