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How Events Sync with Salesforce for Outlook (Retiring)
You can keep your Outlook and Salesforce events in sync using Salesforce for Outlook. After an event is in Salesforce, you can assign it to related records, such as contacts, accounts, opportunities, and so on. Syncing events also lets you maintain an accurate view of your availability when you create events and request meetings from your Salesforce calendar.
Required Editions
| Available in: Salesforce Classic |
| Available in: Lightning Experience, if Salesforce Classic is available in your org. |
| Available with the purchase of Sales Cloud or Government Cloud in: Personal, Contact Manager, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions |
Which Events Sync
Your Outlook configuration defines which items are set to sync, which direction the data flows between Outlook and Salesforce, and what happens when data conflicts. The event filters in your configuration determine which events sync. The possible filters are:
- TODAY—Syncs events that end on or after today. The start time is 12:00 a.m.
- LAST MONTH—Syncs events that ended on or after the first day of last month.
- LAST N DAYS—Syncs events that ended on or after a specified number of days ago, such as LAST 30 DAYS.
The following items don’t sync: all-day events beginning on the first day you’re configured to sync, event attendees, events that have occurred in the past (unless those events fall within an event filter that you’ve set), and recurring events that are created in Lightning Experience or the Salesforce mobile app (referred to as event series). Multiday events sync as single events in either direction. Salesforce for Outlook syncs events based on their end dates rather than their start dates. For example, if you're syncing current and future events only, a two-day event that started yesterday still syncs.
How We Match Events
When events first sync, we either link them with existing events that have the same subject and time or create events if nothing matches. Recurring events match according to that same logic. Additionally, Salesforce for Outlook matches recurring events only if recurrence patterns match in both Salesforce and Outlook. Otherwise, Salesforce for Outlook creates an event.
How You Assign Events to Salesforce Records
After an event is added to Salesforce, you can assign it to other records using the My Unresolved Items page or the Related To and Name fields on the event record. The event is added to the associated record’s Activity History or Open Activities related list. You can’t save changes if your events have a required custom field or an activity custom field becomes required after items are added to your unresolved events list.
Who Sees Synced Events in Salesforce
Events that aren't marked as private are visible in Salesforce to you, those above you in your role hierarchy, and anyone who has access to the records they're associated with. You can also grant access to view your calendar to other users, personal and public groups, roles, or roles and subordinates.
Excluding Certain Records from Syncing in Salesforce for Outlook (Retiring)
If you chose the Sync All Outlook Items option for your sync method during setup, you can exclude certain items from syncing in these ways.
- You can choose to sync items you mark as Private in Microsoft® Outlook®. If you don’t
want to sync private items, open Salesforce for Outlook Settings, and deselect the types
of private items you don’t want to sync.
If you have synced items in Outlook that you later mark as Private, those items remain in Salesforce. The corresponding Salesforce items, however, will no longer receive updates if you modify the ones in Outlook.
- If you don’t want certain Outlook items to sync, regardless of whether they’re marked as Private, assign them to the category Don’t Sync with Salesforce in Outlook. For details on using categories in Outlook, refer to your Outlook documentation.
