Salesforce updates its platform three times a year and keeps it running. But your configuration, meaning your fields, permissions, Flows, reports and data, remains your responsibility. Without maintenance, it degrades: automations that contradict each other, permissions that are too broad, duplicates, wrong reports. So the question isn't "do we need maintenance?" but "who should do it?".
The three types of maintenance
- Corrective: fixing what breaks. A failing Flow, blocked access, a wrong report.
- Preventive: stopping things from breaking. Reading release notes, reviewing access, cleaning up duplicates, migrating old automations.
- Adaptive: keeping up with the business. A new field, a new sales stage, a new dashboard.
A good setup covers all three. Most companies only do corrective work, in a hurry.
The four options, compared
| Criterion | In-house hire | Freelancer | Consultancy or implementation partner | Outsourced support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right volume | A full-time job | Engagements of several days | Projects and large volumes | A few hours to two days a month |
| Time to start | Several months | Depends on availability | Depends on their schedule | A few days |
| Small requests | Very good | Hard if there's a minimum of days | Often a heavy process | Designed for it |
| Continuity (holidays, departure) | Fragile with one person | Fragile | Covered by the team | Documented to ease a handover |
| Business knowledge | Excellent over time | Variable | Variable | Built through documentation |
| Preventive and adaptive work | If time allows | Rarely | On a quote | Included in the plan |
The decision grid
Answer these five questions.
- How many hours of requests a month? List three months of real requests and estimate them. If the total takes up several days a week for the long term, hiring makes sense.
- Are requests steady or do they come in peaks? Peaks (a launch, a reorganisation) are better handled as projects; a steady flow is better handled on a plan.
- Who covers during absences? If the answer is "nobody", that's a risk, even with an excellent employee.
- Do you have projects coming up? An integration or a rebuild calls for an implementation partner, on top of day-to-day maintenance.
- Who will be able to manage an administrator? With nobody able to judge their work, hiring is risky.
Rule of thumb: many SMEs with 10 to 200 users have requests every month, but not enough for a full-time job. That's exactly the case outsourced support was designed for.
The common case: the admin has left
That's often how the question comes up. Here is a takeover plan that works, whichever option you choose next.
- Secure access: deactivate the former admin's user (after transferring their records) and check who has admin rights.
- Check error emails: in the automation settings, make sure Flow error emails reach someone.
- List pending requests and sort them by impact.
- Read the org: active automations, validation rules, profiles and permission sets, key reports.
- Document as you go: every request handled adds to the documentation.
Where to run these checks in Salesforce
| Check | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Who has admin rights | Setup, Users: the System Administrator profile and the permission sets that grant Modify All Data |
| Who receives error emails | Setup, Process Automation Settings |
| Old automations | Setup, Migrate to Flow: workflow rules and Process Builder processes still active |
| Org security | Setup, Health Check |
| Unused fields | On each custom field, the "Where is this used?" button |
| Item | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate accounts | 312 | 0 |
| Fields never filled in | 87 | 12 |
| Old workflow rules | 14 | 0 |
Hire later, without starting from scratch
Outsourcing doesn't stop you from hiring later. Quite the opposite: if the volume grows, your future administrator will take over a documented org, with a history of changes. Outsourced support can also help them through their first weeks. To work out when each option pays off, read the guide to Salesforce admin costs.
In short
- Hire when requests fill a full-time job and you know how to manage an administrator.
- Use a freelancer or an implementation partner for well-defined projects.
- Outsource maintenance when requests are regular but limited, or when the admin has just left.
- In every case, do preventive work too: it's what prevents emergencies.
For a monthly plan, see Salesforce maintenance. For a single problem, on-demand Salesforce support is enough.
Official references
Salesforce documentation to go further:
- Test and Prepare for Major Releases (Salesforce Help) (new tab)
- Salesforce upgrade release schedule FAQ (Salesforce Help) (new tab)
- Release Updates (Salesforce release notes) (new tab)
Frequently asked questions
All the work that keeps the org usable: fixing what breaks (corrective), preventing problems (preventive) and evolving the tool with the business (adaptive).
Salesforce maintains the platform: servers, security, releases. Your configuration (fields, permissions, Flows, reports, data) remains your responsibility.
It depends on its size and age. A first read-through of automations, permissions and key reports lets you list the risks; documentation is then built up request by request.