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Guidelines for Tracking Activities

Review guidelines for tracking tasks and events, including how activity access is determined, how record-activity relationships work, and how the last activity date on a record is determined.

Required Editions

Important
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Available in: Salesforce Classic, Lightning Experience, and all versions of the Salesforce app
Available in: All editions

Record and Activity Relationships

An activity’s Related To field helps determine an activity’s relationship to an account.

Content of the Related To Field Record That the Activity Rolls Up To
An account That account
An opportunity The account on that opportunity
A contract The account on that contract
A custom object with master-detail relationship with the account object The account on that custom object record
Something other than what’s listed in this table, including empty The contact’s primary account

If Shared Activities is enabled, then an activity is also related to each contact’s primary account.

Last Activity Date

  • The last activity date for a record is
    • The due date of the most recently logged event against the record

      OR

    • The most recently closed task associated with the record
  • The last activity date for an account record is based on all the activities that roll up to the account via the Related To field. For an account, the last activity date can represent an activity that’s related to an opportunity. The last activity date for a contact or lead is based on all the activities that are related to that contact or lead via the Name field.
  • If Shared Activities is enabled, an account’s last activity date is still based on the activities that roll up to the account via the Related To field. But if the Related To field is blank, the activities are based on the primary contact’s account. The last activity date for contacts and leads is based on only the activities where the contact or lead is the primary contact on the activity.

Activity Access

Your access to other people’s events and tasks is based on your:

  • Role—You have access to view and edit your own activities plus activities assigned to people below you in the role hierarchy.
  • Sharing Model—You have access to an activity based on your access to the Name (Who) record AND the Related To (What) record.

You can view an activity if:

  • You’re assigned to the activity, as Owner

    OR

  • You’re above the user assigned to the activity in the role hierarchy

    OR

  • You have at least read access to the Name (Who) record and Related To (What) record to which the activity is related.

    If Shared Activities is enabled, you need at least read access to any one of the Name (Who) records.

    OR

  • You have the “View All Records” object-level permission for the Name (Who) record and the Related To (What) record.

    OR

  • You have the “View All Data” user permission

You can edit or delete an activity if:

  • You have the “Edit Tasks” and “Edit Events” permissions:

    AND

    • You’re assigned to the activity (your personal sharing setting doesn’t apply)

      OR

    • You’re above the user assigned to the activity in the role hierarchy (your personal sharing setting doesn’t apply)

      OR

    • Activity Organization-Wide Default (OWD) is set to Controlled By Parent

      AND

      • You have edit or delete access to Name (Who) record (any 1 Contact if Shared Activities is enabled) AND the Related To (What) record.

        OR

      • The Name (Who) record is a private contact.

      OR

    • You have the “Modify All Data” user permission (your personal sharing setting doesn’t apply)

Editing tasks in this case also includes changing the task assignment. See Start Using Tasks for information about task assignment.