If you’re running customer success or sales ops, you’ve probably had the joy of trying to keep Salesforce and your CS platform in sync. It’s one of those things that sounds basic, but anyone who’s tried knows it gets messy—fast. If you use Planhat and Salesforce, you want your teams looking at the same data, not two different versions of the truth.
This is for admins, ops folks, or anyone tasked with taming the integration beast. I’ll walk you through the actual steps to connect Planhat and Salesforce, keep things synced, and avoid the traps that eat up your weeks. Expect specifics, not hand-wavy “enable seamless collaboration” fluff.
Why Sync Planhat and Salesforce in the First Place?
Let’s get real: having customer info split between two systems leads to confusion, double work, and annoyed teams. A good integration means:
- Sales doesn’t have to ask CS what’s going on with an account.
- CS knows about opportunities and renewals without digging through emails.
- Reporting is (almost) reliable.
But, it's easy to overcomplicate things. Keep your first goal simple: sync the data people actually use.
Step 1: Prep Your Accounts and Permissions
Before you touch any integration settings, make sure you have:
- Admin access in both Salesforce and Planhat (read/write permissions).
- A dedicated integration user in Salesforce (not a personal account).
- API access enabled in Salesforce (this is not included in every edition).
Pro tip: Don’t use your main admin login for integrations. If someone leaves or resets their password, your sync breaks at the worst possible time.
Step 2: Map Out What Needs to Sync (and What Doesn’t)
Every integration project goes off the rails when people try to sync everything. Start small.
What to Decide
- Which objects? (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Cases? Pick the ones you actually use.)
- Which direction? (Salesforce → Planhat, Planhat → Salesforce, or both? Most start with Salesforce as the source of truth for account data.)
- Which fields? (Don’t just check every box—sync only what matters.)
Checklist: - List the fields you need on both sides. Name them exactly as they appear. - Decide if you need one-way or two-way sync for each object. - Ignore custom objects and fields you aren't using—this is not the time to clean up years of technical debt.
Step 3: Connect Planhat to Salesforce
Planhat has a native Salesforce integration, but it’s not magic. Here’s how to get it working:
- In Planhat: Go to Admin > Integrations > Salesforce.
- Click Connect Salesforce.
- Log in with your dedicated Salesforce integration user.
- Authorize the requested permissions. If you’re nervous, review the scopes—Planhat needs read/write access to the data you want to sync.
- Once connected, you’ll see integration settings inside Planhat. This is where you’ll define what syncs and how.
Heads up: If your Salesforce is behind IP restrictions or has extra security (like SSO, MFA), you may need to whitelist Planhat’s IPs or set up a connected app. Check your org’s security policies before you start.
Step 4: Configure Field Mapping
Here’s where most integrations go sideways. Planhat lets you map fields between the two systems. This sounds simple, but:
- Field names often don’t match.
- Data types can differ (picklists, text, number, etc.).
- Some fields are required on one side but not the other.
How to Map Fields
- In Planhat, under the Salesforce integration settings, choose which Salesforce objects (Account, Contact, Opportunity, etc.) to sync.
- For each object, map Salesforce fields to Planhat fields.
- Double-check that field types match up (e.g., text to text, date to date).
- If a field is required in Salesforce, make sure it’s always populated from Planhat (or vice versa), or the sync will fail.
- Set direction for each field: Salesforce → Planhat, Planhat → Salesforce, or bidirectional. Be careful with bidirectional—conflicts can get hairy.
What Not To Do: - Don’t sync every field “just in case.” You’ll regret it. - Don’t try to map formula fields or calculated fields unless you really know what you’re doing.
Step 5: Set Up Sync Rules and Filters
You probably don’t want every Salesforce account showing up in Planhat (think: test records, old junk, prospects that never converted).
- Filters: Use Salesforce filters or Planhat filters to include only the records you care about. For example, only sync accounts with a Closed-Won Opportunity.
- Sync frequency: Decide if you want real-time sync (where supported), scheduled sync (e.g., every 15 minutes), or manual syncs.
- Conflict resolution: Pick what happens if the same field changes on both sides at once. Usually, Salesforce wins for account data, but your team might decide otherwise.
Step 6: Test with a Sandbox (Really, Do This)
Don’t test in production. Use a Salesforce sandbox and, if possible, a Planhat test environment.
What to check: - Do new accounts in Salesforce appear in Planhat? - Does editing a field in Salesforce update Planhat (and vice versa, if you set up two-way sync)? - Are picklists, dates, and numbers syncing without errors? - What happens if you delete or merge records?
Pro tip: Try to break it. Change values, create duplicates, mess with required fields. Better to find issues now than after rollout.
Step 7: Roll Out and Monitor
Once things look good in testing, move to production:
- Do a staged rollout—start with a small set of records or users first.
- Communicate with your teams. Let people know what’s changing and how to report bugs.
- Set up alerts or reports for sync errors in both Planhat and Salesforce.
- Monitor for a week or two before calling it done.
What to watch for: - Sync errors—mismatched data, missing fields, permission issues. - Performance problems—if you have thousands of records, initial syncs can take a while. - User confusion—teams might not notice new data, or wonder why things aren’t matching up.
Honest Takes: What Works, What to Ignore
What actually works: - Keeping your sync scope small. Only sync what people really use. - Using a dedicated integration user with clear permissions. - Regularly reviewing sync errors and cleaning up bad data.
What doesn’t: - Trying to sync everything from day one. You’ll just create more work. - Ignoring field mismatches or data type differences. These will bite you. - Relying on “set and forget.” Integrations break—plan for maintenance.
Ignore: - Hype about “seamless, instant integration.” It’s never truly seamless. There’s always a little babysitting required.
Wrapping Up
Getting Planhat and Salesforce talking to each other is totally doable—you just need to be deliberate and avoid the usual traps. Keep things simple: start small, make sure it works, and expand as you go. Don’t try to build a perfect integration on day one. You (and your sanity) will thank you later. Keep it lean, keep iterating, and remember: less is usually more with data sync.