A Road Map to System Administrator Certification

The Exam formats

• Multiple Choice/Multi-Select
o Single answer
o 2 of 4
o 3 of 5
• Content: 60 questions (5 unscored items will be added)
• Time allotted: 105 minutes (allows for unscored questions)
• Passing score: 65%

A Test Strategy I have seen fail frequently

• Take the exam the week after you finish ADM/ADX-201 or the equivalent. It is too soon
to allow study of all the things you will be tested on.
• Do not download the Study Guide and use it to chart a study plan

A Test Strategy I have seen succeed frequently

• Download the certification exam guide for the exam you are studying for. It outlines the
concepts tested on the exam. Go to
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/help?article=Salesforce-Certified-Administrator-Exam-
Guide#AwesomeAdmin
• Go through the exam outline and chart a study plan based on the content percentages
of the exam outline
• Study for about 3 weeks after the System Admin class. Schedule the exam about one
month after you complete the class

Test Preparation Resources

If you took the ADM/ADX-201 class or equivalent

• Go thru the class content, paying particular attention to those items I have highlighted
in the class as ‘typical test questions’
• Review selected Exercises, and do them again in your ADM/ADX-201 Org
Trailmix – “System Admin Cert Prep Trailmix from Wycado Consulting”
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/users/jsusich/trailmixes/system-admin-cert-prep-trailmix-
from-wycado-consulting

Practice Exams
Sign up for the Administrator Course and Exams on the Focus on Force Study Site: This site I
have heard from many is one of the best ones for helping prepare for the exam.
https://focusonforce.com/admin-study-guide/ . They offer 6 full practice exams. This website
access costs $19.00 and its money well spent. This is a mere 3 Starbucks trips for your “Tall,
Non-Fat Latte with Caramel Drizzle”, and this is a better investment.

Probable Topics on the System Admin Cert Exam that are not covered in
ADM/ADX-201
• Products, Price Books, and Quotes
• Managing Territories - know what they do, and how they interact with Forecasts
• Forecasts – know the differences between Cumulative and Collaborative Forecasting
• Assets, Contracts, and Orders – all Standard Objects
• The difference between Content, Knowledge, Files, and Documents
• Campaigns
• Salesforce for Outlook
• Communities
• Approval Processes
• Einstein
If you have limited study time, go for the Big Hitters – 86% of the Exam

• Standard and Custom Objects (the Data Model) – 15%

• Analytics - Reports and Dashboards – 15%
• Security and Access – 14%
• Service and Support Applications – 12%
• Workflow/Process Automation – 12%
• Sales and Marketing Applications – 10%
• Data Management – 8%
▪ User Setup – 6%
▪ Activity Management and Collaboration – 3%
▪ Org Setup – 3%
▪ Desktop and Mobile Administration – 1%
▪ AppExchange – 1%
 Certification Topic Links and highlights
Describe the capabilities of Products and Price Books

https://resources.docs.salesforce.com/200/latest/en-
us/sfdc/pdf/salesforce_products_cheatsheet.pdf

Highlights
• The standard price book is a master list of all products with their associated default or standard
prices. As we saw when we added products, it automatically lists all products and their standard
prices.
• A custom price book is a list of products with their custom (or list) prices.
• Custom price books let you offer different prices to different market segments. Custom price
books can contain list prices that are lower or higher than the standard price.
• You may also use custom price books to separate the products that are offered in different
markets/regions, or to list products at special prices for certain audiences or certain periods of
time.
• Users cannot combine entries from two different price books on an opportunity, so custom
price books should be complete lists of the products that might be sold together.
• When users add a product to an opportunity, only products with the currency that matches the
opportunity currency will display.
• Once a product record has been added to an opportunity the default currency can no longer be
modified, as the product record was created using the existing default currency. Any Product
records must be removed before the opportunity currency can be modified.

Adding Products to Opportunities

▪ Products added to an opportunity must come from a single price book. The price book
entry options available to select will match the currency set on the opportunity.
▪ Once product line items are added to an opportunity, you can no longer manually
control the amount of the opportunity. The sum of the Opportunity Products auto-
populates the Opportunity Amount field.
▪ When Products are added to an Opportunity, they create Opportunity Product records,
a standard object that allows the Products chosen to be seen as a related list. Note:
Opportunity Products are also called Opportunity Line Items.

Price Books

▪ There are three organization-wide default settings to control the level of access you give
users across the organization.
 ▪ Use - All users can view all price books. Users can add products from a price book to an
opportunity.
▪ View Only - All users can view and report on price books. Users cannot add products
from a price book to an opportunity.
▪ No Access - Users cannot view price books. Users cannot add products from a price
book to an opportunity.
▪ An important caveat when granting access to price books: users with Edit permission on
the Price books (whether from their Profile or through a permission set) are granted
access to all price books, regardless of the Organization-Wide Defaults

Describe the capabilities of Quotes

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=quotes_overview.htm&type=0&language=en_US
&release=208.13

Highlights

When a quote is saved:

▪ A unique quote number is generated.

▪ Any products on the opportunity are copied to the quote as line items.
▪ The grand total is recalculated based on any taxes or shipping information you entered.
▪ Multiple quotes can exist on an opportunity, but only one quote can be synced to an
opportunity at a time.
▪ When you sync a quote to an opportunity for the first time, the products on the quote
are copied to the opportunity.
▪ Works both ways: If you change the quote that syncs to the opportunity, the
opportunity will be updated with the products and prices listed on the synced quote;
if you change the products on the opportunity, the quote line items will be updated.

Describe the capabilities of Orders

Highlights

▪ An order is an agreement between a company and a customer to provision services or

deliver products with a known quantity, price, and date.
▪ Keep track of what you’re selling to a customer -add products to their order records.
▪ When products are associated with orders, they become order products. Order
products can be added to draft orders.
▪ All order products in an order are associated with a price book (indicated in
parentheses in Order Products related list).
▪ Choose a price book that contains products with the same currency as the order.
▪ To create an order with the same details as another order, you can clone it.
Describe the capabilities of Contracts

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=contract_def.htm&type=0&language=en_US&rele
ase=208.13

Describe the capabilities of campaign management

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=campaigns_setup_parent.htm&type=5

Highlights

• Because opportunities are usually influenced by more than one campaign, you have the
option to automatically associate multiple influential campaigns to a single opportunity.
If you don’t enable automatic association, users must manually add, edit, or delete
influential campaigns in the Campaign Influence related list
• You can configure influential campaigns to be automatically added to opportunities.
When automatic association is enabled, influential campaigns are added to
opportunities when a campaign is related to a contact that is assigned a contact role on
an opportunity prior to the close date of the opportunity. For example, if you have an
email campaign with a member who is

assigned a contact role on an open opportunity, the email campaign will be added to
the Campaign Influence related list for that opportunity.
• The Campaign Member object has lookups to Contacts, Leads, and Campaigns
• Campaign Hierarchy can be used. There is a standard “Parent Campaign” lookup to the
Campaign object.

Describe the basic capabilities of Communities

https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=networks_overview.htm&language=en_US

Know the difference between Files, Salesforce CRM Content, Salesforce Knowledge,
Documents, and Attachments

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=collab_files_differences.htm&type=5

Describe the capabilities of Territory Management

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=tm2_territory_mgmt_overview.htm&type=0&lang
uage=en_US&release=208.13

Describe capabilities and use cases for the approval process

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=approvals_getting_started.htm&type=0&languag
e=en_US&release=208.13

Describe the capabilities of custom report types

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=reports_defining_report_types.htm&type=0&lang
uage=en_US&release=208.13

Describe the installation and synchronization options of Salesforce for Outlook

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000267732&type=1

When you are ready

• Exams are taken thru Webassessor. You can take the exam remotely or from a local
testing facility, if available. I highly recommend you take it in a testing facility. There are
less things that can go wrong. Sign up for a free account at:
https://www.webassessor.com/wa.do?page=publicHome&branding=SALESFORCE
• Once you gain your certification, you must take a short, open book exam for each
release. These are done on Trailhead.

What Next – after you pass the exam

Celebrate! You did it! Welcome to the Salesforce Ohana!

The Salesforce Community is unique in the software industry. Even for companies that
compete in the marketplace, there is cooperation when it comes to Salesforce. You are never
alone.

Here are some pointers:

• Join your local Salesforce user group. Some cities have more than one. This will
introduce you to other people and get you into the Ohana.
https://trailblazercommunitygroups.com/
• Update your LinkedIn profile to show your new certification. Join any of the LinkedIn
Salesforce groups that interest you.
• To get some experience, look to do some Salesforce work for a nonprofit. Many
nonprofits use Salesforce because they get 10 licenses for free.
• Join the Power of Us hub if you are in the nonprofit or education space. Review the
Chatter groups and join those that are of interest. Additionally, there is a pro bono
program in which you can volunteer to do pro bono work for a nonprofit.
https://www.salesforce.org/help/power-of-us-hub/
 • Join industry-specific Community Groups at
https://trailblazers.salesforce.com/featuredGroups

Congratulations on completing this class but view this as only the first step on your Salesforce
Journey. And I love to hear from students when they pass!

Jeff Susich
Wycado Consulting
[email protected]
Cell: 513-218-7180
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-susich-26291/