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Overview of Custom and Default Fields in Salesforce and Data Synchronization

Alexandr Oliynyk
  • Updated

Overview

As all customers are using Playbooks with CRM (usually, Salesforce as it is used by more than 80% of customers), it is important for them that data about Plays, agents, and tasks is synchronized from Playbooks to Salesforce, mainly, for reporting purposes. This data is being synced based on various fields linked to each of the existing objects.

Default Fields in Salesforce

There is a number of default fields, which are present in Playbooks and are created in Salesforce when the unmanaged package is installed (i.e. new customer onboarding); they are highlighted with grey in the list of all available fields that store data in Playbooks. 

Some of the default fields or their values might be missing if you have an outdated version of the Playbooks Unmanaged Package installed. In this case, you need to install an up-to-date version of the Unmanaged Package.
If you are getting an error about duplicate fields, you need to either rename the existing Playbooks fields in your Salesforce or select the option to not install conflicting components while installing the Unmanaged Package as described in the article Error: "Duplicate Name, the name Opportunity.Playbooks_Play_Status_c is already used".

 

Custom Fields in Salesforce

Also, there are additional custom fields (not highlighted with any color in the above mentioned list) for data that is stored in Playbooks but it is not synced to Salesforce by default. When a customer wants to sync new information/ data value to Salesforce (which is not available by default) about plays, tasks or reps, please check the list of available data fields in Playbooks. If the required data is available in one of the fields, please create a custom field in Salesforce with the settings described in the attached list. If the required data field is not available in Playbooks, it may be requested as enhancement by submitting a support request.
Note: No additional actions are required from Professional Service to implement custom fields (that are already present in Playbooks). 

Users can also create custom fields in Salesforce that will be synced to Playbooks and then used to action or sort records in Playbooks:

  • Custom data fields created in Salesforce can be used to enroll, update or remove records with the help of robots - for example, a customer may want to import leads with a specific value of a certain custom field.
  • Custom fields can also be used when creating custom sorts - then reps will be able to work on records that were filtered based on a custom field (which is present in CRM and synced to Playbooks).


Important Information to Consider When Working on Issues Related to Default and Custom Fields

  • Default Fields can still be modified by CRM Administrators and if some of the default values for such fields are deactivated by the administrator, the data will not be synced from Playbooks to CRM when the deactivated value is being used.
  • Newly created Custom Fields sync to Playbooks every 12 hours and after that they can be used as filter criteria for robots.
  • It is important to understand that it is normal when a record (contact or account) is being synced to CRM within 12 hours. But custom fields for tasks/activities (such as the Playbooks Play Status field) should be syncing to CRM almost instantly - if there is a several hour long delay in synchronization, there may be a backend issue in Playbooks, which should be reported to Support and investigated by our Infrastructure team.
  • Please note that some types of Custom Field are not supported, which will results in issues with Robots or custom sorts.
  • Access Users (user accounts that are used to sync data between Playbooks and Salesforce) need to have read access to Salesforce custom fields to be able to sync information about these fields to Playbooks, and they need edit access to sync data from Playbooks to Salesforce. 
  • Customers may have certain validation rules configured in Salesforce for specific default/custom fields and if the data that is being synced from Playbooks does not match the rules in Salesforce, this information will not be saved in Salesforce.
    For example, if the customer is using a picklist field with a number of predefined values in CRM and then restricts the field to only values defined for this field, any data that falls out of predefined values will not be populated in CRM during synchronization with Playbooks, and there will be an error in task sync logs:
    bad value for restricted picklist field
    For more information, refer to the article Play Status Not Transferring to Record In Salesforce.

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  • It is important to understand that if one of the Playbooks fields in Salesforce is not configured properly (e.g. does not allow some of the default Playbooks values), it may affect data that is being populated to other Playbooks fields in Salesforce.
    For example, when some of the values are restricted for the Play Status Field, the Next Step Due Date may not be synced correctly to Salesforce - dates that have already passed will be populated in this field in CRM, while the correct next step due date is displayed in Playbooks; in such cases, CRM admin should allow all of the default Playbooks values for the affected fields as described in the article Playbooks Populates the Next Step Due Date Field in Salesforce with the Past Date. Make sure to check Task Sync Logs to find the field values that are not accepted by Salesforce.
  • Data for newly created fields may not be populated for records (existing in Playbooks) until they are actioned or synced manually. For example, when a field (e.g. next play step due date) is created in Salesforce, it will not be populated for records that are already added to Plays until reps make a call/ send an email to a record, or until the record is synced manually. This field will be populated automatically for records that are enrolled after the field was created.

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  • Users may face issues that Custom Fields from their CRM are not syncing to Playbooks and not displayed in filter criteria for robots. Such issues may happen when the connection between CRM and Playbooks was lost (needs to be reconnected) or the customer is in the process of migration from one CRM (e.g. Salesforce) instance to another. In such cases, the user needs to fully complete the migration, then set up a new Access User and connect Playbooks to the new CRM instance. Once, the connection is fully established, please check if fields are synced properly and are available in filter dropdowns for Robots. For more information about Robots, refer to the article Robots Overview.
  • Fields in Salesforce that contain only a single contact phone number or email will work properly with the Click-to-call and Click-to-email features in Playbooks. If a single field contains multiple details such as two or more of the user's email, phone number, or other details, then the phone and email values would not be hyperlinked and no actions will happen in Playbooks upon clicking those values.

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