Event
A Salesforce calendar object that represents a scheduled activity with a specific date, time, and duration - such as meetings, calls, or appointments - that can be associated with records like contacts and opportunities.
Definition
A Salesforce calendar object that represents a scheduled activity with a specific date, time, and duration - such as meetings, calls, or appointments - that can be associated with records like contacts and opportunities.
In plain English
“An Event in Salesforce is a calendar item with a specific date, time, and duration. Meetings, calls, and appointments all get tracked as Events. You can link them to records like contacts and opportunities so you can see who you met with about which deal.”
Worked example
When the senior loan officer at Acacia Lending books a 60-minute meeting with a borrower for next Tuesday at 2pm, she creates an Event in Salesforce with the date, time, duration, and the borrower's Contact attached as the Related-To and the Loan Application as the Related-Record. The Event syncs to her Outlook calendar via Einstein Activity Capture; her colleagues see the booked time on her Salesforce calendar; the borrower's Contact record now shows the upcoming Event in its Activity timeline. After the meeting she marks the Event complete and adds outcome notes - those become part of the loan record's audit trail.
Why Event matters
Event is a Salesforce standard object representing a scheduled activity with a specific date, time, and duration, like meetings, calls, or appointments. Events have fields for subject, start and end times, location, description, attendees, and related records. They can be associated with records like Contacts, Leads, and Opportunities, providing a history of scheduled interactions tied to the relevant business records.
Events are part of the broader Activity model in Salesforce, which also includes Tasks (to-do items without specific times). Together, Events and Tasks provide a complete picture of the work happening with each customer. Events sync with email/calendar integrations like Lightning for Outlook and Einstein Activity Capture, so meetings scheduled in Outlook or Google Calendar appear in Salesforce automatically. This sync is essential for sales teams who need their CRM to reflect their actual meeting schedules without manual logging.
How to create Event
Events are calendar items — meetings, demos, calls. They're created in the Activity composer from any record (Account, Contact, Opportunity) or directly on the user's Calendar tab. Most reps never actually create an Event manually — Outlook/Gmail integrations create them on their behalf.
- Open the Activity composer on a related record
Account / Contact / Opportunity → Activity tab → New Event icon. Creating from the Calendar tab works but skips the auto-link.
- Set Subject
What the meeting is about. Keeps it scannable in Activity history reports.
- Set Start and End
Both required. Use the date+time picker. For all-day events, tick All-Day Event — this collapses to date only.
- Add Related To and Name
Related To = the WhatId (Account / Opportunity / Custom Object). Name = the WhoId (Contact / Lead). An Event has one What and one Who at most.
- Set Location, Reminder, Show Time As
Optional. Show Time As (Busy / Free / OOO) drives how the event appears on shared calendars.
- (Optional) Invite other users via Invitees
Invited internal users get the event on their own calendars. External attendees go in the Description, not Invitees.
- Save
Event is created and auto-linked to the related record. Activity Timeline on that record now shows the event.
Required. What the event is about.
Required. DateTime, or Date only if All-Day Event is ticked.
Required. Must be after Start.
- All-Day Event uses Date fields, not DateTime. Switching the All-Day flag after entering times wipes the time component — you'll have to re-enter.
- Invitees only works for Salesforce users. External attendees go in the Description or via a separate calendar tool — Salesforce won't email them.
- Outlook / Gmail sync (Einstein Activity Capture, Lightning Sync) creates Events automatically on the user's behalf. Manual creation is rare in a synced org — if you're double-creating, turn off the sync for that user.
How organizations use Event
Tracks every customer meeting as an Event linked to the relevant Opportunity. The Event history gives the deal team a clear view of who met with the customer and when.
Uses Einstein Activity Capture to sync calendar events from Outlook into Salesforce automatically, eliminating manual event creation.
Combines Events with Tasks to give a complete picture of customer interactions: scheduled meetings as Events, follow-up actions as Tasks.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Event.
- Activities: Tasks, Events, and CalendarsSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is an Event in Salesforce?
Q2. How do Events differ from Tasks?
Q3. What features sync Events from email clients?
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