The Salesforce connector pushes companies and contacts into Salesforce — creating and updating Leads, Accounts, Contacts and custom objects. CRM Sync works the other way: it brings your Salesforce Lead and Account data back into Albacross, so you can segment and prioritise website visitors by what's already in your CRM and spot the accounts you already have.
CRM Sync is independent of connectors — you can use either on its own.
Before you begin, make sure you have:
Your Salesforce org connected to Albacross. If you haven't done this yet, follow Integrating with Salesforce CRM first — or, if you connect through a dedicated integration user, Integrating Salesforce with API Only User.
An active Albacross account with the Salesforce integration included in your plan.
An Albacross user with the Integration settings and Connectors permissions.
API Enabled on your Salesforce org (and on the profile or permission set of the user you connected with). CRM Sync reads your records over the Salesforce REST API.
Step 1 — Open CRM Sync
Sign in to Albacross and go to Settings → Integrations.
Pick Salesforce from the list of integrations — its details open on the right.
Open the CRM Sync tab.
Tip: right after you connect Salesforce, Albacross shows a Get Salesforce filters! message. Clicking Sync now takes you straight to this tab.
Step 2 — Choose what to sync and start it
Salesforce CRM Sync covers two objects, and you can enable either or both:
Tick SYNC LEADS, SYNC ACCOUNTS, or both.
For each object you ticked, pick the Salesforce fields you want available in Albacross — up to 8 fields per object.
Click Start sync.
Which fields can I pick?
The picker offers the field types Albacross can filter on:
Salesforce field type | Examples |
Picklist | Lead Status, Account Type, Rating, Industry |
Lookup / reference | Owner ID, Record Type, custom lookups |
Checkbox | Converted, Do Not Call, any custom true/false field |
The picker lists fields under the labels they carry in your Salesforce org, which won't always match what you'd call them — the Lead owner shows up as Owner ID, for instance. Text, number, date, multi-select picklist and formula fields aren't available. Albacross always stores each record's Id and Website as well — those are used for matching and don't count towards your eight fields.
While the first sync runs
Albacross reads every Lead and Account in your org and pages through them, so the first sync can take a while on a large org. The header shows CRM Sync in progress with a progress bar, the page re-checks itself every 30 seconds, and Disable stays greyed out until the first pass finishes.
When it's done the header changes to CRM Sync is Active. A Last data sync timestamp appears underneath it shortly afterwards — it's written by the first scheduled top-up run, so give it up to five minutes.
Step 3 — Use your Salesforce data in Albacross
Once the sync is active, your Salesforce data — matched to visitors by the record's Website — shows up in three places.
Filter and segment by Salesforce data
In the segment and filter builder you'll find a Salesforce group with:
Exists — include or exclude companies that already exist in Salesforce as an Account, a Lead, or either. Handy for hiding the accounts you already own, or for building a list of net-new companies.
A filter for each synced field — one per field you selected, labelled by object: Lead: Status, Account: Account Type, Lead: Owner ID, and so on. Picklist and lookup filters show their real Salesforce values (picklist labels, user names) read live from your org; checkbox fields become a simple true/false.
Spot Salesforce accounts in your company list
In Website Visitors → Segments, the Integrations column shows a Salesforce icon for every company matched to a Salesforce Account or Lead — so you can tell at a glance which visitors are already in your CRM.
Send Salesforce links to Slack
When you customise a Slack connector's message format, the field picker gains a Links to CRM group containing Link to Salesforce Account, so a Slack alert can link straight to the CRM record. This option only appears while Salesforce CRM Sync is active.
About the Salesforce card on a company profile
Company profiles show a Salesforce Lead and/or Salesforce Account card, each with a Show in Salesforce button that opens the record. Each card lists the record's Owner, then the Lead's Status or the Account's Type, and then every field you've synced for that object — so the more fields you sync, the more the card shows.
The card is a live lookup in Salesforce rather than a read of your synced data, so it works as soon as Salesforce is connected and the company has a website — it doesn't need CRM Sync at all.
What CRM Sync changes is what's on it:
Your synced picklist and lookup fields are added, showing the readable value rather than the underlying ID.
Synced checkbox fields don't appear on the card — those are filters only.
Once sync is active, a card only appears for the objects you picked fields for. So if you sync Accounts and not Leads, the Salesforce Lead card disappears.
A field with no value on that particular record is left off rather than shown empty.
If no matching record is found, the button reads Export instead and offers to create one through a connector.
Keeping your data current
Albacross re-checks Salesforce every 5 minutes. Each run pulls the Leads and Accounts whose Last Modified Date has changed since the previous successful run, and drops records that were deleted in Salesforce. Changes in Salesforce therefore appear in Albacross within a few minutes rather than instantly.
There is no manual re-sync button. If you want a fresh full import, disable CRM Sync and start it again.
To change which fields are synced, disable CRM Sync first. The object checkboxes and field pickers are locked while a sync is active. Disable, adjust your selection, then click Start sync again.
Turning off CRM Sync
Open the CRM Sync tab and click Disable. The confirmation dialog warns you that all synchronised data will be deleted and that two things stop working:
CRM Filters — the Salesforce filter group disappears from the filter builder.
Segments using CRM Filters — any segment built on a Salesforce filter stops working.
Two more things happen that the dialog doesn't spell out:
Active connectors whose segment uses a Salesforce filter are stopped — whatever type of connector they are.
The Salesforce icon in the Integrations column goes away, since it's driven by the synced data.
The Salesforce Lead / Salesforce Account profile cards stay, because they read Salesforce live rather than from the sync. Your Salesforce org itself is never modified by CRM Sync. Your field selection is kept, so re-enabling is just a matter of clicking Start sync again and waiting for a fresh full import. (Removing the Salesforce integration altogether does clear the selection.)
Notes and troubleshooting
Leads and Accounts only. Opportunities, Contacts, Campaigns and custom objects aren't synced back into Albacross. (The connector can still write to them.)
Matching is by website. A visitor is linked to a Salesforce record by the domain in its Website field. Leads and Accounts with an empty Website are skipped, so populating that field is the single biggest thing you can do to improve matching.
"Couldn't load CRM Sync settings" or "Couldn't load available fields." Your Salesforce authorisation has most likely expired or been revoked. Reconnect Salesforce from Settings → Integrations → Salesforce and the pickers will load again.
"Salesforce connectors have been stopped, due to Salesforce Rest API unaviability." The REST API isn't enabled for your org or for the connected user. Enable API Enabled in Salesforce, then reconnect.
A field I want isn't in the picker. Only picklist, lookup and checkbox fields can be synced, and the limit is eight per object. Once you've picked eight for an object, its Add button greys out until you remove one.
The sync has been "in progress" for a long time. That's expected on large orgs — the first pass walks every Lead and Account. Disable unlocks once it completes.
Your plan no longer includes Salesforce. The CRM Sync tab shows "Synced Field Configuration Preserved" — your field selection is kept, and syncing resumes if the integration is added back to your plan.