Context

When creating or updating fields in Salesforce (SFDC) that are used in Unify audiences, you may wonder how long it takes for these changes to be reflected in your Unify platform, particularly when creating audiences based on these fields.

Answer

How Salesforce Fields Appear in Unify

Unify automatically pulls in fields from Salesforce at the account and contact level without requiring manual field creation or mapping.

Field Type Limitation: Multi-select picklist fields are not supported and will not sync from Salesforce to Unify.

To access synced Salesforce fields when building audiences, look for them in the SFDC fields section within the audience builder interface.

Choosing Field Types for Salesforce Mappings

Unify fields can map to both Salesforce text fields and picklists. For fields with finite, structured outputs, using Salesforce picklists instead of free‑form text fields provides cleaner reporting and data consistency.

Fields well‑suited for Salesforce picklists:

• Reply classification fields (have exactly 5 possible values):

  • Unify Initial Reply Classification

  • Unify Most Recent Reply Classification

  • Values: Positive, Objection, Neutral, Automated, Negative

• Sequence status fields (have finite status values):

  • Examples: Active, Paused, Finished: Completed, Finished: Replied, Finished: Bounced, Finished: Unsubscribed, Finished: Do Not Contact

Fields that should remain text fields: Unify Initial Reply Tags and Unify Most Recent Reply Tags are comma‑separated text fields that can contain multiple tags (e.g., “Ready to meet, Needs more information”). The tag set is not a fixed list and can evolve over time, so these should map to text fields rather than picklists.

Important requirement for picklist mappings: When mapping Unify fields to Salesforce picklists, you must set a default value in the Unify→Salesforce field mapping. Unify cannot write to a Salesforce picklist without a default value configured. Create your Salesforce picklist with the exact values listed above, then configure the default in your field mapping settings.

Important Limitation

Unify can only write default values to empty fields in your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and cannot overwrite existing data. This means:

• If a CRM field already contains a value, Unify will not update or change that value

• Field updates from Unify to CRM only occur when the target field is empty/null

• To enable field overwrites, you may need to implement custom triggers or automation on the CRM side

This limitation applies regardless of sync timing and is important to consider when expecting field updates to appear in Salesforce.

Data Priority and Email Discrepancies

Unify prioritizes CRM data by default, but enriched data may take precedence in specific contexts. Understanding this priority helps explain why you might see different values in Unify versus Salesforce:

• Default behavior: Unify displays your CRM email address first for synced contacts

• Enriched data takes priority when:

  • The contact is included in a Play that uses “Use Unify Waterfall to Find up-to-date Prospects & Data”

  • The person was added via the Chrome extension

Common causes of email mismatches:

• Duplicate Salesforce contacts: If multiple Salesforce contacts exist for the same person, Unify updates only the most recently modified contact, which can cause discrepancies. Check the Linked Records tab in the Unify profile and merge duplicates in Salesforce to resolve.

• Deleted Salesforce records: Contacts that previously existed in Salesforce but have been deleted may still appear in Unify with outdated information

If you encounter incorrect enriched contact information, you can report it to have it suppressed going forward.

After the initial sync between Salesforce and Unify, data synchronization occurs automatically in the following manner:

Workaround for Salesforce Field Overwrite Limitations

While Unify can only write to empty Salesforce fields, you can use Plays with “Sync to Salesforce” actions to update fields based on Unify activity.

Using Plays with “Sync to Salesforce” Actions:

1. Create a Play with a “Sync to Salesforce” action that triggers based on specific Unify sequence statuses or reply classifications to work around the empty‑field limitation.

2. Use Play branches to map multiple Unify values to a single Salesforce status (e.g., “Completed: Replied” + “Willing to meet” → Salesforce Status = “Replied”).

3. For enrollment updates, add a “Sync to Salesforce” action at sequence enrollment to set the Salesforce Status to “Contacted”.

4. Map “Unify Most Recent Sequence Status” to a custom Salesforce field and enable writing to track sequence progress.

• Regular sync intervals occur every 15 minutes

• For large data changes or updates affecting many records, the sync may take longer than the standard 15-minute interval

• You can monitor sync progress by checking the total number of records being updated in your audiences over time

While regular syncs occur every 15 minutes, initial Salesforce connections can take up to 24 hours to complete. This extended timeframe is normal for first‑time integrations and should be considered before troubleshooting sync issues.

To ensure proper sync:

1. Ensure that CRM records have an email address - Records without an email address in CRM will not sync to Unify, regardless of other field mappings

2. Check for duplicate or deleted Salesforce records - Multiple contacts for the same person or deleted records can cause data mismatches. Review the Linked Records tab in Unify profiles and merge duplicates in Salesforce.

3. Verify that the field you're using exists and is properly mapped between CRM and Unify

4. Check that the values in your CRM field match exactly what you're filtering for in your Unify audience

5. Allow at least 15-30 minutes for initial sync completion before investigating potential issues

Handling Newly Mapped Salesforce Fields in Unify

When an existing Salesforce field is newly mapped or surfaced to Unify, Unify will recognize the field immediately, but historical data for that field is not backfilled automatically. Existing records will only receive values for the new field after they are updated in Salesforce.

• Unify recognizes newly mapped fields right away but does not automatically backfill historical data for existing records unless those records are updated in Salesforce.

• This can cause noticeable count differences between Salesforce reports and Unify audiences when filtering on the newly mapped field.

• Historical records will sync their field values only when they are subsequently updated in Salesforce, not during the regular 15‑minute sync cycles.

If you have recently mapped an existing Salesforce field to Unify and see audience count discrepancies, it may be due to the lack of automatic back‑filling. Contact Unify support to request a full sync that pulls existing values for the newly mapped field.

Troubleshooting Salesforce Integration Connection Issues

If records are consistently missing from Unify or sync appears incomplete despite following standard troubleshooting steps, the issue may be expired Salesforce integration credentials. This can cause opportunities and other records to not appear in Unify even though the sync appears to be running normally.

How to Check and Fix Connection Issues

1. Verify your Salesforce integration connection status:

   • Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Salesforce in Unify

   • Look for connection errors or expired credential notifications

2. Reconnect if credentials have expired:

   • Click "Change User" if you see connection issues

   • Follow the authentication instructions to reconnect your Salesforce account

   • Allow 15-30 minutes after reconnecting for a full sync to complete

Additional Troubleshooting: Salesforce Permissions and Validation Rules

Beyond expired credentials, sync failures can be caused by the following:

• Salesforce permissions: Verify that the integration user has appropriate permissions to access and sync records.

• Validation rules: Review any Salesforce validation rules that might prevent the integration from creating or updating records.

These restrictions can silently block syncs even when the connection appears active.

Workarounds for Time-Sensitive Cases

• When required fields are missing in Unify but exist in Salesforce: You can temporarily edit the field directly in the email body to proceed with sending while investigating the sync issue.

• For immediate access during sync delays: Export the contact via a Salesforce report and upload the CSV to create an audience in Unify while the sync completes.

Salesforce Field Sync: Object-Specific Requirements and Error Diagnostics

Company-Level Field Limitations

Company-level fields (such as Intent Level/Score) only write to Salesforce Accounts, not Leads. This is a critical limitation to understand when mapping fields:

• If you're expecting Intent Level, Intent Score, or other company-level enrichment data on Lead records, they will not populate

• Verify your field mappings to confirm company fields are mapped to the Account object, not Lead

• This applies regardless of sync timing and field emptiness

Account Sync Prerequisites

For Accounts specifically, both Company Name and a valid domain (Website field) are required for sync to occur. Missing or invalid domains will prevent writeback of company-level fields, even if the Account exists in Salesforce:

• Ensure the Website field contains a valid domain format (e.g., "company.com" not "www.company.com/page")

• Company Name cannot be empty or contain placeholder values

• Both requirements must be met for any Account-level field updates to occur

Advanced Error Diagnostics

Beyond general connection troubleshooting, Unify provides specific error logs for diagnosing field sync issues:

Checking for Specific Sync Errors

1. Check for ingest/read errors:

   • Navigate to Settings → Integrations → Salesforce → Errors (READ)

   • Look for issues like missing Website/domain fields or other data quality problems

2. Check for write errors:

   • Navigate to Settings → Salesforce Integration → Skipped Records

   • Review Account write errors and hover over error messages to see why specific records were skipped

Checking Audience Exclusion Filters

If contacts are missing from your audience despite proper field mapping and sync timing, check whether default exclusion filters are preventing them from appearing:

• Internal Employees exclusion is often enabled by default in audiences and will filter out contacts marked as internal employees

• This exclusion applies before contacts appear in the audience, even if the field sync is working correctly

• When testing with your own contact information, temporarily disable the Internal Employees exclusion or use a non-internal test contact

• Review all active exclusion filters in your audience settings to ensure they're not inadvertently filtering out expected contacts

Exclusion Rules and Field Updates in Active Sequences

Exclusion rules in Unify sequences only apply when contacts are initially enrolled, not while they are actively progressing through a sequence. This means:

• If a contact is excluded from enrollment due to field values (e.g., "unknown" first names), you can update the field in Salesforce after enrollment.

• The corrected data will sync within 15‑30 minutes and the contact will automatically continue in the sequence without requiring re‑enrollment.

• Field updates from Salesforce will be reflected in active Unify sequences within the standard sync timeframe.

Practical Workflow for Field-Related Exclusions

1. Identify contacts excluded due to field issues (e.g., missing or placeholder values).

2. Update the problematic fields directly in Salesforce.

3. Wait 15‑30 minutes for the sync to complete.

4. The contact will automatically continue in the sequence – no re‑enrollment needed.

Understanding Audience Filtering with Multiple CRM Records

When troubleshooting unexpected audience results, it's important to understand that audience filtering and previews evaluate ALL linked CRM records associated with a person or domain, not just the primary record you see in your CRM.

How This Affects Audience Results

If multiple CRM records exist for the same person or company domain, Unify will include them in an audience if ANY of the linked records satisfy your filter conditions, even when:

• The primary record you're viewing in your CRM has different field values

• You've updated the main record but older duplicate records still exist

• Secondary records contain outdated or incorrect information

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Check the Linked Records tab in the Unify profile to identify all CRM records associated with the person or domain

2. Review each linked record to see which one is triggering the audience inclusion

3. Merge duplicate records in your CRM system to eliminate conflicting data sources

4. Allow 15‑30 minutes after merging for the sync to update audience results

This behavior applies to both contacts and companies across all supported CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and is a common cause of confusion when audience filtering produces unexpected results despite having correct field values in the primary CRM record.