Salesforce’s task and event management tools play a vital role in enhancing productivity. This guide will walk you through how Salesforce activities (tasks and events) can help optimize your work processes and improve Salesforce task management.
In this post, we will dig into the details about Salesforce activities, and further understand how to enable task and event features, as well as share best practices for using these tools effectively.
Table of Contents
Understanding Salesforce Activities
In Salesforce, Activities are the interactions you have with your customers or prospects, encapsulated in two main types: tasks and events.
- Tasks are actions that need to be completed, such as making a phone call or sending an email. They can be created and assigned to users, ensuring accountability within teams.
- Events represent scheduled activities, such as meetings or webinars, which can be organized and tracked in the Salesforce calendar.
Tasks and events in Salesforce combined are known as Activities in Salesforce. Though they don’t have a separate tab as they are dependent on other objects.
Salesforce activities include standard objects like tasks, events, and calendars. Together, these activities help you manage your time efficiently prioritising tasks for enhanced business growth.
What are Tasks in Salesforce?
A task in Salesforce represents a to-do item that can be assigned to an individual. These can include actions such as making a call, sending a follow-up email, or preparing documents for a meeting. The task can have a due date, priority, and status as well apart from other nitty gritty details.
Task talks about “What”
Suppose your manager wants you to draft a follow-up email to a new client and collect the payment. He creates and assigns you a task to track updates.
How do Salesforce Activities Differ from Other Tools?
Salesforce Activities offers interaction with other CRM features like opportunities, accounts, and contacts, making them far more powerful than simple calendar or task management apps. By linking activities directly to customer records, users can track every interaction with a client or lead, ensuring a holistic view of the customer and the business relationship.
What are Events in Salesforce?
Events represent scheduled activities like meetings, calls, or conferences. These events can be set for specific times and dates and linked to a record such as an account or opportunity. Events in Salesforce also allow users to invite others, making collaboration on important meetings seamless.
Event talks about “Where” and has a start and end date/time
It is present on the Activity tab as Log a Call, Send an Email, or Event itself.
Events can help track meetings with customers, prospects, and colleagues on the calendar along with related records like files, contracts, reports, and more.
For example, a company needs to arrange a meeting with the client to show them their software services in detail. They can schedule a meeting in virtual or real space using event and send out the invites to customers who can join with logging in to salesforce.
How to Enable Task and Event Features in Salesforce
To make sure your team has access to the full range of Salesforce task management and event scheduling tools, you’ll need to configure these settings.
Step-by-Step Guide to Enable Activities:
- Go to Setup: Log in as an admin and navigate to the Setup page.
- Search for Activity Settings: In the Quick Find box, type “Activity Settings” and click on it.
- Enable Activities: Make sure the “Enable Activities” option is turned on.
- There are some further settings you can enable like Enable Recurring Tasks, Enable Activity Reminders, etc.
How to enable task/event features on an object?
Furthermore to enable these on particular objects, you can check the Allow activities. The feature can be enabled on already on created objects as well by Edit option.
We also need to add the “Related List” to the page layout section to view the activities in classic experience. While in lighting experience, we have a separate column window for activity features. By enabling these features, your team can start utilizing task and event management in Salesforce to its full potential.
How to Create and Manage Tasks in Salesforce
Now that your team has access to the necessary tools, the next step is understanding how to create and manage tasks efficiently.
Steps to Create a Task:
- Navigate to a Record: Start by going to an account, opportunity, or lead.
- Click on the Activities Section: Find the “New Task” button under the Activities section.
- Fill in Details: Input the subject, due date, and priority. Add any other relevant details such as the assigned user and notes.
- Save: Once done, save the task, and it will appear in the activity timeline.
Managing Tasks in Salesforce
We can view the timeline of our tasks and events on the records on the Activities section in the right side. We can also view the tasks and events in the calendar view by clicking on the calendar tab on the App menu. We can view and manage them from our homepage as well.
Task List Views
Salesforce also makes it easy to track and manage tasks through various List views. You can create custom task lists filtered by criteria like due dates, priorities, or assigned users. This helps individuals and teams stay on top of their tasks.
Steps to Create a Task List Views
- Click the App Launcher menu, and enter Tasks.
- Click on Tasks.
- On the right of the currently selected list view, click on Gear icon and Select New.
We also have:
- Task Notifications: Set up reminders to get notified when a task’s due date is approaching.
- Task Completion: Mark tasks as completed once done, and keep your workflow clean by moving completed tasks to an archive.
- Tasks can also be integrated into reports for better team productivity tracking, helping managers assess performance at both individual and team levels.
Event Scheduling in Salesforce
Salesforce event scheduling tools help ensure that meetings, calls, and conferences are organized and tracked efficiently. From syncing with external calendars to enabling multi-user invites, Salesforce offers a comprehensive solution for scheduling events.
Steps to Create an Event in Salesforce
- Open a Record: Navigate to the relevant account, opportunity, or contact.
- Click on ‘New Event’: Under the Activities section, click “New Event.”
- Fill Event Details: Input the event title, time, date, and attendees. Events can also be categorized by type (e.g., meeting, call).
- Set Reminders: Set email or pop-up reminders to ensure no one misses the event.
- Save and Send Invitations: Once saved, the system can automatically send invites to attendees.
Similar to Task List Views, we also have Event List Views.
Event List Views
We can go to calendar tab and click on calendar icon and then select table, to view your recently viewed events. Click on Gear icon and Select New, to create a new Event List view with desired criteria.
Best Practices for Salesforce Event Scheduling:
- Sync Events with External Calendars: By syncing with Google Calendar or Outlook, you ensure that events are visible outside of Salesforce.
- Utilize Event Reports: Salesforce offers the ability to create custom reports for events. Managers can use these reports to track how many meetings have been held with a particular client or team.
- Use Recurring Events: For ongoing weekly or monthly meetings, use the “recurring events” feature to set events to repeat automatically.
Terminologies used in Events in Salesforce
Assigned To: The person who gets the responsibility for the event.
Invitees: We can invite 3 types of people for events in salesforce
- Lead — A potential customer.
- Contact — A customer.
They can be invited for an event even if they ain’t on the Salesforce platform. Both Leads and Contacts are standard objects, where we save information about “potential customer” and “current customer”. - User invitation– Other employees of the company.
Events and Tasks Example Screenshots
We switch to lightning and hereby find the below
Creating the tasks and events in Salesforce lightning experience is similar as shown below.
Best Practices for Salesforce Task and Event Management
Leveraging various Salesforce productivity tools can significantly enhance workflow efficiency. Here are some best practices to maximize the value of Salesforce task management and event scheduling:
1. Prioritize Tasks and Events by Importance
Not all tasks or events are created equal. Set High, Medium, and Low priorities to ensure that your team focuses on the most critical items first.
2. Use Task and Event Notifications
Make use of the notification and reminder features to keep everyone on track. Whether it’s a phone call that needs to be made by the end of the day or a client meeting coming up in a week, set reminders to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Leverage Reporting for Accountability
Salesforce offers robust reporting tools that let you track the number of tasks completed by individuals or teams, the type of events held, and more. These reports are invaluable for keeping team members accountable and identifying areas for improvement.
4. Collaborate with Shared Calendars
Utilize the shared calendar functionality to increase visibility across teams. Whether you’re planning a sales pitch or coordinating a company-wide meeting, shared calendars keep everyone informed and in sync.
Salesforce automation features can further streamline these processes by setting up flows that automatically assign tasks based on specific triggers, thus reducing manual effort.
Conclusion
By mastering the management of activities, tasks, and events in Salesforce, organizations can improve productivity and enhance customer relationships. Incorporate these strategies into your Salesforce practices to ensure that you leverage the platform’s full potential.