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How Tasks Sync with Salesforce for Outlook (Retiring)
Keep Microsoft® Outlook® and Salesforce tasks in sync.
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 |
| User Permissions Needed | |
|---|---|
| To sync tasks from Outlook to Salesforce: | Read and Edit on tasks, and task sync direction set to Outlook to Salesforce |
| To sync tasks from Salesforce to Outlook: | Read and Edit on tasks, and task sync direction set to Salesforce to Outlook |
| To sync tasks both ways: | Read and Edit on tasks, and task sync direction set to Sync both ways |
After a task is in Salesforce, you can assign it to related records, like contacts, accounts, and opportunities.
Which Tasks 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 task filters in your configuration determine which tasks sync. The possible filters are:
- TODAY—Syncs tasks that are due on or after today. The start time is 12:00 a.m.
- LAST MONTH—Syncs tasks that were due on or after the first day of last month.
- LAST N DAYS—Syncs tasks that were due on or after a specified number of days ago, such as LAST 30 DAYS.
Salesforce for Outlook doesn't sync every kind of task. These kinds of tasks sync until they fall outside of the date range set in your task filter:
- Recurring Salesforce tasks to Outlook
- Completed tasks, if marked as completed after Salesforce for Outlook syncs
- Deferred tasks
- In progress tasks
- Not started tasks
- Repeating tasks, which you create in Salesforce
- Tasks flagged for follow-up
- Waiting on someone else tasks
Which Tasks Don't Sync
- Recurring Outlook tasks to Salesforce
- Completed tasks, if marked as completed before Salesforce for Outlook syncs
- Emails or contacts added to your to-do list when you flag items for follow-up (because Outlook doesn't consider these items to be tasks)
How We Match Tasks
When tasks first sync, we link them with existing tasks that have the same subject and due date. If you don’t assign due dates to tasks, we link them using the same subject only.
How You Assign Tasks to Salesforce Records
After a task 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 task record. The task is added to the associated record's Activity History or Open Activities related list. You can't save changes if your tasks have a required custom field or an activity custom field becomes required after items are added to your unresolved tasks list.
Excluding Certain Records from Syncing
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, 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.
