Salesforce gives you three ways to connect Outlook. The Outlook integration in Salesforce puts a side panel in Outlook so reps can log emails and meetings. Einstein Activity Capture logs them with no clicks. Email to Salesforce logs any email you BCC to a special address. Where it stops: the panel logs one email at a time, shared mailboxes don't work with it, and none of them reads the email and moves the deal. AI agents do the logging and the update, and tell the owner what needs a person.
What the Outlook integration in Salesforce has to do
Most sales talk happens in email and meetings. If it never reaches Salesforce, your deals look quiet when they are not, and nobody can see what was promised. The Outlook integration in Salesforce fixes the first half: it gets the email onto the record.
A good connection does more. It puts each email and meeting on the right contact and deal, and it keeps the deal itself right: the stage, the next step, and who owes the next reply.
Three ways to connect Outlook and Salesforce
All three come from Salesforce. Its help pages describe them side by side.
The Outlook integration (side panel)
- How it works
- An admin turns it on in Salesforce Setup, and each rep gets the Salesforce add-in in Outlook. A panel next to each email shows the matching Salesforce records, and reps click to log the email or meeting. It works in Outlook on the web, Outlook 2019 and 2021 for Windows, and Outlook for Mac.
- Good for
- Teams who want to see Salesforce while they work in email, and log what matters by hand.
- Where it breaks
- A rep logs each email by hand, one at a time. Salesforce's guide says an email can go on its people plus just one other record, like one deal. Admins in Salesforce's community say shared mailboxes don't work with the add-in.
The Outlook integration with Einstein Activity Capture
- How it works
- It adds the emails and meetings reps send and get to the timeline of the related records, with no clicks, and syncs contacts and calendar events between Outlook and Salesforce.
- Good for
- Teams who want emails and meetings on the record without asking reps to log them.
- Where it breaks
- It logs the email. It does not read it, move the deal stage or write the next step. With only the standard version, Salesforce deletes captured activity after 6 months.
Email to Salesforce
- How it works
- Each person gets a special Salesforce address to add in BCC. Salesforce puts the email on the lead, contact or open deal whose address matches.
- Good for
- Teams where not everyone uses Outlook, or who only need to log a few emails.
- Where it breaks
- It is all by hand. Each email someone forgets to BCC stays out of Salesforce, and email with no match waits on the My Unresolved Items page for someone to file it.
Arkeo agents
- How it works
- Agents read each email and meeting in Outlook, log it on the right contact and deal in Salesforce, write the next step and a task, and move the deal stage when your rules say so.
- Good for
- Teams where the CRM has to be right, and reps would rather sell than type.
- Where it breaks
- Anything your rules keep for a person, like closing a deal or a reply that needs the owner, goes to them in one message.
Set up the Outlook integration: five steps
Salesforce's own guide has the full screens. These are the parts, in order.
- 1Check what you have
You need Exchange Online with Office 365, or Exchange 2013, 2016 or 2019. Salesforce stopped support for Outlook 2013 and 2016 at the end of 2022, so plan on a newer Outlook. If you don't run your email server, bring in the person who does.
- 2Turn it on in Salesforce
In Setup, type Outlook in the Quick Find box and open Outlook Integration and Sync. Turn on the integration and Enhanced Email with Outlook, so logged emails land on the record as emails.
- 3Get the add-in to each rep
Reps can add it from Microsoft AppSource, or your Microsoft 365 admin can push it to everyone. Microsoft says a push can take 24 to 72 hours to show up.
- 4
Log one email and one meeting
Have one rep open a client email, click Log Email, check the records Salesforce suggests, and log it. Then do the same with a meeting, and find both on the deal.
- 5Add Einstein Activity Capture if you want no clicks
Set it up from Setup with its guided steps. Before you do, check how long your license keeps captured email.
Where the Salesforce Outlook integration stops
Each of these gets email into Salesforce. The work left is what the email means for the deal, and the email that never gets logged.
The panel waits for a click. Salesforce's guide says each rep needs the add-in, and each email is logged by hand to its people plus one other record. Long threads go in one email at a time, and admins in Salesforce's community still ask how to log a whole thread at once. In a busy week, those clicks get skipped.
Shared inboxes are a gap. In Salesforce's own Outlook and Gmail community group, admins say shared mailboxes won't work with the add-in. Other recent posts there describe email from a shared address landing on just one contact, meetings from outside people that don't log, and contact sync that fails with no error. Each one is a gap someone has to spot by hand.
Activity Capture doesn't keep everything. Salesforce's own page says that with only the standard version, captured email and events older than 6 months are deleted. If it was set up before Summer '25 and the newer sync setting is off, the email shows on the timeline but not in reports.
And nobody updates the deal. All of these stop once the email is on the record. Someone still reads it, moves the stage, writes the next step, and chases the reply that didn't come.
The agents that do it
Each agent does one job from start to finish in your own Salesforce, working from your Outlook email and meetings. Your team talks to them in Slack or Teams.
Salesforce stays right without anyone typing.
- Logs emails and callsas they happen
- Closes the task when the reply landsright away
- Moves the deal to the right stageper deal
Renewals get worked before they are late.
- Checks contracts coming up for renewalevery week
- Builds the renewal deal with the account historyper account
- Tells the account ownerright away
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Agents work in your own Outlook and Salesforce and see only what their job needs. Customer details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
Is the Salesforce Outlook integration retiring?
No. The old app is: Salesforce for Outlook, the app you put on each computer, is set to fully retire in December 2027. Salesforce points people to the Outlook integration and Einstein Activity Capture instead.
Does the Salesforce Outlook integration need admin approval?
Yes. A Salesforce admin has to turn it on in Setup before reps can use it in Outlook. Salesforce's guide also says some steps need whoever runs your email server.
Can I connect Salesforce to Outlook without the side panel?
Yes. Email to Salesforce lets people log emails from any email program with a BCC. Einstein Activity Capture logs emails and meetings with no clicks.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.
Sources
- resources.docs.salesforce.com: sales outlook integration impl guide.pdf
- help.salesforce.com: articleView
- help.salesforce.com: articleView
- help.salesforce.com: articleView
- help.salesforce.com: articleView
- resources.docs.salesforce.com: sfo getting started guide.pdf
- trailhead.salesforce.com: F9300000009M90CAE
- trailhead.salesforce.com: outlook%2Fteams%2Fgmail