How to Mass Edit in a Custom View

In a previous post, I contrasted two tools that mass edit Salesforce data – Demand Tools and Apsona. I also mentioned there is another way to complete basic mass edits using built-in Salesforce functionality. Namely, the View.

Views are what you see on the homepage of each object (contacts, organizations, opportunities etc) in a dropdown at the top. The NPSP comes with a few out of the box, such as All Contacts, My Contacts, Birthdays this month, etc. But you can create a custom view to further filter information, and even do basic mass editing. To my knowledge the custom view wasn’t designed for mass editing, but if leveraging built-in features in innovative ways to make your life easier is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

For my example, I’m going to use Opportunities (Donations in the NPSP). I recently needed to create a view that lists all individual opportunities that need to be acknowledged. After a batch of thank you letters is mailed out, I want to update the donation records to reflect that change, without navigating to each record and editing and saving. With views, you can!

To start, I created the view. Navigate to the home page of the object – in my case Opportunities/Donations. Click on Create New View.

Then set the appropriate filters for the records you want to display. In this example it’s Record Type = Individual Donation and Acknowledgement Date = blank.

If you intend to do mass editing, make sure the field you want to edit is included in the Selected Fields to Display list (otherwise you won’t be able to see it in your view, or change it).

Then click save. Now you can click on your view to see all records that match the criteria you’ve set. You’ll also notice there are checkboxes next to the records. Click on the very top one to select all records.

Now make the change in the appropriate field by double clicking to edit (in any record that is selected). In our case it’s a date field, the acknowledgement date that we are setting for today, as we have just sent out our thank you letters. You’ll notice you have the option to apply the changes to the record you clicked on, or all selected. Choose all selected, and click save.

To note:

Depending on how many records you display in your view, that is how many you will edit. If you have hundreds of records, your mass edit may be slow going (as you will have to do this for each page).

There are some fields that you cannot edit this way (ownership of records for example).

Checkboxes not appearing? Make sure your view ONLY displays one record type. If your view returns multiple record types the checkboxes will not appear, therefore removing your ability to mass edit.

Happy Viewing (and editing)!!