We recently sent out a Survey (external service, importing data into Salesforce after the fact), where participants could select more than one answer to certain questions. We initially decided to use checkboxes for each individual answer (NOT A MULTI-SELECT PICKLIST, WE'VE HEARD THE LORE). The number of questions/answers were manageable enough that we could take on the amount of checkboxes.
But now we're facing issues with analytics. We want to create charts representing each question, aggregating the answers to show frequency of selection. Because we couldn't use simple picklists to store data in a single field per question, I can't figure out how to group checkboxes into a single chart. Each question had 6 possible answers, which exceeds Salesforce's limit of 5 formula fields.
Is this a simple answer? Do we have to go with a different option?
#Multiple Checkboxes #Analytics #Reports & Dashboards
Hello @Sarah Dunne
Absolutely! Here’s a more detailed breakdown of Option 1 tailored to your setup:
Use Custom Objects to Model Survey Responses
Since each survey response is tied to a Contact, here’s how you can structure it for flexible reporting:
->Data Model Structure:
- Contact (Standard Object)
- The person who took the survey.
- Survey Response (Custom Object)
- Parent object to represent a single survey submission by a contact.
- Fields:
- Contact (Lookup to Contact)
- Survey Name (Optional)
- Submitted Date
- Any global metadata about the survey
- Survey Answer (Custom Object)
- Child of Survey Response (Master-Detail)
- One record per selected answer.
- Fields:
- Survey Response (Master-Detail)
- Question (Text or Picklist)
- Answer (Text or Picklist)
- Optional: Is Selected (Checkbox, default TRUE – could be useful for tracking deselections if needed later)
->Why this helps:
- You can now report and chart answers easily:
- Group by Question
- Count how many times each answer was selected
- Filter by Contact attributes (like region, status, etc.)
- Also makes it scalable if more questions or answers are added later.
-> During Import:
If you’re importing from an external survey tool:
- Create one Survey Response per participant.
- For every answer selected, create a separate Survey Answer record.
- You can do this via:
- Data Loader
- Apex or Flow
- External ETL tools
- Contact (Standard Object)