Rolling out Email to Salesforce involves the org-level toggle, individual user enablement, and a coexistence plan with any modern integrations already deployed. The steps below cover the full path.
- Enable the feature org-wide
Setup > Email > Email to Salesforce. Check Active. This makes the feature available to users; it does not enable it for any specific user.
- Configure default options
On the same page, set the org defaults: Advanced Email Security Settings (require authentication from the From address), default Auto-Association, default capture behavior.
- Communicate to users
Send a clear how-to to every user the feature is for. Include the path to their Personal Settings, the address generation steps, and the recommended BCC habit. Without this, adoption is near zero.
- User enables and generates address
Each user goes to Personal Settings > My Email to Salesforce, clicks Edit, generates the address, and confirms. They then add the address as a BCC in their mail client.
- Test capture
User sends a test email to a known Contact, BCCs the auto address, and confirms the EmailMessage appears on the Contact within a few minutes.
- Train on unmatched captures
Show users the My Unresolved Items list where unmatched captures land. Train them to manually link unmatched email to records when the auto-match fails.
- Plan coexistence
Decide policy with any Outlook or Gmail integration users. Either disable Email to Salesforce for integration users, or accept duplicate captures and clean up in a scheduled job.
Automatically logs captured email to matching Contacts and Leads by email address. The default and expected behavior.
Logs the email to every matched Contact, not just one. Causes duplicate Activity Timeline entries if the same email appears multiple times.
Requires SPF/DKIM authentication on the From header. Reduces spoofing but blocks captures from senders without proper email auth.
List of email domains to skip (your own corporate domain, common spam domains). Prevents internal-only emails from cluttering records.
Logs sent mail BCCed to the auto address. The standard rep workflow; without it, only forwarded inbound is captured.
- Match logic is exact-match on email address only. Aliases, plus-addressing, and corporate-to-personal forwarding all produce unmatched captures.
- Coexistence with Outlook or Gmail integration produces duplicates. The same email is logged twice, once by each path; users see two Activity Timeline entries.
- Deactivating a user breaks their auto address. Any BCC or forward to that address bounces after deactivation. Cover address cleanup in your offboarding checklist.
- Volume limits throttle captures for high-volume users. The platform queues or rejects excess. Power users may need a coordinated rollout to avoid hitting caps.
- Disabling the feature does not delete historical EmailMessage records, but it does prevent new captures. Plan the cutover with a transition window so users adjust their habits.