Purpose:
The purpose of this article is to provide information to Outreach users regarding record merge and delete practices.
Intended Audience:
- Outreach Users
Salesforce Record Merge & Delete FAQs
Q: Where do my records go when they've been marked for deletion?
A: Your records do not move within the platform. When a record is marked for deletion, Outreach updates the record with the Recycled tag, filterable on the landing page of the corresponding record type.
Example: If a Prospect is marked for deletion:
- Access the Outreach Platform.
- Click the Accounts icon (briefcase) in the navigation sidebar.
- Click +Add Filter and select Recycled from the dropdown menu.
Outreach will display the corresponding records.
Note: This method applies to Prospects as well.
Q: Will individuals still be able to see and take action on records tagged as recycled?
A: Yes. Depending on how the Governance settings are configured.
Q: Who can see records tagged as recycled?
A: Visibility into recycled objects depends on Governance settings. By default, all non-admin profiles will be denied permission to view and restore recycled records.
Q: How long are records tagged as recycled kept?
A: Salesforce retains records for 15 days before permanently deleting. Additionally, the Salesforce Recycle Bin has a size limit which is calculated based on your data storage limit. A recycled record in Salesforce is permanently deleted after 15 days or if the size limit is reached, whichever occurs first.
For more information about the Salesforce Recycle Bin, refer to the View, Restore, and Manage the Recycle Bin in Salesforce Classic article.
There are similar limits for recycled records in Outreach. A recycled record in Outreach will be permanently deleted 15 days after it is recycled. There is a size limit of 100,000 for recycled records per object type (e.g., Account, Prospect). When the size limit is reached, Outreach will permanently delete recycled records for that object starting with the oldest recycled records, even if the record has not been recycled for 15 days.
Note: For customers who enabled the feature after September 4, 2020, recycled records in Outreach will be permanently deleted 15 days after it is recycled or if the 100,000 record (per object) limit is reached, whichever occurs first. For customers who enabled the feature prior to September 4, 2020, Outreach retains records permanently until manually deleted, unless the Soft-Delete Settings are changed. As of October 21, 2020, the 15-day limit and the 100,000 recycled records per object limit will apply for all customers regardless of when the Salesforce Merge / Delete feature was enabled.
Q: What happens if a Prospect is in sequence or has a scheduled activity (email, task, etc.) and their record is deleted on the Salesforce deletion/merge?
A: There is an option to ignore Prospects that are active in sequence so they will not be recycled. If this setting is disabled, all Prospects will be tagged as recycled, including those that are paused as a result of an OOTO reply. If a Prospect has an active one-off task they will still be recycled, along with the corresponding task. The recycled filter can be combined with other filters, so you will be able to see prospects that are recycled but still have an active sequence state or a stage that indicates they are actively being worked.
Q: How many API calls does it take to clean up historical records?
A: 500 records per 1 API call.
Q: Are there any ownership "gotchas" if the records being merged are owned by separate users? Does Salesforce "master" become the new record with existing owner?
A: If the Salesforce merge resulted in a new owner, then the owner will be changed and updated in Outreach.
Q: When records are merged in Salesforce, do we update the Object ID of the corresponding record in Outreach?
A:There are three possible scenarios that can answer this question:
- If we have a 1:1 mapping with the Object ID and the record in Salesforce has been marked for deletion, then Outreach will mark the record for deletion in the platform as well.
- If a record is merged in Salesforce and the record Outreach has a mapping for is not the "master," Outreach will remap to the "master" record.
- If there are two Leads in Salesforce that are mapped to two different Prospects in Outreach, and the Salesforce Leads are merged together, the object that was merged into will be updated via normal inbound update. The object that was removed through the merge will be permanently deleted and will not be visible in Outreach.
Q: Why is the number of Leads/Contacts in my Salesforce recycle bin greater than the number of Prospects tagged as recycled in Outreach?
A: There are two scenarios for why you may see this discrepancy:
Note: Review the plugin activity log and the individual prospect activity for further insight.
Scenario 1: You have duplicate contacts in Salesforce and one Prospect in Outreach. You merge the duplicate contacts in Salesforce and the merged contact is mapped to the Prospect. In this instance, the Prospect in Outreach is automatically associated with the new contact via the master record ID, meaning you will not find it in the recycle bin.
Scenario 2: In this scenario you have two records in Salesforce that are each mapped to an Outreach Prospect. If you merge the dupes in Salesforce, the Outreach Prospect mapped to the merged Salesforce record will be permanently deleted from Outreach. Don't fret, if you need to resurrect that duplicate you can do so in the Salesforce recycle bin. When inbound polling takes place, the Prospect will once again be created in Outreach assuming it meets the requirements of the Salesforce plugin.
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