Queue
In Salesforce, a holding area for records (like cases, leads, or custom objects) that are awaiting assignment to a user, where any queue member can claim ownership, used to distribute work among teams.
Definition
In Salesforce, a holding area for records (like cases, leads, or custom objects) that are awaiting assignment to a user, where any queue member can claim ownership, used to distribute work among teams.
In plain English
“A Queue in Salesforce is a holding area for records like cases, leads, or custom objects waiting for assignment. Any queue member can claim ownership of records in the queue. It's how teams distribute work without assigning every record to a specific person in advance.”
Worked example
Larkford Capital's support team uses Queues to distribute incoming Cases. The "Tier 1 Support" Queue receives every newly-created Case via Assignment Rules; any of the 12 Tier 1 agents who are members of the Queue can claim a Case from the Queue's list view. When an agent picks up a Case, they become its Owner; the Case leaves the Queue and enters their personal queue. Without Queues, every new Case would have to be manually assigned by a supervisor; with Queues, the team self-distributes work in real time.
Why Queue matters
In Salesforce, a Queue is a holding area for records (like cases, leads, or custom objects) that are awaiting assignment to a user, where any queue member can claim ownership, used to distribute work among teams. Queues are common for support cases (route incoming cases to the support queue, where agents claim them), leads (qualified leads go to the sales queue for follow-up), and other shared work distribution scenarios.
Queues are foundational to work distribution in Salesforce. Without them, records have to be assigned to specific users immediately, which creates hot spots and uneven distribution. With queues, records can wait for available workers, supporting better load balancing. Mature operations combine queues with Omni-Channel for automatic assignment from queue to available agent, rather than relying on manual queue picking.
How to create Queue
Queues are shared inboxes for records — pending Leads, unassigned Cases, approval requests. Records owned by a Queue are visible to every Queue member, and any member can take ownership. They power most assignment-rule flows.
- Open Setup → Queues
Setup gear → Quick Find: Queues → Queues.
- Click New
Top-right of the queue list.
- Enter Label and Name
Label is what users see; Name is the API. Conventions: "West Coast Sales", "Tier 1 Support".
- Set Queue Email and Send Email to Members
If Send Email to Members is on, every member gets an email when a record is added to the queue. Queue Email is the from-address for those notifications.
- Pick Supported Objects
Multi-select. Lead, Case, custom objects — anything with ownership. A queue can support multiple objects (one queue, many object types).
- Add Queue Members
Public Groups / Roles / Roles and Subordinates / Users. Members can take ownership of any record in the queue.
- Save
Queue is live. Records can now be assigned to it via assignment rules, manual reassignment, or Apex.
Required. UI name.
Required. API name.
Required. At least one object.
- A queue with no members is a black hole — records assigned there are invisible to everyone except admins. Always add at least one member before activating.
- Queues only work on objects with ownership. Junction objects, history tracking objects, etc. don't support queue assignment.
- Lead Assignment Rule actions and Case Assignment Rule actions reference queues by name — if you rename a queue, audit the assignment rules to make sure they still reference correctly.
How organizations use Queue
Uses case queues with Omni-Channel routing to distribute cases to available agents automatically.
Maintains lead queues for sales teams, with leads routed to the right queue based on criteria.
Uses queues for custom objects to support team-based work distribution beyond standard use cases.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Queue.
- Queues OverviewSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Queue?
Q2. What can queues hold?
Q3. What's a modern pattern?
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