I'm still pretty much baffled by formulas (is there a "formulas for dummies" guide out there??).  I'm assuming this is one of those things that is completely easy for someone who knows what they're doing, but that's just not me (yet!).

 

Anyhow - we added a validation rule to Opportunities that the close date can't be in the past, which works as it should, but isn't really what we need. 

CloseDate < TODAY()

What we *actually* want is for the rule to only be triggered when either the Stage or Probability fields are changed, but not when other fields are edited.

  

I have created a workflow rule to trigger a field update that works as intended, I assume, but isn't working for our users. The rule applies to all opportunities created on a certain account, changing the opportunity:type field to a particular value.

The problem is this doesn't actually show up for the user until they've saved the opportunity, so they either select something else and get confused when that selection changes (which is fine from a data management standpoint, but not to the user!), or don't realize the rule is there and select the necessary choice anyhow (then complain about having to remember to make that selection for that account, not knowing they really don't).

So, is there any way to trigger the field to update as a user selects "new opportunity" from within that particular account that I'm missing?

Am I understanding correctly that there's no easy way to use information from an Opportunity related to an Account to update fields on that Account?

I'm trying to populate a custom date field on our Accounts with a date on a custom Opportunity field. I realize there's no way to do this using straight workflow rules & field updates, but is that the end of the story?

If I'm reading the salesforce help info correctly (and may not be, it wouldn't be the first time!), if I have a custom object, I can create cross-object workflow rules and field updates that aren't possible with standard objects. Or is there more to the story than that? Would it be simple to just create a new replacement custom object in place of accounts to get this functionality, or would that create more problems than it would be worth? Curious to hear if anyone has gone to that extreme just to get cross object workflow working.

Any other advice or workarounds would be greatly appreciated!

I've been banging my head on the desk all morning trying to do this, and before I decide there isn't a way, please let me know if I just missed something painfully obvious. Our organization sells classes as our opportunities. In our opportunity section, we have a custom formula field, "Training_Address_Info" which fills in the field from info in the account related to the opportunity. Once the opportunity - the class - is sold, we have to schedule an instructor for it, so we create an event for the instructor, which is related to the opportunity. I'm trying to create a custom activity forumla field which will pick up the "Training_Address_Info" field from that opportunity. There are actually a few fields I'd like to reference from the related opportunity, but there doesn't seem to be a way to create that relationship between the event and opportunity - but I'm still learning lots regularly, so maybe I just haven't figured it out yet? (Apologies for any awkward wording, I'm also still trying to master the lingo!)

I'm still pretty much baffled by formulas (is there a "formulas for dummies" guide out there??).  I'm assuming this is one of those things that is completely easy for someone who knows what they're doing, but that's just not me (yet!).

 

Anyhow - we added a validation rule to Opportunities that the close date can't be in the past, which works as it should, but isn't really what we need. 

CloseDate < TODAY()

What we *actually* want is for the rule to only be triggered when either the Stage or Probability fields are changed, but not when other fields are edited.

  

I've been banging my head on the desk all morning trying to do this, and before I decide there isn't a way, please let me know if I just missed something painfully obvious. Our organization sells classes as our opportunities. In our opportunity section, we have a custom formula field, "Training_Address_Info" which fills in the field from info in the account related to the opportunity. Once the opportunity - the class - is sold, we have to schedule an instructor for it, so we create an event for the instructor, which is related to the opportunity. I'm trying to create a custom activity forumla field which will pick up the "Training_Address_Info" field from that opportunity. There are actually a few fields I'd like to reference from the related opportunity, but there doesn't seem to be a way to create that relationship between the event and opportunity - but I'm still learning lots regularly, so maybe I just haven't figured it out yet? (Apologies for any awkward wording, I'm also still trying to master the lingo!)