Salesforce accounts sync

Front’s Salesforce sync feature allows you to automatically sync accounts from Salesforce into Front. After you’ve synced accounts into Front, your team will be able to:

• Access helpful account information in your inboxes

• Automatically assign and route conversations in Front using account data from Salesforce

• View analytics in Front based on accounts from Salesforce

If you’d like to sync Salesforce contacts to Front, please see the instructions here.

• Accounts are synced one-way from Salesforce to Front. The Salesforce sidebar plugin can be used to easily update information without leaving Front. 

• You can sync all accounts from Salesforce, or pick a list view from Salesforce that contains the accounts you want to sync

• Accounts are automatically synced every 24 hours to keep data up to date, but you can manually trigger a re-sync at any time by opening the Salesforce sync modal in Front

• Field mapping allows you to control which account fields will be synced from Salesforce to Front

• You must be a workspace or company admin in Front to set up the accounts sync

Front provides different integrations with Salesforce based on your workflow:

• Account sync: allows you to sync account data from Salesforce to Front, and then use that account data in Front rules and analytics. Only a single admin Salesforce account is required to sync data into Front.

• Sidebar plugin: allows you to view and update Salesforce data from the conversation you’re viewing in Front. Each user must log in to the plugin with a Salesforce account.

• Logging rule action: allows you to log messages from Front to Salesforce.

Step 1

Click the Contacts icon on the top left corner and select Accounts in the left sidebar to access the Accounts Manager in Front.

Step 2

Click the Import button at the top right, then select from Salesforce to open the Salesforce sync page.

Step 3

Connect your Salesforce account by clicking Log in to Salesforce. Salesforce administrator permissions are required.

Step 4

You can choose to enable either accounts sync, contacts sync, or both by clicking on the toggle. Sections to set up the sync will be displayed.  

Step 5

Turn on the toggle for next to Sync accounts. Select the accounts you’d like to sync. You can sync all accounts or pick a specific Salesforce list view you’ve created.

Note: Front supports syncing a maximum of 500k accounts.

Step 6

Select the account fields you’d like to sync from Salesforce. Then choose the Front account custom fields they should be mapped to.

Important to know:

• If you have multiple accounts with the same name, Front will merge duplicate accounts based on domain then name by default. If you want to import multiple accounts with the same name, check the box next to Allow duplicate names for accounts.

• Front automatically syncs Account IDs, so do not select this field when mapping Salesforce fields to Front fields. Selecting an Account ID field will cause the sync to fail.

Optional: Click Preview to see a preview of what your synced account data will look like in Front, and make any necessary adjustments.

Step 7

Click Sync to start syncing your accounts. You can edit or pause the sync at any time from the sync settings.

Step 8

After you’ve set up the sync, you’ll see accounts from Salesforce appear in the Accounts Manager. If you click on an account you’ve synced from Salesforce, you’ll see a banner indicating when the last sync occurred.

If you hover over account fields synced from Salesforce, you’ll see an option to Edit in Salesforce. This ensures your account data remains consistent between Front and Salesforce.

If you do not use the Salesforce contacts sync, there are a few options for linking contacts to the correct accounts:

• If you add an Email Domain field in the sync field mapping, Front will use that email domain to automatically associate contacts with a matching email to the account. 

• You can manually add contacts to an account from the “Contacts” section on an Account.

• The API can be used to add contacts to a specific account programmatically.

• You can upload a CSV with contacts and add an accountName column to link them to the correct account.

The following table shows the compatibility of fields from Salesforce with Front account fields. Scroll to the right to see the full table.

When an account from Salesforce is synced to an account in Front, a link is established by setting the externalId property on the Front account equal to the Salesforce account ID (18 character ID).

When an account from Salesforce is being synced to Front, a matching account in Front is found by the following logic:

• If an existing Front account is found with the externalId property equal to this Salesforce account’s ID, the existing Front account is updated

• If the Salesforce account has not yet been linked to an existing account in Front, Front will search for an existing account with at least one of the same email domains as the Salesforce account. This search is only performed if the user has mapped an email domain field in the sync settings.

  • If an existing Front account is found and that account is not already linked to a Salesforce account, the Front account is updated and linked to the Salesforce account

  • If an existing Front account is found but it’s already linked to an existing Salesforce account A, we skip syncing Salesforce account B and log an error (ex. “Acme was not synced from Salesforce because the Front account with a matching domain is already linked to a different account.”)

• If no existing account with matching domains is found:

  • If Allow duplicate names for accounts is checked, Front will create a new account in Front and link it to the Salesforce account.

  • If Allow duplicate names for accounts is unchecked, Front will search for existing accounts that have the same case insensitive name as the Salesforce account. If no existing account with the same case insensitive name is found, Front will create a new account in Front and link it to the Salesforce account.

Note that if an account is deleted in Salesforce, the account will stop syncing to Front but the Front account will not be deleted.

If Front encounters errors while syncing account data, the user that triggered the sync will receive an email notification. Errors can be viewed from the Salesforce sync settings modal.

Common error types and how to resolve them:

Accounts synced through the Salesforce sync in Front are accessible through the Front API. Each synced account will have the externalId property set to the ID of the Salesforce account it’s linked to.

Check that API Permissions are enabled for your account

The Salesforce user account you're connecting to Front must have the API Enabled permission. To enable API Permissions as a Salesforce admin:

1. Click Setup.

2. Click Manage Users, then Profiles.

3. Click Edit against the specific Profile.

4. Scroll down to Administrative Permissions and check the API Enabled box.

5. Click Save.

Ensure that the Front connected app is not blocked

As a Salesforce admin, you'll need to ensure that the Front connected app isn't being blocked by your settings in Salesforce. Learn more about access policies for connected apps here.

This feature is available on the Growth plan or above.