Activities Overview

There are two types of activities:  Tasks and events.

Tasks

Tasks are used to represent to-do items or actions such as phone calls, emails, physical mailings, and so on.  Tasks have a scheduled due date, with an optional reminder at a specified time.

Task Completion

Tasks are moved from “Open Activities” to “Activity History” when the task status is “Closed”:

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The below task “Call” is status “Completed”, therefore it is displayed under activity history.  If the task’s status was not “Closed” (as shown above), then it would be listed under open activities.

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Assigning Multiple Users to Tasks

When you create a task, you can assign the task to multiple users.  Note that this actually creates a duplicate task record for each user; it does not assign a single task to multiple users.  The resulting tasks are not linked in any way.

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Events

Events are used to represent scheduled meetings, similar to appointments in your Outlook calendar.  Events have a scheduled start and end time.

Event Completion

Events are moved from “Open Activities” to “Activity History” when the start time of the event is in the past.  For instance, if an event starts at 1:00PM and ends at 1:30PM, then it will appear under open activities until 1:00PM, and will appear in activity history after 1:00PM.

Associating Activities to Custom Objects

Activities can be associated to most standard objects.  In order to link an activity to a custom object, you must ensure that the “Allow Activities” checkbox is enabled within the object properties:

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Summary Comparison

Tasks
To-do Items (Phone Calls, Emails, etc.)
Due Date w/ Reminder
Activity History when Status "Closed"
Events
Appointments (e.g. Outlook Calendar Entry)
Specified Start & End Time
Activity History when Start Time has Passed

32 Responses to “Activities Overview”

  1. sandhyamenon28 March 24, 2017 at 6:17 pm #

    Events are moved from “Open Activities” to “Activity History” when the start date of the event is in the past. It should be ” start time” and not date, right?

  2. trpbt February 24, 2017 at 8:13 am #

    Please suggest:

    what type of customization can be done on activities events and tasks?
    A.workflow rules B.validation rules C.Assignment rules D.custom Fields

  3. karthik January 8, 2017 at 10:36 pm #

    Hi John,

    I couldn’t see Activity history for events and tasks on the home page. These activities are not associated with any objects or records. Is this normal or do I need to enable something to see the activity history related list on the home page?

    Thanks

  4. 123tharun December 30, 2016 at 5:36 am #

    Hello,

    Let’s consider activity is in the related list on the case pagelayout . And OWD for case is set as “Read only” . Let us consider a person who owns a case created an Activity . By default this activity is not visible to other users although they have read access to the case. How to make this activity visible to the users who are having read access to this case.

    • JohnCoppedge January 3, 2017 at 1:24 pm #

      In OWD settings you can set activity to “controlled by parent” which would grant access to the activities if they have access to the case

      • Naved May 22, 2017 at 4:18 pm #

        My OWD on Case is set to “Public Read Only” while Activity is set to “Private”. I created a case and a task as an admin but when I login as an another user, I am still able to have “read access” on the task in related list which are assigned to admin. I checked role hierarchy which is not the reason.
        If this is normal then what is the purpose of “Private setting on Activity object”. If not then what I am missing.

  5. bsnavle June 12, 2015 at 10:41 pm #

    Hi John

    Is there a place where the members from our group who have taken the exam passed/failed had shared their experience? or a way to get intouch with the folks?

    Regards
    Bala

    • JohnCoppedge June 15, 2015 at 1:50 pm #

      There are various comments on this site, but ultimately no I don’t know of a centralized place for that sort of thing.

      • Viday August 16, 2015 at 7:00 am #

        Hi John,
        I thought if an event starts at 1:00 and ends at 1:30, it will move down to history after 1:30 PM. Is it a typo or could you clarify, please.

        Many thanks
        Vida

        • JohnCoppedge August 17, 2015 at 7:21 pm #

          No it does move down after the event has started- feel free to test in your org.

          • kmkaast April 7, 2017 at 2:03 pm #

            I tried this scenario by creating an event that started already from 15 minutes ago and ends after 15 minutes , when i open i found 2 records on activity history and open activities and after the 15 minutes passed , 2 records for same event under the activities history , thought it may be a caching issue but still 2 records after closing and reopening the object . i think its a bug on system.

          • kmkaast April 7, 2017 at 2:16 pm #

            please ignore my question , something wrong happened created 2 events with same title and different timing. thanks John

  6. bsnavle June 12, 2015 at 10:38 pm #

    Hello John
    I could not find the Tab for creating and Managing Tasks and events. Can you provide me navigation ?

    Thanks
    Bala

    • JohnCoppedge June 15, 2015 at 1:49 pm #

      There is no tab by default (there is a free appexchange tab that can add one) – you manage tasks/events from your home page and the record where it is scheduled (lead, contact, account, etc.).

      • tejalr8@gmail.com February 1, 2016 at 3:10 am #

        Hi john,
        Just thinking that to assign to multiple people we should have pr-created group in org..
        Just guessing.
        Thanks.
        Tejal.

  7. Maura McNulty June 4, 2015 at 5:04 pm #

    I can’t find the multiple user tab under look up

  8. Maura McNulty June 4, 2015 at 5:04 pm #

    John can you assign tasks even multiple tasks to multiple contacts rather than to users?

  9. Neeraja S April 5, 2015 at 11:26 pm #

    When You Transfer Ownership Of An Account, The New Owner Will Also Gain Ownership Of The Following Records Related To The Transferred Account Automatically:
    Choose 3 Answers.
    A. Any Notes That Belong To The Existing Owner.
    B. All Contacts That Belong To The Existing Owner.
    C. All Opportunities–Open And Closed
    D. All Open Activities Assigned To The Existing Owner. Note That Completed Activities Will Not Be Transferred.

    I would like to know the answer for this. I am confused little bit. I’m thinking its ABD
    Thanks

    • JohnCoppedge April 15, 2015 at 2:29 am #

      It depends on what you check when you change the account owner. Notes will get transferred, closed activities will not. I don’t think you would get a question like this on the exam, its too vague.

      • Neeraja S April 15, 2015 at 3:34 am #

        Thanks John. I passed admin 201 last week on first attempt. Your guide helped me alot.

  10. Rena Bennett-Dellwo March 25, 2015 at 11:39 pm #

    Possible sentence issue: “The below task “Call” is status “Completed”, therefore it is displayed under activity history.” It just seems a little awkward, not necessarily wrong, but I’m not quite sure.

  11. woody johnson June 18, 2014 at 6:31 pm #

    For events I’m a little confused on history tracking. Verbiage above says event will appear in history after the start date/time has passed. Summary comparison says when end time has passed. I searched help in Salesforce and it says events appear in history the day after it completes. I’m testing this now to see….thanks

    • JohnCoppedge June 19, 2014 at 2:12 pm #

      Thanks Woody-this is corrected. Events appear in history after start time has passed.

  12. Kathleen Renn April 7, 2014 at 2:12 pm #

    You might also add that you can set a reminder for events as well, and that reminders are optional.

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