Create a Salesforce Integration User
In March 2023, Salesforce introduced an extremely helpful and impactful free feature: the Salesforce Integration User License. 5 of them free of charge for Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Editions.
This new license type provides significant value for you if you’re looking to follow Salesforce and integration best-practices without tying up expensive full licenses. They assist with ensuring proper audit trails, maintaining minimum access control, and reducing the effort required during employee offboarding, among other added benefits.
This guide will walk you through the essential steps to create a Salesforce Integration User, ensuring that you get one-step closer to following Salesforce and integration best practices.
1. Confirm License Availability
You need to confirm that you have at least 1 Salesforce Integration license available. Here are the steps you should follow and resolutions to frequent roadblocks:
Frequently Asked Questions:
1) What should I do if I don’t have any Salesforce Integration licenses available?
Revisit your list of users that are tying up these integration licenses. Below is a helpful walkthrough on how to accomplish this.
If you don’t have any integration licenses in use then skip to the next step. If you do have integration licenses in use then you should ask yourself:
- Is this integration user live and in-use?
- Is this integration for a 3rd party application and are we still using that 3rd party application?
- If I deactivate this integration user, will I have to hide in a pineapple under the sea?
If you are 100% certain that deactivating the integration user won’t cause any business disruptions then simply deactivate the user to free up the license.
If you don’t feel 100% confident and all of your integration licenses are currently in use then get in touch with your Account Manager at Salesforce to see about purchasing another license. It’ll cost you $10/month (assuming you purchase at list price).
2. Determine User Details
Next, determine the user level details you would like to use for this dedicated integration user. I recommend indicating the tool or purpose as clearly as possible and across all user details. Here are some examples, where “companydomain.com” means your organization’s email domain.
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3. Spin Up the Email Inbox
After you’ve determined the user-level details, create a dedicated email address to align with those user-level details.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1) I don’t want to incur the cost of an additional email address. Can I use a distribution email?
Yes, you can set up a dedicated integration user using a distribution email address.
4. Create a Salesforce Integration User
Here are the steps to follow for creating your dedicated integration user. In this example, I’m going to use the HubSpot Integration User details listed above.
5. Provision Permissions
Here are the steps to follow and resolutions to frequent roadblocks:
1) Can I provide more than 1 permission set to a dedicated integration user?
Yes, of course. However, I always recommend minimizing the number of permission sets assigned to a dedicated integration user.
The golden number is one which will be easier to manage, audit, replicate, etc. However, you may be faced with requirements that or business cases that call for more than one permission set to be assigned.
In those scenarios, the permission set should still be standalone, meaning it isn’t assigned to any other user. This way, you don’t inadvertently grant improper access to a 3rd party system.
2) I went to assign my new permission set to the dedicated integration user and got an error message. The error message looked something like:
This means you didn’t select Salesforce API Integration from the License drop-down when you first created the permission set.
Unfortunately, this means you need to start over. You can’t assign a License type after a permission set has been created.
So, take note of your permission set configurations, delete the one you created, and start from scratch. Oh yeah…and select a License this time.
By following these steps and implementing a dedicated Salesforce Integration User, you can streamline your third-party integrations, enhance security through minimum access controls and audit trails, and simplify user management.
This approach will not only optimize license usage but also mitigate the risks associated with shared credentials and employee transitions.
Follow the steps outlined in this guide to implement this feature, follow Salesforce and integration best-practices, and ensure your integrations are set up for long-term success.
And, of course, please don’t hesitate to contact us below if you have any questions or need further assistance.
