We have a series of articles on the Salesforce integration, starting with the main overview guide here.

When Salesforce is the "system of record", its admins may delete duplicates and merge records in Salesforce, to keep the data clean. When syncing data between Salesforce and Planhat, a regular sync only reads records (e.g. Accounts and Contacts - see "Definitions" box below) that exist in Salesforce, so a deleted or merged-away record that had previously synced to Planhat would stay in Planhat with no sign that it is gone from Salesforce, and someone would need to manually remove/adjust it in Planhat if desired.

In late 2026, we released support for deletions and merges in the Planhat Salesforce integration. During each sync, Planhat asks Salesforce which records were deleted or merged since the last sync, and marks the matching Planhat records. Planhat never deletes a record because it was deleted in Salesforce - deleting a Company would also delete its End Users, Conversations and other associated data, and a record deleted in Salesforce by mistake can be restored there. Instead, the "flag" within Planhat lets you filter, report on, and act on these records - for example, with an Automation.

When you (as a Planhat admin) are configuring the Salesforce integration in Planhat, to sync records between Salesforce and Planhat, you can optionally configure up to two of the following settings per sync section (model/object pair), as shown in the example screenshot below:

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Once set up, when records previously synced to Planhat are then deleted or merged in Salesforce, this deletion/merge information is also synced into Planhat, and the relevant Planhat records are labelled accordingly, allowing you to take action in Planhat as desired.

In the rest of this article, we will go through this process and how to set it up.

Let's take a closer look at the results of configuring the record delete/merge functionality in the Salesforce integration in Planhat.

Records in Salesforce/Planhat are matched the same way the sync section matches them for a "normal" sync (for example, by the Salesforce ID reference on Companies, or by the keyable on a custom sync section).

Archived records are included.

Only records that already exist in Planhat are affected by this functionality. For example, this applies when a record has been synced to Planhat from Salesforce and then is deleted in Salesforce, but does not apply if a record is deleted in Salesforce before it ever synced to Planhat.

A Contact deleted together with its Account is flagged too.

If a record is deleted in Salesforce, the checkbox field specified in the integration (we discuss the setup here) is set to "true" on the equivalent Planhat record, so it's flagged in Planhat as having been deleted in Salesforce. Nothing else on the record changes.

In Salesforce, merging keeps one record (the "surviving" record) and deletes the others.

For each deleted record that was merged, when this is synced from Salesforce to Planhat:

The Planhat record mapped to the "surviving" Salesforce record is not changed.

(Remembering that Salesforce Accounts are synced with Planhat Companies)

Let's say Account B (the "deleted" record) is merged into Account A (the "surviving" record) in Salesforce. On the next sync from Salesforce to Planhat:

If a record is restored from the Salesforce Recycle Bin, i.e. it's no longer deleted in Salesforce, the next sync from Salesforce to Planhat sets the Planhat "mark deleted" checkbox field back to "false" and clears the "merged-into" field (where used) - i.e. this "undo" in Salesforce is also synced to Planhat.

A value you change by hand in Planhat stays until the record changes in Salesforce again.

The settings are available only on sync sections that fetch from Salesforce to sync to Planhat ("Receive from Salesforce" or "Both Directions"); a sync section that only sends to Salesforce does not show them.

Sync sections that sync the Salesforce User object do not show them, because Salesforce does not report deleted Users.

On a sync section whose Salesforce object cannot be merged (e.g. Task), only the "Mark deleted" checkbox setting is shown:

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Before you can configure these settings in the Planhat Salesforce integration, you need to create the fields in Planhat that you will select.

For each Planhat model you want to receive the deletion/merge information from Salesforce, you will create a custom field for the deletion, and a custom field for the merge details (if applicable).

For example, for the sync section between the Planhat Company model and the Salesforce Account object, if you want to sync deletions and merges from Salesforce to Planhat, you'll need to create two custom fields on the Planhat Company model.

Planhat field specifications:

*Choose the "merged-into" field type by what you need:

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Each of these two settings has an info tooltip that summarizes its behavior:

Both settings are optional and independent. For example, you could set only the "mark deleted" checkbox, while leaving the "merged-into" setting empty (unset), as shown in the example screenshot below.

As we have described in this article, although you can set up the integration so that information about Salesforce deletions and merges is synced into Planhat, it does not actually delete or merge those records in Planhat. Instead, having that information in Planhat enables you to choose to take your own choice of action. For example: