To manage projects on Salesforce, give each project its own record linked to the customer and the won deal, add the delivery team, break the work into tasks with owners and due dates, collaborate on the record in Slack or Chatter, track changes with field history, and review overdue work in reports every week. Flow automates the reminders and hand-offs.
This how-to first appeared on our blog in 2019 and was rewritten in November 2026 for Lightning Experience, Slack and Flow. It assumes you already have somewhere to store projects. If you are still choosing between building a project object, buying a native app or integrating a tool such as Jira, start with our comparison of the three ways to use Salesforce for project management. If you have not built a custom object or a Flow before, our hands-on Salesforce tutorial covers both.
Why run projects where the customer data lives?
The strongest reason is the hand-off from sales to delivery. When a deal closes, the project starts with the same account, contacts, products and promises. If delivery works in a separate tool, someone retypes that information and something gets lost. Running projects in Salesforce gives sales, delivery and support the same customer history, and lets managers report on pipeline and delivery side by side.
Step 1: Set up the project record
Every project needs one record that holds its key facts. Whether it is a custom Project object or an app's own object, make sure it has:
- lookups to the Account and the won Opportunity;
- an owner (the project manager), a start date and a due date;
- a status picklist with five to seven stages, shown as a Path on the record page;
- a health field, such as On track, At risk or Off track, that the project manager updates each week;
- budget fields if you track cost or hours.
Trailhead's Path and Kanban unit shows how a Path displays key fields and guidance at each stage.
Step 2: Build the project team
Make it clear who works on what. Salesforce gives you two standard team features, and the 2019 version of this guide recommended both:
- Account Teams list everyone who works with a customer, with their role, such as account manager, project manager or support lead.
- Opportunity Teams list the people who worked on the deal, which tells delivery whom to ask about what was promised.
For the project itself, add a related list of team members, for example a Project Member object with a lookup to User and a role, and share the project record with them. Keep the team current: when people roll off, remove them so notifications and reports stay accurate.
Step 3: Plan the work as tasks
Break the project into tasks related to the project record, each with an owner, a due date, a priority and a status. Then make the work visible:
- Turn on reminders so owners are notified before tasks fall due.
- Create a task list view for each project, or for "my open project tasks", filtered to open tasks and sorted by due date.
- Show it as a Kanban board grouped by status. Trailhead says almost any list view can be shown as Kanban, for most objects including Tasks, and dragging a card updates the field it is grouped by.
- Use milestones for larger projects: a child object or a task type that marks phase ends, such as design sign-off or go-live.
Step 4: Collaborate on the record, in Slack or Chatter
Keep project conversations attached to the project, not in personal email threads.
- Slack: give each project a channel. On paid Slack plans, Slack lists track tasks with an assignee and a due date by default, with up to 1,000 items per list on Pro and Business+ and 5,000 on Enterprise Grid (as of November 2026). Slack's Salesforce apps let people view and update Salesforce records from Slack. See our Slack services for setup help.
- Chatter: the feed on the project record keeps updates and questions next to the data, and a Chatter group can serve a whole delivery team.
- Files: attach documents to the project record and upload new versions instead of new copies, so the version history shows who changed what and the latest file is always the one on top.
Whichever tool the team talks in, keep the official status, dates and health in Salesforce fields. Reports read fields, not conversations.
Step 5: Track changes with field history
Turn on field history tracking for the project object and choose the fields that matter: status, health, due date, owner and budget. You can then see every past value, who changed it and when, and report on how often due dates move. As of November 2026, Salesforce Help's field history page allows up to 20 tracked fields per object and, without Field Audit Trail, keeps history for up to 18 months in the user interface and 24 months through the API. Export or summarize it if you need longer trends.
If certain fields should change only with approval, such as budget or go-live date, add an approval process or a validation rule rather than relying on history after the fact.
Step 6: Report on deadlines and risk
Reports are where Salesforce earns its place as a project tool. Build a small set and review them on the same day every week:
| Report | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Projects by health | How many projects are on track, at risk or off track, grouped by owner |
| Overdue projects | Projects whose due date has passed and status is not complete |
| Tasks due in the next 7 days | Upcoming work by owner, to balance the load |
| Overdue tasks by project | Where work is stuck |
| Due date changes | From field history: projects whose due date moved more than once |
| Won deals without a project | Closed Won opportunities in the last 30 days with no project yet |
Put the key charts on a delivery dashboard and subscribe the team to it, so the numbers arrive by email without anyone exporting to a spreadsheet. Our guide to creating reports in Salesforce explains report types, filters and grouping.
Step 7: Automate the routine with Flow
Use Flow Builder for every rule that would otherwise depend on someone remembering. Salesforce ended support for Workflow Rules and Process Builder on December 31, 2025, according to its end-of-support notice, so build new automation in Flow and move any old rules. Useful flows:
- create the project, its standard milestones and first tasks when an opportunity is marked Closed Won;
- set the project to At risk when a milestone passes its due date incomplete;
- post to the project's Slack channel when the status changes;
- send a weekly reminder to project managers who have not updated health.
Our Salesforce Flow guide explains record-triggered and scheduled flows.
Some teams also use Agentforce agents for project admin, such as summarizing a project's recent activity before a status meeting. Agentforce usage can be paid for with Flex Credits, which are consumed per agent action under the pricing Salesforce announced on May 15, 2025, so pilot one use case and measure it before you roll it out.
Step 8: Know when to add a project management app
Standard features cover many delivery teams. Add a Salesforce-native app from AgentExchange (formerly AppExchange) when you need Gantt charts, task dependencies, resource scheduling, timesheets or billing. Two examples, described factually and not as a recommendation:
- Cloud Coach: its listing describes professional services automation with resource management, time tracking and support for fixed-price and time-and-materials projects.
- Milestones PM+: by Passage Technology, the supported version of the Salesforce Labs app Milestones PM, according to the Salesforce Developers blog, with Gantt charts for projects and milestones.
Before you choose, check who needs a license, how the app's objects link to Account and Opportunity, whether its data works in standard reports, and how recently it was updated. Test it in a sandbox first. If your delivery teams already live in Jira, our Salesforce and Jira integration shows project status in Salesforce instead.
A weekly project routine in Salesforce
- Monday: open the delivery dashboard; check projects at risk and overdue tasks.
- Each project: update the health field and next milestone date, and post a short update in the project's channel or feed.
- Team load: review tasks due in the next seven days by owner and rebalance.
- Hand-offs: check the "won deals without a project" report and start any missing projects.
- Friday: close finished tasks so next week's reports are accurate.
Common mistakes
- Running delivery on the opportunity. Opportunity stages describe a sale; give delivery its own record and stages.
- Status in conversations only. If health lives in Slack threads, no report can see it.
- Too many fields and stages. Track what you will review every week, and no more.
- Nobody owns data quality. Make updating the project record part of each project manager's weekly routine.
- Building a full PSA by hand. Timesheets and resource planning are hard to build well; compare apps first.
Getting help
Techila is a Salesforce Summit Partner. Our professional services team helps firms run delivery in Salesforce, from project records, reports and flows to native PSA apps and Jira integration. Talk to a Salesforce architect about the projects you need to track. We reply within 1 business day.
Frequently asked questions
How do you manage projects in Salesforce?
Give each project its own record linked to the account and the won opportunity, add the delivery team, break the work into tasks with owners and due dates, collaborate on the record in Slack or Chatter, track changes with field history, and review overdue work in reports and a dashboard every week. Flows handle the reminders and hand-offs.
Does Salesforce have a built-in project management tool?
Core Salesforce gives you the parts rather than a finished project app: custom objects, tasks, Path, Kanban, Flow, reports and collaboration. Teams either build a simple project object from those parts or install a native project management or PSA app from AgentExchange, the marketplace formerly called AppExchange.
How do I track project tasks in Salesforce?
Create tasks related to the project record, each with an owner, a due date and a status, and turn on task reminders. Then create a task list view filtered to the project's open tasks and show it as a Kanban board grouped by status, so the team can move work forward by dragging cards.
Can I use Slack for project management with Salesforce?
Yes. A Slack channel per project keeps the conversation in one place, Slack lists can track tasks with an assignee and a due date on paid Slack plans, and Slack's Salesforce apps let people view and update Salesforce records without leaving Slack. Keep the project's official status in Salesforce so reports stay accurate.
When should I install a project management app from AgentExchange?
Install one when you need what standard features do not give you easily: Gantt charts, task dependencies, resource scheduling, timesheets or billing. Professional services firms that bill for time usually reach that point first. Compare a few apps, check their licensing model and reviews, and test them in a sandbox.