Inspire Planner Project Tasks and Salesforce Tasks

In Inspire Planner, Project Tasks and Salesforce Tasks are closely linked together. This help article discusses how they work together, and how and what information is synchronized between these two objects.

When a Project Task is assigned to a resource, an equivalent, related Salesforce Task is created. Inspire Planner creates an equivalent Salesforce Task for the following reasons:

It allows Project Managers to limit who is able to see and/or edit the Project Schedule while still allowing resources to update their assigned tasks. By creating an equivalent Salesforce Task, resources do not necessarily need to be given editing access to the Project. This prevents the potential for resources updating Project and/or Task information that should be reserved for Project Managers (For example, as a Project Manager, you may not want to allow resources to modify Task dates, adjust Planned Effort or change dependencies). From the Salesforce Task, resources are able to update Status, % complete, and add comments but they are not able to adjust Task Dates.
It provides resources one area to manage both tasks related to Projects and other records in Salesforce. Instead of needing to navigate from Project to Project to see their assigned Tasks, resources can just go to their Salesforce Tasks which will now display all their assigned Salesforce Tasks - those related to Projects and those that are not, giving them a more seamless approach to managing their tasks for the day. Resources can still leverage the ability to create and manage custom List Views in Salesforce which makes it easier for them to see Tasks based on the parameters they specify (i.e. see only Tasks due TODAY or see Tasks where Ready-to-Start is TRUE). Resources can also leverage the native display options that Salesforce provides (table, Kanban and split view).
Better support for multiple assignments. When a Project Task is assigned to multiple resources, Inspire Planner creates an equivalent Salesforce Task for each assigned resource. This allows for each resource to complete their own portion and log time against their assigned Salesforce Task. This also supports the calculation of costs based on effort and each assigned resources hourly rate.
Support for non-Inspire Licensed resources. Not all Salesforce users who are being assigned Tasks may necessarily have an Inspire Planner license. By creating an equivalent Salesforce Task, these resources are still able to see and update the status of their assigned Salesforce Task even though they are not able to see any of the fields or components that are part of Inspire Planner. Please note that if you need the resource to be able to see Projects or log time against their assigned Tasks, they will need an Inspire Planner license assigned to them.

How Are Project Tasks and Salesforce Tasks Linked?

When you create Tasks within the Project, you are creating Project Tasks.

When you assign these Project Tasks to a resource (user, contact or queue), Inspire Planner creates an equivalent Salesforce Task for each assigned resource. If there are multiple resources assigned to the same Project Task, Inspire Planner will create an equivalent Salesforce Task for each resource (i.e. if there are 2 resources assigned, 2 Salesforce Tasks are created).

Please note: The assignment resides on the Salesforce Task and not the Project Task. If your assignments don't appear to be saving, please check whether you have validation rules or required fields on your Salesforce Task object that may be preventing Inspire Planner from being able to create the Salesforce Task.

You can see the equivalent Salesforce Task(s) by:

Clicking on the checkmark to the left of the Project Task

The equivalent Salesforce Task(s) is at the bottom of the window.
Clicking on the List All Salesforce Tasks Icon in the Project Toolbar on the left.

This will open a window that displays the equivalent Salesforce Task(s) of all assigned Project Tasks.
Of course, you can also find the equivalent Salesforce Tasks by going into Tasks.

What Information is populated on the Salesforce Task?

When a Project Task is assigned and the equivalent Salesforce Task is created, the following information from the Project Task are carried over to the Salesforce Task:

Please note: We recommend that you adjust your Salesforce Task Page Layout and Lightning Record pages to include Inspire Planner fields and components. Please refer to the following help articles for instructions:

The following fields on the Salesforce Task are also populated automatically:

Related To - contains a lookup to the Project that the task is associated with
Inspire Task - contains a lookup to the related Inspire Project Task
Parent Task - contains the parent task of the related Inspire Project Task

Remember that in Inspire Planner, you can assign a task to a User, Contact or Queue. When a task is assigned to a User or a Queue, the User or Queue Name appears in the Assigned To field of the Salesforce Task.

Here is an example of a Task assigned to a User:

Here is an example of a Task assigned to a Queue:

However, when a Task is assigned to a Contact, the Assigned To field is populated with the name of the user who made the assignment, and the assigned Contact appears in the Name field. This is because Assigned To is a Salesforce-native field and does not allow you to populate the field with a Contact. To work around this, Inspire Planner populates the Assigned To field with the name of the user who assigned the task and instead puts the assigned Contact in the Name field.

Here is an example of a Task assigned to a Contact:

To make it easier for you to identify who the task is actually assigned to, we recommend adding the Resource Name and Resource Type fields to your page layout as well.

Resource Name - is automatically populated with the resource to whom the task is actually assigned to whether the resource is a user, contact or queue.
Resource Type - tells you whether the assigned resource is a user, contact or queue.

Here's an example of a Task assigned to a User:

Here's an example of a Task assigned to a Queue:

Here's an example of a Task assigned to a Contact:

Helpful Tip: Becoming familiar with the Resource Name and Resource Type fields is really useful especially when you are creating List Views or Reports based on Assignments. Rather than using the Assigned To field, it may be better to use the Resource Name field instead when displaying assignments or when applying filters.

How do Project Tasks and Salesforce Task Synchronize?

Updates made to the Inspire Project Task will update the related Salesforce Task(s) upon save. However, the updates made from the Salesforce Task are pushed to the Inspire Project Task by the Inspire Planner Beacon. This job automatically runs every 1-2 minutes.

Please Note: You need to make sure that the Inspire Planner Beacon is scheduled to run. An indicator that this job may not be running or has stopped running is when Project Tasks and Salesforce Tasks do not synchronize. Please refer to this help article for instructions - How to Schedule Inspire Planner Apex Jobs

If the Project is locked - meaning that a user is editing the Project, updates made to the related Salesforce Tasks are saved and then the updates to the Project Tasks go into a queue. When the Project is no longer locked, the Inspire Planner Beacon will then update the Project Tasks according to the queue.

What Information is Updated Between Project Tasks and Salesforce Tasks?

You may be wondering what changes made to the Project Task updates the Salesforce Task and vice versa. This section outlines what gets updated when you make changes to either Project Task or Salesforce Task.

Please Note: In order for status updates made to either Project Task or Salesforce Task to synchronize, you need to make sure the status picklist options are aligned. Please see Align Salesforce Task Status with Inspire Project Task Status.

Project Task to Salesforce Task

Changes you make to the following Project Task fields will result in the related Salesforce Task(s) being updated:

As mentioned earlier in this article, if a Project Task is assigned to more than one resource, it creates a Salesforce Task for each assigned resource. Changes made to any of the Project Task fields above will update all the related Salesforce Tasks. For example, if Project Task A is assigned to John and Bob, it will have two related Salesforce Tasks - one assigned to John and another to Bob. When you change the start date of Project Task A, it will update the Salesforce Task Start Date of the task assigned to John as well as the one assigned to Bob.

Please Note:

If the Project Task is assigned to multiple resources, the changes you make to the Project Task Status will not update the status of the related Saleforce Tasks except when you update the Project Task Status to "Completed" (or equivalent custom status).

If the Project Task is assigned to a single resource, then updates made to the Project Task status will update the status of the related Salesforce Task.

Salesforce Task to Project Task

Changes you make to the following Salesforce Task fields will result in the related Project Task being updated:

You may have noticed that there are fewer changes from the Salesforce Task that update the related Project Task. This is because the following information should be managed by the Project Manager from the Project Schedule and not by the assigned resource. This means that if you try to update the following fields, it will always get overwritten by whatever is on the Project Task.

Subject
Start and Finish Date
Start and End Time