Salesforce Implementation Checklist for NZ & Australia

A smooth Salesforce implementation comes down to preparation: clear business goals, clean data, a realistic scope for the first release, well-planned integrations, thorough testing, and a proper plan for training and adoption. For businesses in New Zealand and Australia, it also pays to plan early for local details such as GST, currencies, financial years, time zones and privacy obligations.

Use the checklist below whether you’re rolling out Salesforce for the first time or rebuilding an org that has grown messy over the years.

Phase 1: Plan before you configure anything

The most expensive Salesforce problems usually start before anyone logs in. Before you build, make sure you have:

• Clear goals and success measures. For example: a single view of each customer, better pipeline visibility, or faster responses to service requests. Write them down and agree on them.
• An executive sponsor and a project owner. Someone senior to champion the project, and someone with the time to make day-to-day decisions.
• Mapped processes. Document how sales, service and quoting work today, and fix the broken parts before you automate them.
• The right products and licences. Decide which Salesforce products (for example Sales Cloud or Service Cloud) and licence types each group of users actually needs.
• A focused first release. Agree what’s in scope for go-live and what can wait for phase two.
• Champions in each team. A few respected users who test early, give honest feedback and help their colleagues later.

Who should be on the implementation team?

Most successful rollouts combine internal and external people:

• An internal owner who knows the business and can make decisions quickly.
• A Salesforce admin, in-house or outsourced, who will look after the org after go-live.
• A Salesforce consultant to design processes, data and security around your needs. Working with a consultant in NZ or eastern Australia keeps workshops within shared business hours.
• A Salesforce developer for integrations and custom features, whether they’re based in Auckland, Sydney or elsewhere.

Phase 2: Set it up for the way business works here

Salesforce is a global platform, so local details need deliberate configuration.

Currencies, GST and financial years

• Currencies: if you trade in both NZD and AUD, plan multi-currency carefully. Once multi-currency is enabled in an org it can’t be turned off, so make the decision deliberately.
• GST: GST is 15% in New Zealand and 10% in Australia. Decide how prices, products and quotes will show GST, and make sure this lines up with your accounting system.
• Financial year: many New Zealand businesses have a 31 March balance date, while Australia’s financial year ends on 30 June. Set fiscal year settings so forecasts and reports match how you report internally.

Time zones, business hours and regions

• Set the correct time zones for users in Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or wherever your team is.
• Configure business hours and public holidays for each region if service targets depend on them.
• Use state and country picklists and consistent address formats so reporting stays clean.

Privacy and consent

• Understand your obligations under New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020 and, where it applies to you, Australia’s Privacy Act 1988.
• Record marketing consent properly. Commercial email and text messages are also covered by New Zealand’s Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 and Australia’s Spam Act 2003.
• Decide how long you keep data and how you’ll respond to requests from people to access or correct their information.
• Ask where your org’s data will be hosted, and check that it suits your obligations and your customers’ expectations.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the specifics with a qualified adviser.

Phase 3: Get your data ready

Poor-quality data is one of the fastest ways to lose user trust in a new CRM.

1. Audit your sources: spreadsheets, an old CRM, email contacts, accounting and marketing tools.
2. Decide what not to migrate. Old, incomplete or duplicate records can stay behind in an archive.
3. Clean and standardise names, addresses, phone numbers and picklist values before the move.
4. Map every field from old to new, and give each data area a clear owner.
5. Run a trial migration in a sandbox, then check record counts and spot-check the results with users.
6. Set up duplicate and validation rules so the data stays clean after go-live.

Phase 4: Build it well

• Configure before you code. Use standard objects and features where they fit. Build automation in Flow, since Salesforce has ended support for older tools like Workflow Rules and Process Builder. Save Apex and Lightning Web Components for the places where configuration genuinely isn’t enough.
• Design the security model early. Plan profiles, permission sets, roles and sharing rules around least-privilege access.
• Plan integrations properly. Common connections include accounting, ERP, website forms, marketing platforms and phone systems. For each one, agree on the source of truth, which direction data flows, and what happens when a sync fails.
• Use proper environments. Build in sandboxes, use version control, and have a repeatable deployment process.
• Document as you go. Future admins and developers will thank you.

Phase 5: Test with real people and real scenarios

• Run user acceptance testing with the people who’ll use the system every day, using realistic scenarios rather than a script that only tests the happy path.
• Test integrations end to end, including what happens when something goes wrong.
• Log in as different user types to confirm people can see (and can’t see) the right records.
• Check that key reports and dashboards return the numbers leaders expect.
• Test with realistic data volumes, not just a handful of sample records.

Phase 6: Launch and drive adoption

• Time your go-live sensibly. Avoid the end of your financial year, busy trading periods and the summer holiday break over Christmas and January.
• Train by role. Salespeople, service staff and managers need different training. Short, practical sessions and quick reference guides work better than one long demo.
• Provide hypercare. Plan for extra support in the first few weeks, when questions and small fixes come thick and fast.
• Retire the old tools. If the spreadsheets are still running in parallel, people will keep using them.
• Track adoption. Watch logins, record updates and dashboard use, and follow up with teams that are struggling.

Phase 7: Keep improving after go-live

• Salesforce ships three major releases a year. Review the release notes and test changes in a sandbox before they reach production.
• Keep a prioritised backlog of improvements that users suggest.
• Run regular health checks on security settings, unused fields, automation and data quality.
• Agree on governance: who can request changes, who approves them and how they’re deployed.

Key takeaways

• Agree goals, scope and ownership before you configure anything.
• Plan deliberately for NZD and AUD, GST, financial years and time zones.
• Clean your data before migrating, and protect it with validation and duplicate rules.
• Prefer configuration and Flow; use custom code only where it adds real value.
• Test with real users, train by role, and keep improving after go-live.

Need a hand with Salesforce?

Whether you’re starting fresh or tidying up an existing org, our Salesforce specialists can help you plan, build, integrate and support it. We work with organisations across New Zealand and Australia, and we’re happy to talk through where you’re at. Get in touch to start the conversation.