Technical Debt: One of the Biggest Concerns for Growing Startups/SMEs

Your business is growing fast, new customers are coming in, you're adding new services, and revenue is climbing. But as your team races to build out functionality, customize workflows, and integrate third-party tools, an invisible burden can sneak into your Salesforce org: technical debt. If not managed, technical debt can cost you a lot of development time, pulling focus from growth and impacting your return on investment (ROI). By addressing technical debt, you can free up your team's time for developing new, valuable features, immediately boosting your ROI.

If you want to see exactly where your org’s technical debt lives, schedule your Free 24-Hour Health Check now based on your organization's unique, high priority needs.

In this article, we’ll explore what technical debt is, why it’s a pressing concern for growing startups, and how you can start making the most of your existing Salesforce investment, rather than just adding more custom code or apps you won't fully use.‍

‍

What Is Technical Debt?

At its heart, technical debt is the extra work your team will have to do later because of quick decisions made today. In software development, this might mean skipping tests, hard-coding values, or not following best practices to meet a deadline. In Salesforce, technical debt can show up as:

• Unused or redundant custom fields and objects
• Overly complex Apex triggers and classes
• Confusing Flow automations with many branches, unclear names, and lack of metadata descriptions
• Orphaned integrations and 3rd party applications that raise security concerns or send/receive data you no longer need
• Profiles and permission sets that give more access than necessary
  
  

Just like financial debt, technical debt isn’t inherently “bad”; it's often a trade-off for moving quickly. But the longer it builds up, the more "interest" you pay through slower updates, higher support costs, and frustrated team members spending time fixing these former  shortcuts.

‍

Why Technical Debt Matters for Startups/SMEs

1. Time Is Your Most Valuable Currency
   As an early-stage startup, you’re likely juggling product roadmaps, customer service, compliance obligations, and sales strategies. When your Salesforce specialists spend days untangling complex processes instead of building new features, you're losing valuable time. Even one inefficient automation can add seconds to every sales reps process. Now, as this multiplies, you've lost hours of sales time each week.
   
   
2. Compliance Risk Increases
   Fintech startups handle sensitive customer data and operate in a highly regulated environment. If your Salesforce org's security and access controls  are inconsistent, with profiles or permission sets granting overly broad or unnecessary access, unused integrations still active, 3rd party apps not passing the latest security reviews, or custom code exposing sensitive client data, you risk creating major security concerns that can jeopardize the health of the business. Technical debt can become a huge compliance issue, which is often much more costly to fix than to prevent.
   
   
3. Ramp Bottlenecks for New Hires
   Imagine hiring a new Salesforce Admin or a team member who needs to use it extensively. Instead of getting up to speed quickly, they might first have to understand layers of undocumented customizations, like Flows named "Flow_1234_April" or triggers without comments. It can potentially take weeks or even months before they're comfortable with core processes, potentially slowing down your progress. Have you considered using a fractional support team instead of a full-time Admin? 

‍

How Technical Debt Accumulates in Salesforce

Understanding where technical debt enters your Salesforce org is the first step toward tackling it. Below are common “leak points” where debt builds:

1. Rapid MVP Launches
   
   • You prioritize “move fast and break things” to validate a new business initiative. In Salesforce terms, you might set up a quick automation for a new lead assignment process; however, your team avoids fully documenting custom fields, outlining data mappings, or security reviewing 3rd party apps that were needed to get the solution across the finish line. Over time, these processes can multiply, leading to dozens of them, each lacking proper documentation or governance.
     
     
2. Multiple Admins Working in Silos
   
   • As you grow, different departments (sales & marketing, customer support, customer success, etc.) might have their own designated Salesforce Admin or consultant making changes. Without a central plan (like naming conventions and org-wide documentation), each team might build solutions in their own style. This can lead to a proliferation of security and access controls, or process automations referencing fields nobody understands or even knows exist.
     
     
3. Custom Code Over Configuration
   
   • Sometimes it seems quicker or more familiar (for a Salesforce developer) to write custom code than to build a solution using Salesforce's built-in automation tools. But as your codebase grows, you might find overlapping code that is firing in unintended orders, causing errors or data inconsistencies. Code reviews can fall by the wayside when you’re rushing to hit a funding milestone or business goal.
     
     
4. Deferred Cleanup
   
   • You identify unused fields or outdated automations but mark cleanup as a “nice-to-have” for Q1 next year. Fast forward 3 years: your org has tripled in size, and now removing that unused field, risks breaking validation rules or reports that have popped up since. What was a simple task becomes complex and risky, so the debt remains.

‍

Identifying Technical Debt: Where to Look First

Before you can address technical debt, you need to find it. Here are immediate actions your team can take:

1. Run Our Free 24-Hour Salesforce Health Check
   Summit One’s Health Check is designed to scan your org’s metadata, security settings, performance metrics, and system utilization, without requiring full credentials or access to your Salesforce data. Within 24 hours, you receive a prioritized list of “High,” “Medium,” and “Low” issues grouped by Salesforce well-architected category, severity, and effort. Key findings often include:
   
   • Unused custom fields or unused code 
   • Major security and health risks like non System Admin users that have ‘modify all’ or ‘view all’ access to your Salesforce data 
   • Poorly implemented code that leaves your Salesforce org vulnerable to malicious attacks
   • Undocumented areas of your org
   • Outdated 3rd party applications that haven’t passed recent security reviews
     
     
2. Action Step: If you haven’t had a Health Check in the last six months, especially as your data volume and user base grows, schedule one today. In the meantime, see if there are any red flags in your org’s security and code coverage dashboards.
   
   
3. Audit Your Metadata Strategy
   
   • Naming Conventions & Folder Organization: Are your Flows named "Flow123" or something descriptive like "Lead_Enrollment_Flow"?  Rename anything unclear and group them in folders by department or function.
   • API Usage & Code Coverage: Use Salesforce’s Developer Console or a scanner (like PMD with apex-security rules) to find code issues, unused classes, or orphaned triggers. Focus first on any trigger with no test class or that exceeds 200ms CPU time.
     
     
4. Review Profiles & Permission Sets
   Do you have an "All Access" profile for most users?  If so, that's a security risk. Narrow down permissions to the minimum required. For example, if your sales team only needs Read/Write on "Opportunity_c" and "Account_c" objects, avoid granting "Modify All Data". Convert overlapping profiles into permission sets for more granular control as roles change.
   
   
5. Map Out Integrations
   Document each active integration: what system it connects to, which API user it uses, what objects it affects, and how often it syncs data. You might find an integration built for a past "beta" use case is still running daily, pulling data you no longer need. For each integration, list the owner and the date it was last reviewed. Anything older than 12 months with no recent updates should be reviewed for cleanup or deactivation. During this review, confirm you are following Salesforce and integration best-practices without tying up expensive full licenses and making efficient use of the available integration user licenses.

‍

The Cost of Ignoring Technical Debt

1. Slower Product Releases
   When your team has to untangle poorly documented Flows or debug conflicting process automations, each new feature or process improvement takes longer to implement. In a competitive market where speed matters, delays can mean lost opportunities.
   
   
2. Higher Support & Maintenance Costs
   An org with significant technical debt often requires constant firefighting. Customers lose trust when processes fail or dashboards crash. Your support team spends hours on high-priority tickets instead of proactive improvements or onboarding new accounts.
   
   
3. Increased Security & Compliance Risk
   Regulators and customers expect data to be handled securely with proper access controls. If your org's permission sets grant broad access, or if integration users have system admin access, you face potential fines and reputational damage. Proactively reducing technical debt often improves security.
   
   
4. Poor User Adoption
   Your team members lose confidence when a page loads slowly because of  too many unused fields, have to deal with a bunch of clutter and noise, or when automations break. When Salesforce feels clunky instead of helpful, users may revert to spreadsheets or other tools, creating data silos.

‍

Next Steps: Reducing Technical Debt & Maximizing ROI

1. Schedule Your Free 24-Hour Health Check
   Before you invest in new third-party apps or build features from scratch, let our Health Check scan your org. Within 24 hours, you'll get a prioritized action list, highlighting what to fix now and what can be tackled later. Even if you think you "know your org well," an external audit by our experienced team often uncovers blind spots like unused code, security gaps, or performance bottlenecks that internal teams might miss.
   
   Ready to pinpoint your org’s most urgent pain points? Schedule your Free 24-Hour Health Check today based on your organization's unique, high priority needs.
   
   
   
2. Implement a Technical Debt Paydown Plan
   Use your Health Check findings to categorize debt items:
   
   • Sprint 1–2: Address any medium to high severity issues that don’t require a lot of effort  (outdated packages, inactive automations and code, and field utilization).
   • Quarter 1: Tackle  high severity and high effort issues (security and sharing model, poorly implemented automations, and configurations that are leaving your org susceptible to malicious attacks ).
   • Ongoing: Track Medium/Low severity items in your backlog and assign tasks as capacity allows.
     Document each fix, why you made it, what was changed, and who was involved, so future team members can understand the history.
     

1. Maximize Existing Functionality Before Adding More
   
   • Review Standard Salesforce Features: Can custom code be migrated to Flow? Can complex calculations be replaced with formula fields?
   • Audit AppExchange Products: Audit each free and paid app. If you're not utilizing an AppExchange product or you’re paying a significant amount per year for an app that only solves one small use case, explore whether a declarative solution could replace it.
   • Train Your Team on Best Practices: We can help with this, or you can dedicate an hour each month to an internal "Salesforce Best Practices" session. Cover topics like naming conventions, documentation , or Salesforce governance. The more your team understands how to build and manage the platform correctly, the less debt you'll accumulate.

‍

Conclusion

For growing fintech & SaaS startups, technical debt isn’t just a “tech teams” problem; it's a business challenge that can undermine your agility, compliance, and ROI. By recognizing where technical debt accumulates, conducting regular Health Checks , and instituting clear governance and cleanup routines, you can keep your Salesforce org nimble and scalable. In doing so, you'll maximize the value of your existing investment, avoid costly firefighting, and position your business to grow confidently.

‍

Ready to clear the path? Get your Free 24-Hour Health Check now and discover where your org’s “debt” is hiding based on your organization's unique, high priority needs, and how to pay it down before it derails your next big milestone. Schedule Your Health Check →