Welcome to my 2025 deep dive! I’m rounding up the Salesforce Admin articles you loved most last year, and for the first time, I’m also pulling out the key insights that made them so impactful.
To keep things fair, I focused on posts that were published or refreshed in 2025 and ranked them by this year’s page views. Release articles were not included (but they are always some of our most popular posts – so check them out if you haven’t already).
1. Salesforce Account Plans: The New Feature Your Sales Users Will Love
My favorite new feature of 2025 was Account Plans, and for good reason. Back when I was a full-time, solo Salesforce Admin, my sales team was begging for this kind of functionality. We eventually had a developer build a custom solution, which worked… but it definitely didn’t come close to the power or polish of Account Plans.
Account Plans give sales teams a true, out-of-the-box framework for managing account strategy directly in Sales Cloud. They bring everything into one place: goals, progress tracking, stakeholder alignment, and long-term growth plans, all tied to the Account. No more scattered spreadsheets, slide decks, or external tools. With structured records, measurable targets, collaborative workflows, and customizable components, Account Plans finally give orgs a single source of truth for strategic, account-based selling.
Key insight: Salesforce has delivered a long-requested native solution for account planning, eliminating the need for disconnected documents or external tools. By making Account Plans customizable, measurable, and fully integrated with existing Salesforce data, organizations can finally treat strategic account management as a first-class, trackable, and collaborative process. This shift turns account planning from a manual exercise into a dynamic, data-driven capability that grows with each release.
2. Most Popular Salesforce Chrome Extensions 2025
Not content with the number 1 spot, Andreea Doroftei also wrote our second most popular admin post this year: her annual most popular Chrome extensions article. This article rounds up the very best Salesforce Chrome extensions for 2025 – the ones that actually make your working day easier, faster, and far less click-heavy.
From long-time favorites like Salesforce Inspector Reloaded and ORGanizer to newer gems like Salesforce Explorer, the list highlights the top-rated tools based on functionality, ease of use, and real user feedback. Whether you’re an admin or a developer, you’ll find plenty of extensions that can tidy up your workflow, boost productivity, and make navigating Salesforce feel a lot smoother.
Key insight: The big takeaway is that the right Chrome extensions can become absolute game-changers for your Salesforce productivity, saving you time and effort in ways you’ll notice immediately. Just remember to keep security in mind and choose tools that align with your company’s policies. With the right mix, your browser can quickly become one of your most powerful Salesforce tools.
3. Types of Salesforce Licenses: Explained
Lucy Mazalon’s article is your friendly guide to understanding Salesforce licenses and how they differ from editions, all broken down in a simple, practical way. It walks you through the main types of licenses you will come across as an admin, from user and feature licenses to platform, identity, Einstein, Experience Cloud, integration, Marketing Cloud, and Account Engagement licenses.
The goal is to help you feel confident about what each one does, why it exists, and how it fits into your org, so you can keep your setup healthy, tidy, and working exactly as it should.
Key insight: Licenses and editions serve completely different purposes, and understanding that distinction is essential for any admin who wants to manage access cleanly and avoid surprises. Knowing which licenses you have, how they work, and who is using them is one of the simplest ways to strengthen your org’s health and security. Once you understand the basics, choosing the right licenses becomes far less intimidating and a lot more empowering.
4. Complete Guide to Salesforce Field Service (FSL)
Another gem from Lucy, as she gives you a guided tour through the wonderfully busy world of Salesforce Field Service. If you have technicians out on the road, agents helping customers, or dispatchers juggling schedules, this is where everything comes together.
We look at what Field Service is, who uses it, and how it powers smarter scheduling, better visibility, and smoother service delivery. Think of it as your field guide (pun intended) to keeping customers happy, technicians prepared, and your operations running like a well-tuned machine.
Key insight: Salesforce Field Service connects every moving part of your mobile workforce, so jobs are scheduled intelligently and completed efficiently. When the setup is done thoughtfully, it becomes a backbone for operational excellence rather than “just another tool.” The magic happens when processes, people, and technology are aligned with a clear service model.
5. How to Gather Salesforce Requirements Like a Boss
This article from Robert Gelo was an unexpected unicorn in our publishing calendar. Almost immediately, it caught the internet’s attention, and the views skyrocketed. It dives into the art of gathering Salesforce requirements, also known as elicitation, and why this phase is the secret sauce to a smooth implementation or customization project.
From talking to stakeholders and running user story workshops, to asking the right questions like a detective and documenting all the important bits, it covers everything you need to get the groundwork right. It even touches on collaboration tools, project management platforms, and communication techniques, showing how proper preparation ensures your Salesforce solution actually meets the needs of everyone involved.
Key insight: Clear communication, active listening, and stakeholder engagement are at the heart of successful requirements gathering. Documenting everything and using structured approaches like user stories, gap analysis, and workshops makes it easier to turn messy needs into a usable Salesforce solution. When elicitation is done right, it sets your project up for a smooth rollout and a solution that truly works for the people using it.
6. A Salesforce Admin’s Guide to Auditing Connected Apps
This super topical article from Tom Bassett very rightly holds one of the top spots. It’s a wake-up call for Salesforce Admins to grab their virtual magnifying glasses and audit their Connected Apps. It walks you through what Connected Apps are, how hackers have exploited them, and why it’s crucial to know which apps are genuinely safe in your org.
From reviewing installed versus user-authorized apps, setting session timeouts, enforcing admin-approved access, and even using API Access Control, this guide gives admins a step-by-step approach to lock down access and keep your Salesforce data safe.
Key insight: Connected Apps are a powerful tool, but can be a backdoor for hackers if not carefully monitored. Regular audits and following the principle of least privilege for access dramatically reduce risk. Enabling API Access Control is a proactive step that blocks unauthorized apps before they can even be used.
7. Why Do Salesforce Data Cloud Implementations Fail?
I’m pleased to see an article about Data Cloud in the top articles for Salesforce Admins, showing that we understand how significant this tool is going to become. Timo Kovala’s takes a deep dive into Salesforce Data Cloud, exploring why this shiny, high-growth platform can sometimes feel like trying to catch a unicorn.
From explaining what Data Cloud actually is, to untangling its consumption-based pricing, and highlighting the importance of planning and real business use cases, the article shows that while Data Cloud has serious market traction, getting it to work in practice is a whole different story. Experts warn that overcomplicating setups, mismanaging credits, and skipping careful planning can turn even the most promising Data Cloud project into a time-consuming headache.
Key insight: Data Cloud is powerful but indirect in value, so implementations succeed only when guided by clear business use cases. Understanding the credit-based pricing and actively planning for use case design prevents wasted spend and effort. Continuous planning, education, and use case iteration are crucial to ensure Data Cloud delivers real value beyond the hype.
8. Your Guide to Salesforce Revenue Cloud
She’s the queen of a comprehensive deep-dive, and Andreea is back again with the only guide you’ll need to Revenue Cloud! It walks you through the evolution from CPQ to Revenue Cloud Advanced, and dives into the nuts and bolts of product catalogs, pricing, quote and order management, contract and subscription handling, consumption-based billing, and even AI-powered Agentforce automation.
The article really makes the case that Revenue Cloud isn’t just about replacing old tools; it’s about reimagining the way teams collaborate, automate, and scale revenue operations efficiently.
Key insight: Revenue Cloud’s strength lies in its API-first, fully integrated design, which allows businesses to streamline complex revenue processes without losing flexibility. Planning and configuration are critical for success, as every step from pricing to fulfillment needs thoughtful setup to avoid bottlenecks. Finally, built-in analytics and automation like Agentforce empower teams to work smarter, not harder, turning a traditionally fragmented process into a unified, data-driven revenue engine.
9. Salesforce Flow Approval Processes: Get Started Now
Andreea’s back for her fourth and final article in our top Salesforce Admin posts! Published in September, it’s still relatively new, so it hasn’t had as much time as other posts to rack up page views.
This article dives into Salesforce’s new Flow Approval Orchestration, showing how the long-standing approval process has been fully modernized and brought into Flow Builder. Instead of just triggering an existing approval process, admins can now build multi-step, flexible approval workflows entirely within Flow, complete with stages, approval steps, background steps, evaluation flows, and decision elements.
It walks through how to set up, debug, and manage these orchestrations, including optional recall paths, error handling, and user permissions, all while keeping everything accessible for both admins and end users.
Key insight: Salesforce has taken approval processes to the next level by embedding them directly in Flow Builder, giving admins more flexibility, visibility, and control than ever before. By leveraging stages, evaluation flows, and debug tools, teams can design complex approval workflows without relying on legacy processes. Finally, built-in orchestration visibility and new permission options make it easier to manage, monitor, and adapt approvals as business needs change.
10. Complete Guide to Record Types in Salesforce
One of our top expert authors, Stacy O’Leary, penned this comprehensive, refreshed guide to Record Types. Salesforce Record Types are one of those features everyone thinks they understand until they actually try to use them, and then suddenly you’re knee-deep in picklists, page layouts, and user confusion.
This article walks you through what Record Types really are, why they can be a lifesaver when used correctly, and how to implement them step by step – from planning and sandbox testing to deployment and cleanup. It also shares practical advice on when not to use them, how to clean up unused or redundant record types, and how to make sure your users actually benefit from them rather than getting stuck clicking through fields that don’t matter.
Key insight: Record Types are most effective when they simplify the user experience by showing only relevant fields and layouts, not just because they exist. Successful implementation starts with understanding user needs, documenting differences for each type, and testing thoroughly in a sandbox before going live. Cleanup and thoughtful deployment prevent unnecessary complexity and improve data quality across your Salesforce org.
Final Thoughts
2025 brought a wealth of popular new and refreshed posts for Salesforce Admins, and a special shout-out goes to the amazing Andreea Doroftei, who authored four of our top ten articles! From mastering Flow Approval Orchestrations and Record Types to exploring powerful new tools like Account Plans, Revenue Cloud, and must-have Chrome extensions, these posts cover both the practical day-to-day and the big-picture strategy of Salesforce.
The key takeaway? Whether you’re streamlining processes, improving data quality, or boosting your org’s productivity, truly understanding the why behind each feature – and testing everything thoroughly in a sandbox first – is what separates a good admin from a great one.
