You’ve been there. You’ve just launched a game-changing flow in Salesforce, but suddenly, your users are hitting a wall of error messages. Your team swears they haven’t touched anything. A mysterious new validation rule or a required field has appeared out of nowhere, and no one is fessing up. The finger-pointing begins.
It’s a frustratingly common scenario for companies that have invested heavily in the Salesforce platform. The promise of a seamless, powerful CRM gets bogged down in unforeseen complexities and a system that feels like it’s working against you.
But before you start sending passive-aggressive emails, what if there was a way to know exactly who made changes, and when?
There is. Watch our short video guide below, or read on for the step-by-step instructions.
At Cloud Connects, we’re not about creating more complexity; we’re about giving you the straight answers to get the most out of your Salesforce investment. Here’s how you can become the detective.
Step 1: Locate the Setup Audit Trail
Finding this feature is simple. For the official guide, you can always reference the Salesforce Help documentation on viewing the audit trail.
- Click the gear icon in the top right corner of Salesforce and go to Setup.
- In the Quick Find box on the left, type “View Setup Audit Trail.”
- Click on the link to open the audit trail page.
Here, you’ll see a history of the last 20 changes made to your setup. For a more comprehensive view, you can download the trail for the last six months. Just scroll to the bottom and click the Download button.
Step 2: Investigate the Clues
Once you have the downloaded CSV file open in a spreadsheet application, you can start your investigation. The file contains a detailed log of all setup changes.
To find your culprit, use the find function (Ctrl + F or Cmd + F) to search for specific keywords related to the problem.
- Looking for a rogue validation rule? Search for “validation rule.” The log will show you who created or last modified any rules.
In our example from the video, a quick search for “validation rules” revealed that our colleague Charles was the one who made the recent updates. Problem solved.
Step 3: A Modern Twist with AI
Want to speed up the process? You can leverage AI to analyze the spreadsheet for you. Simply upload the downloaded audit trail file to your AI tool of choice and ask a direct question, such as:
“Who changed the validation rules in mid-March?”
The AI can quickly parse the data and give you a direct answer, saving you the time of manually searching through the file. It’s a pragmatic, effective solution—exactly the kind of approach we champion at Cloud Connects.
From Simple Fixes to System-Wide Solutions
Knowing who changed what is the first step. The next is understanding why and ensuring your Salesforce instance is built to be sustainable, scalable, and truly supportive of your business goals.
If you find yourself constantly putting out fires in Salesforce, it might be a sign of deeper issues. Are your integrations seamless? Is your data clean and reliable? Are your teams empowered to use the system effectively? This is where our Salesforce Audit can provide critical insights.
At Cloud Connects, we specialize in helping organizations move beyond the daily frustrations and realize the full value of their Salesforce investments. Our services cover the full lifecycle, from Discovery and Implementation to Managed Services. We’re the pragmatic, “anti-consultant consultants” who tell you the hard truths to make your system work for you.
Ready to stop the blame game and start building a better Salesforce experience? Connect with us today.
