How to tell if your Salesforce org is healthy

After managing Salesforce for 12 years across healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, I’ve seen orgs that run like Swiss watches and others that barely limp. Health isn’t about uptime—it’s about sustainable performance, security, and scalability. Here’s how to spot the difference without drowning in dashboards.

1. Performance: When Queries Start Choking

If your org slows down during peak hours (e.g., month-end reporting in finance), it’s not just "user error." Check for inefficient queries. In one healthcare client, a single report on 2M+ patient records was pulling all fields from Account without filtering. They were hitting governor limits daily. The fix? Restructure the report to use indexed fields and limit to active records:

SELECT Id, Name FROM Account WHERE IsActive = true AND CreatedDate > LAST_MONTH

Run SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Account monthly. If it exceeds 500K without filters, you’re inviting performance pain.

2. Configuration: The "Why Did We Build This?" Test

Ask: "Does this custom field or workflow serve a *current* business need?" I audited a manufacturing client with 87 inactive custom fields on Opportunity—left over from a 2018 ERP migration. They deleted 63, reducing UI clutter and speeding up page loads by 40%.

Check for:

• Orphaned objects (e.g., Custom_Object__c with no active processes)
• Stale workflows (e.g., "Send email on lead creation" still firing for leads routed via chat)
• Over-engineered automation (e.g., 15+ approval chains for a single quote)

3. Data Quality: The Duplicate Epidemic

Duplicates aren’t just "annoying"—they cost money. In a retail org, 12% of Account records were duplicates (e.g., "Acme Inc" vs "Acme, Inc"). This caused 20% of sales reps to chase the same lead. Use Salesforce’s built-in duplicate rules, but also run a SOQL check for high-risk fields:

SELECT COUNT(Id) FROM Account WHERE Name LIKE '%Inc%' AND BillingCity = 'New York'

If this returns >500, you’ve got a data quality fire. Prioritize cleaning *before* adding more automation.

4. Security: The Shadow Admins Problem

Health means security isn’t an afterthought. I found a finance org where a former consultant’s profile had System Administrator access. They’d created a hidden Custom_Report__c object with sensitive transaction data. Always verify:

• Permission sets (e.g., "Finance Access" shouldn’t have Read All Data)
• Sharing rules (e.g., "All Opportunities shared with Marketing" when they only need 20% of accounts)
• Active session logs (Run SELECT Id, User.Name, LoginTime FROM LoginHistory WHERE LoginTime > 2023-01-01—if you see "Unknown User," investigate)

5. Maintenance: The "We’ll Do It Later" Trap

Organizations that skip cleanup (old deleted records, unused integrations) accumulate tech debt. A healthcare client left 10K+ deleted Case records in the recycle bin for 2 years. This inflated their license count by 15% (since licenses include deleted records). Audit monthly:

• Deleted records (Check Setup > Data Management > Recycle Bin)
• Unused integrations (e.g., Salesforce-to-ERP API keys with no recent activity)
• Old custom metadata (e.g., Flow versions not deployed to production)

Health isn’t a one-time project—it’s a habit. If you can’t answer "Yes" to all these points in under 5 minutes, your org is at risk. Stop guessing and start measuring.

Ready to see your org’s true health score? Get a free, automated health scan—it takes 90 seconds and reveals exactly what needs fixing.