Best Practices Around Salesforce Admin Resourcing
The official guidance from Salesforce for Administration best practices breaks down what the user:Admin ratio should be within any Salesforce Customer.
A quick look here:
- 1-30 users: 1 ‘Fractional’ Admin
- 31-74 users: 1 Full-Time Salesforce Admin
- 75-150 users: 2 Salesforce Admins
- 140-499 users: 2-4 Salesforce Admins; 1 Business Analyst
- 500-750 users: 2-4 Salesforce Admins; 1-2 Business Analysts
So, they recommend roughly 1 Salesforce Admin for every 75-100 users.
But at a certain scale these ratios need to change. You aren’t simply adding more Salesforce Admins for each additional user.
This is because you should become more efficient.
The recommended addition of Business Analysts to the team is specifically to add resources that focus on proactively identifying features and automations that make the day-to-day user experience easier, therefore reducing the need for support as the user base scales.
Let’s see how this sampling of companies stack up against Salesforce recommendations:
👉 ClickUp
330 users; 3 Salesforce Administrators
1 Admin per 110 users
👉 BILL
700 users; 4 Salesforce Admins (+2 Business Analysts)
1 Admin per 175 users
👉 MongoDB
1,500 users; 14 Salesforce Admins (+2 Business Analysts)
1 Admin per 107 users
👉 Seismic
425 users; 5 Salesforce Admins (+1 Business Analyst)
1 Admin per 85 users
👉 Zillow
950 users; 12 Admins (+2 Business Analysts, 5 Product Owners)
1 Admin per 79 users
These companies sit right around the recommended ratios; but there are a ton of examples of companies building their Salesforce Center of Excellence in a slightly different manner.
In my opinion, this guidance should be used as a very general reference point - you can’t simply say that 1 Salesforce Admin is required for every 75 users. Resourcing needs depend on the complexity of your implementation, adoption levels, volume of requests, plans for further investment etc.
But if the ratios within your org are dramatically off, it’s worth looking into.
This can be caused by a number of factors - perhaps you have open headcount and can't fill the roles; maybe you're struggling to get budget; or this is coming as a surprise and you simply weren't sure how to structure and scale the Salesforce team.
Regardless, a good option to find flexible, cost-effective Salesforce Administrators is to engage Contractors.
How Much Do Salesforce Admins Cost?
According to Glassdoor, Salesforce Admins make around $75,000 a year (on average); but how much does a Salesforce Admin Consultant cost?
We've put together an hourly consultant rate resource so that you can determine if a consultant is better suited to your project (and your budget).
Where Can I Find Vetted Salesforce Consultants?
FoundHQ offers access to a network of 3,000+ pre-vetted Salesforce Contractors and can help match you to the right person for your specific needs.
