What are Custom Rules?
Custom rules are settings inside Weflow that give you extra control over what gets synced from your email and calendar into Salesforce. Think of them as filters you define once, and then Weflow applies them automatically every time it processes an email or meeting.
Without custom rules, Weflow follows its default logic: if an email or meeting can be matched to a Salesforce record, it gets logged. That works well for most situations. But sometimes you need more nuance. Maybe you never want internal HR threads in Salesforce. Maybe you only want a contact created if their company already exists in your CRM. That is where custom rules come in.
Custom rules sit inside the Activity Capture section of the Admin Console. They work at the admin level, which means they apply across your whole team consistently.
When Would You Use Custom Rules?
A few common situations where custom rules make a real difference:
Keeping noise out of Salesforce
When activity capture runs in the background, it can pick up things you do not want logged. Calendar resource confirmations, automated bot replies, internal-only threads, meeting decline notifications. None of that belongs in your CRM. Custom rules let you block those by domain, email address pattern, or keyword, so they never touch Salesforce.
Protecting sensitive communications
If you have confidential accounts, and confidentiality in some fields those conversations auto-logged to Salesforce. A simple domain or keyword-based exclusion rule means those emails are skipped entirely. (IMPROVE)
Logging to the right record when there are multiple open deals
Weflow has smart defaults for matching activity to Opportunities. But when a contact is involved in more than one open deal, the system holds back and does not guess. Custom rules can help define the logic more precisely so activity lands in the right place, or you can use the Chrome Extension to handle it manually at the time of logging.
Different rules for different teams
Not every team works the same way. Your Sales team might log activities to Opportunities, while your Implementation team logs them to custom Project objects. Custom rules and team-level settings let you set this up so each group gets exactly what they need.
How to Set Up Custom Rules
Custom rules are configured in the Weflow Admin Console under Activity Capture, in Step 8 of the setup flow. Here is how to work through each part.
Step 1: Setting up exclusion rules
Exclusion rules tell Weflow what to ignore.
Add your own company domains under internal domains. Weflow will never log an email or meeting where everyone involved is from your own domain, so this is a baseline protection step.
Block specific external domains or addresses you never want logged. Examples include vendor support inboxes, billing addresses like billing@ or noreply@, or competitor domains.
Block by keyword if needed. You can configure rules so that emails containing certain words in the subject or body are skipped.
Note: Keep your exclusion list focused. Every rule you add causes one extra API call per logged activity, so the fewer rules the better. Aim for the minimum that gets the job done.
Step 2: Configuring contact creation
This is one of the most impactful settings in Activity Capture. You will find it in Step 6 of the setup flow. Here is what each option does:
Toggle. Enable or disable contact creation entirely.
Background service. Background creation means Weflow creates contacts automatically as soon as an email is first logged, without the rep needing to do anything. Weflow uses the email address to find a matching account by domain.
Only create for existing accounts. Turn this on to prevent Weflow from creating contacts for companies that do not yet exist in Salesforce. This is the key guardrail that prevents orphaned contacts.
Email address exclusions. You can exclude specific patterns here, such as noreply@, support@, or newsletter@, so transactional emails never trigger contact creation.
Opportunity contact roles. When a new contact is created, Weflow can automatically assign them as a contact role on the relevant Opportunity.
Step 3: Setting up team enrollment and object mapping
If your organisation has multiple teams with different workflows, this is where you separate them.
You can enrol users into specific Weflow teams based on Salesforce fields. For example, all users where Profile equals Account Executive can be automatically enrolled into the Sales team.
You can hide Salesforce objects that are not relevant for certain teams. For example, if your Implementation team never works with Leads, you can turn the Lead object off for them so it does not appear in their view.
If your team logs activities to custom Salesforce objects like Projects or Cases, you will need to work with the Weflow team to set up the backend mapping. Reach out to support@getweflow.com to get started.
Step 4: User-level overrides via the Chrome Extension
Even with rules set at the admin level, individual users can make adjustments in real time from their inbox.
When a rep opens an email or meeting in Gmail or Outlook, the Weflow Chrome Extension or Outlook Add-In shows suggested Salesforce records to log against, based on who is in the conversation.
If the suggestion is wrong, for example if the wrong Opportunity is pre-selected, the rep can change it before the activity is logged. No need to go into Salesforce and fix it after the fact.
Admins can also set the extension to be unchecked by default, meaning users have to actively confirm logging rather than it happening automatically. This gives teams more manual oversight if that is what they prefer.
A Few Things to Keep in Mind
You can create up to ten custom rules. Keep them to the minimum needed because each rule adds a small processing overhead.
Custom rules use Salesforce fields that are visible to the connected user. Picklist fields work well. Long text fields are not supported for filtering.
Rules apply globally to all users enrolled in Activity Capture, so changes you make affect everyone. Test with a small group if you are unsure about an exclusion.
If Weflow cannot match an email or meeting to any Salesforce record, it does not log it at all. That is the default behaviour and it already keeps a lot of noise out.
Quick Reference:
Exclusion rules | Admin Console > Activity Capture > Tab 3 (domains) and Tab 7 (custom rules) |
Contact creation settings | Admin Console > Activity Capture > Tab 5 |
Team setup and object mapping | Admin Console > Activity Capture > Users and Teams, plus Tab 4 (Object Management) |
Custom rules (Step 7) | Admin Console > Activity Capture > Tab 7 |
User-level overrides | Weflow Chrome Extension or Outlook Add-In |
Custom object sync | Contact support@getweflow.com |