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Revenue Grid for Salesforce Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

For users of the Email Sidebar on:

 

22 min read

 

Tip

Besides serving as a Mailbox ↔ Salesforce integration tool, RG Email Sidebar is an integral component of our premium revenue intelligence package Revenue Grid. Check this article for more information

 

1. What is RG Email Sidebar for Salesforce?

RG Email Sidebar is an app for MS Outlook Desktop or On the Web version and Gmail that brings the power of Salesforce right into your mailbox. It is a smart portal embedded into your personal email program, available from inside your email box, calendar, contacts and tasks tabs.

Note that RGES is not a standalone application: it is installed in MS Outlook Desktop, Web, or Mobile implementation, or in the Chrome browser. RG Email Sidebar provides access to Salesforce from MS Outlook Desktop, On the Web and Mobile, or Gmail / Google Workspace (G Suite), conveying all required details about to an email, task, or calendar item in real time. It allows to complete routine and advanced business communication and CRM tasks with maximum effectiveness without ever leaving your email box to navigate to Salesforce.

Hosted on secure Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, RG Email Sidebar automatically synchronizes contacts, tasks, calendar items, etc. two-way with Salesforce, also applying customized filters (views), user data access permissions, custom objects, and other peculiarities of your Org’s configuration. Owing to 24/7 server-side data synchronization, all your devices connected to your mail sever can save data in Salesforce via RGES Sync, and you can view, manage, and update CRM data via RG Email Sidebar installed on a supported platform.

After you install the Add-In and activate the Sync Engine for an email account, they become available in MS Outlook running on other configurations and devices compatible with Outlook on the Web, Outlook for Mac, iOS, or Android with the same account logged in.

RG Email Sidebar is a combination of two independent yet complementary components – a server-side synchronization engine and a client-side MS Outlook Add-In / Chrome Extension for Salesforce data displaying and conveying user input. The first part provides smart synchronization tools which allows business data to stay up-to-date across all devices capable to connect to a user’s MS Exchange, Office 365, or Gmail account; whereas the mail app allows you to process all Salesforce object types including custom ones, regulated by a set of customizable parameters.

Being a cloud-based solution, RG Email Sidebar does not require any special security roles or authorizations to be configured in your company’s IT infrastructure. Any provisioned RGES user in an Org who has an active Salesforce license and an MS Exchange, Office 365, or Gmail account can set up RG Email Sidebar without involving the local Salesforce and Exchange Admins, using OAuth 2.0 and Single Sign-On mechanisms.

At the same time, if your company’s standards require that, the solution can be effectively mass-deployed for all end users in bulk by a local Admin.


 

 

2. On what platforms can I run RG Email Sidebar for Salesforce?

RG Email Sidebar is a multiplatform cloud solution, you can run it in MS Outlook Desktop or On the Web version on Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, or in a supported web browser on any platform. The full scope of RG Email Sidebar features unfolds when it is used with MS Outlook 2016, 2019 on Windows or MacOS and in Office 365 running in a browser, however the Solution also provides solid and convenient Salesforce interaction when used on mobile devices.

In addition, it is fully compatible with Gmail mailboxes via RG Email Sidebar Chrome Extension, which you can use in Google Chrome browser or a Chromium based browser running on any supported platform on different kinds of devices.

Note that RGES user interface (Sidebar) is rendered identically in all its implementations: the “cloud” implementation in MS Outlook Desktop, Outlook.com and Office 365 as well as in the “desktop” implementation. The Gmaiil implementation (the RGES Chrome browser Extension) is also mostly identical in its look and functions.

 

Essential system requirements for running RG Email Sidebar

 

Requirements Minimum Recommended
Operating system(s) with version number Windows 7 or newer
Mac OS X 10.5 or newer		 Windows 11
Mac OS X Catalina
Hard drive free space 1 Gb 5 Gb
RAM 256 Mb 2 Gb
Processor and speed 500 MHz 2 GHz
Monitor size 13” 17”
LAN speed 1 Mb/s 5 Mb/s
Other software Microsoft Outlook 2016 and later
or a supported browser (see below)		 MS Office 365
MS Outlook 2019
or a supported browser (see below)
Server-side MS Exchange 2016 or 2019 or Office 365 (with Exchange Online)

MS Exchange 2010 and 2013 are no longer supported		 MS Exchange 2019 or Office 365 (with Exchange Online)

 

 

Supported browsers (with Outlook on the Web)

 

Outlook on the Web:

https://outlook.com
https://outlook.live.com
https://outlook.office.com/
or custom corporate MS Outlook web access URLs

Browser Supported
MS Edge (current and older versions) Compatible
See this article for MS Edge Chromium use specifics
Opera (current and older versions) Compatible
Google Chrome (current and older versions)
and Chromium-based browsers		 Full support
Firefox Compatible
Safari (current and older versions) Full support
MS Internet Explorer No longer supported due to security obsoletion


 

 

3. How can I install the Solution? Is there a trial version to try out?

Refer to the following articles to learn how to install and run RG Email Sidebar:

RGES Setup by individual end users

 

Bulk RGES Setup by local email/Salesforce Admins

 

RG Email Sidebar Trial version

There is a Trial version of Email Sidebar available for download here: https://revenuegrid.com/csm-wizard/. RG Email Sidebar Add-In / Chrome Extension is verified as secure and reliable by both MS AppSource and Chrome Web Store. The trial’s limitations: this version is identical to the full one, only limited to 14 days of use (extendable by request sent to our Sales team).

If you don’t feel like using your actual Salesforce data or Salesforce sandbox to try out RG Email Sidebar features, you may run it with sample data.

 

The free version of RG Email Sidebar Add-In

Besides the trial version which you can download via the above link, there is the Free version. This version is activated in one of the following cases: if RG Email Sidebar is installed for an email account without purchasing a license or if the license of an installed RG Email Sidebar copy expires. This version has no access to RGES Customization and Synchronization settings, and its Sync Engine is suspended.

Important

Note that technical support at support@revenuegrid.com is not available for free version users. If you would like to benefit from RG’s full support, contact our Sales team to purchase a license.

 

I’ve installed RG Email Sidebar Add-In and I’m prompted to log in into it. What login and password should I enter? I wasn’t provided any special login credentials for RGES.

RG Email Sidebar login is based on Salesforce Single Sign-On authentication, the credentials to be used is your Salesforce login and password; they are entered into the Salesforce SSO window which is opened in your browser.


 

 

4. Is data processed via RG Email Sidebar transferred and stored securely? What servers and protocols are used by the Solution?

RG Email Sidebar does not store any correspondence or CRM data processed over it, it solely transfers data between your email server and Salesforce over secure Microsoft Azure protocols with TLS 1.2 encryption; your email service and Salesforce access credentials are not kept in RG Email Sidebar, the Solution’s interactions with your email server and Salesforce are authorized via OAuth 2.0 protocol on RG Email Sidebar setup. Refer to this article for complete information on our Privacy and Security standards. Secure MS Azure datacenters involved in data transfer and processing via RGES are located on USA East coast, West coast, and in Western Europe. Note that RG Email Sidebar servers’ location does not noticeably affect processed email and CRM data transfer speed regardless of the end users’ location, since their mail servers belong to Microsoft Exchange/Office 365 or Gmail infrastructures and all data transfer is carried out on the server side.


 

 

5. Does the ongoing Revenue Grid synchronization consume much Internet traffic?

Since data exchange is carried out between your email server and Salesforce server while your local email client and the Add-In / Chrome Extension only serve to display data and convey your choices and actions, synchronization does not consume any noticeable amount of your local internet traffic. See this article for complete information on RGES Sync engine’s functions.


 

 

6. Does the ongoing Revenue Grid synchronization generate many Salesforce API calls?

No, the amount of API calls generated by RGES is not very significant. RG Email Sidebar has integrated mechanisms which prevent reaching of the daily Salesforce API calls limit.


 

 

7. RG Email Sidebar creates multiple copies of the same calendar event in on sync sessions, what should I do to fix that?

This behavior and other kinds of unexpected sync behavior usually indicate that there is other software transferring data between your email service and Salesforce API, causing data transfer conflicts with RG Email Sidebar. When you are using RG Email Sidebar there should be no other software running that performs data transfer between your email service and Salesforce API (e.g. Salesforce Lightning Sync, Salesforce Inbox, Salesforce for Outlook, Einstein Activity Capture, etc.) Running different MS Exchange – Salesforce sync applications simultaneously will cause sync conflicts and items duplication. If you encounter this kind of unexpected behavior, please check that with your Salesforce admin or, if you are a Salesforce admin, check for such software in the following places:

After you find apps which cause sync conflicts, please refer to this Salesforce Help article to learn how to disable them. Please also note that apps which use Salesforce API and do not exchange data between Salesforce and MS Exchange / Office 365/Gmail will not cause sync conflicts.

Learn more about troubleshooting calendar events duplication in this Revenue Grid article.


 

 

8. How is RG Email Sidebar priced? What subscription plans are available? Are there custom tailored solutions available?

Please refer to this article for detailed information on product plans and pricing. We also offer custom modifications of RG Email Sidebar to suit our customers’ preferences.
You may also get RGES from MS AppSource 1 or AppSource 2, or the Gmail/Google Workspace implementation in Google Web Store. In addition, please do not hesitate to contact our Sales Dept directly with any questions.


 

 

9. We installed the MS Outlook Add-In / Chrome Extension and activated the Sync Engine. What is the difference between these two components, what functions do they have?

See this article for in-depth information on the two RG Email Sidebar components.


 

 

10. Can I use the same Salesforce and RG Email Sidebar account to process messages from my corporate mail via MS Outlook Add-In and from my Gmail via the Chrome Extension?

Such use scenarios are only viable if you have two dedicated Salesforce for every mailbox. Email and calendar data capturing processes, including RGES Sync, are always tied to a specific email account. In addition, two RG Email Sidebar licenses are required to do that.


 

 

11. Things are clear about creating new Salesforce records, updating them, establishing associations among records, and searching among them… how can I delete a Salesforce object via RGES?

To prevent unintentional data deletion risks, RG Email Sidebar does not offer a direct possibility to delete an object from Salesforce, there are only several user-initiated possibilities carried out by RGES Sync engine:

 

As a workaround, to quickly delete an Email, Event, or another object directly from the CRM, you may open it in Salesforce by clicking the icon next to a business or person object related to it in RG Email Sidebar and quickly delete it directly in Salesforce.


 

 

12. How does RG Email Sidebar match specific fields of MS Exchange/O365 or Google Emails, Calendar items, Tasks, and Contacts with Salesforce objects fields?

Please see the comprehensive information on objects/fields matching patterns in this article.


 

 

13. Dedicated Salesforce Emails, Salesforce Tasks, Salesforce Contacts folders or categories in email client created by RGES Sync Engine

What are the “Salesforce Emails”, “Salesforce Contacts” folders and the custom “Salesforce”, “Salesforce Unsync”, “Tracked Successfully”, and “Error” categories created in my MS Outlook or Gmail client after Revenue Grid synchronization is activated? Why do they appear again if I remove them, even though the RG Email Sidebar is not opened or the Add-In is disabled?

These dedicated folders and custom categories are created in MS Outlook or Gmail on the initial RGES sync session; to get an email, calendar item, contact, or task saved in Salesforce by RGES synchronization, you need to move it to the corresponding custom folder or assign it the custom Salesforce category in MS Outlook. See this article for complete information.

This items handling mechanic is essential for RGES synchronization, that’s why these folders and the category are automatically re-created on the following sync session, if they were removed. These folders and the category work completely independently from the Add-In; they also might temporarily disappear after customization reapplying, before synchronization creates them afresh.


 

 

14. What onboarding materials / user guides are available for the Solution?

This Knowledge Base is the ultimate source of general information as well as specific guidelines, in-depth explanations, and administration instructions for RG Email Sidebar for Salesforce. A selection of Knowledge Base articles can be exported to .docx or .pdf documents for your specific needs, upon request.


 

 

15. Can Revenue Grid conduct RG Email Sidebar use trainings for our company?

Remote trainings as well as onsite trainings can be arranged. Contact our Support Team to request product training.


 

 

16. I’ve added a field to an object in Salesforce and I do not see this field in RG Email Sidebar, how to enable it?

To include a newly added field in RG Email Sidebar’s processing scope, follow these steps:

  1. Open your Sidebar settings.
  2. Add the field to the object’s record card.

Note: After adding a new field in Salesforce, it can take up to 4 hours for the field to appear in the RG Email Sidebar settings. To refresh the settings immediately, click Save at the top of the settings page without making any changes. This action forces the system to refresh objects and fields in the RG Email Sidebar settings, so you can work with the latest configuration.


 

 

17. Our Org uses custom Salesforce object(s) and I do not see these objects in RG Email Sidebar, how to enable them?

Please refer to this Knowledge Base article for complete information on how to add custom objects to RGES handling scope.


 

 

18. I have made adjustments in a calendar item in MS Outlook/Gmail calendar (or in Salesforce), but they did not get mirrored on the other end. How to fix that?

Calendar items syncing is carried out by RGES Sync Engine on sync sessions performed on the server side. The regular sync sessions interval is 30 minutes, however, in the latest RGES updates calendar items instant sync was introduced, so extra sync sessions get triggered on calendar items creation, updating, or deletion (if they are marked with the custom Salesforce category) – therefore these calendar updates will be synchronized in Salesforce within 1-3 minutes.

What to check if calendar item update on either side is not reflected on the other:

• MS Exchange / Office 365 all-day events which have a duration of over 24 hours a Salesforce limitation
• Series of recurring all-day events
• Calendar items set in problematic time zones

- In addition, refer to this article for detailed information on calendars syncing exceptions
- Finally, there are several customer-specific one-way synchronization options – check with your local Salesforce admin whether that might be the case in your Org


 

 

19. I use several email accounts for my business correspondence and I want to connect both of them to my Salesforce account? How can I do that?

RG Email Sidebar is based on the following fundamental principle: one email account is connected to one Salesforce account. Therefore, the above scenario is impossible to implement. For the same reason several Salesforce accounts cannot be connected to a single email account via RGES.
However, if such scenario is required, as a workaround you can set up your email accounts each connected to a separate Salesforce account within the same Org (requires an additional Salesforce and RG Email Sidebar license). The same concerns using RGES Chrome Extension for Gmail.
Also note that RGES can automatically recognize and match different MS Exchange / Office 365 alliases used for the same email account.


 

 

20. Can I use RG Email Sidebar if I use MS Outlook Desktop to work with Gmail emails/events?

This RGES use scenario is no longer officially supported. We recommend you to use Gmail / Google Workspace (G Suite) web interface and RGES for Salesforce and Gmail Chrome Extension instead.


 

 

21. A Lead/Contact sometimes responds to an email thread using one’s secondary email address (which is also registered in my Salesforce). Is there a way to save these responses in the same thread?

There is no way to get such an email properly saved automatically or via the dedicated category/folder; however, you can do that using the Save button in RG Email Sidebar


 

 

22. My mobile device/workstation sometimes loses Internet connection, can I still use RG Email Sidebar?

RG Email Sidebar collects user input (selections, actions, fields entry and so on) via their email clients – using the Add-In or Chrome Extension, and transferring of that data in real time requires availability of Internet connection.

At that, RGES Sync engine works on the server side and the mechanisms used for saving items in Salesforce over RGES Sync are more fundamental, based on MS Outlook client ↔ MS Exchange / Office 365 server data transfer. If you save an email or calendar item (also an MS Outlook Task or Contact) from your email client using the custom Salesforce folder or category, the moment your client gets connected to your mail server this item’s syncing in Salesforce will be initiated.

This way, you can mark items to be saved while offline and as soon as connection becomes available, their syncing will start. See the following articles to learn how to save items via the dedicated folder/custom category:

Emails

Calendar items

On mobile devices


 

 

This mandatory pattern is based on a Salesforce requirement, see Salesforce Help article 1 and article 2 for more information. The exception is Tasks, EmailMessages, or Calendar Events linked to a Lead, since Leads require no Salesforce Account registration.


 

 

24. Does Revenue Grid allow handling items from an Exchange shared mailbox?

Yes, most RGES use scenarios are supported for Exchange shared mailboxes. See this article for more information.


 

 

25. How to increase the size of RG Email Sidebar font and controls to make it more accessible for users with lower vision?

You can “zoom in” the Sidebar the way you zoom in web pages. To do that, click on the Sidebar, press the Control (Ctrl) button and scroll up the mouse wheel. All Sidebar components will be expanded and slightly re-arranged. To accommodate the expanded controls in the Sidebar’s pane, you can also stretch the Sidebar sideways: hover the cursor over the left-hand edge of the Sidebar so it looks like this ⇼, then hold the left mouse button and stretch the Sidebar to the left. Presently, the zoomed in Sidebar layout is not kept for different selected items.


 

 

26. I have activated Revenue Grid Sync, but Sync engine functions appear not to be working.

1. Check whether Sync is active

2. Investigate the Issues log for any errors and resolve their causes

3. In case Sync has been activated just recently and it appears to be up and running but Sync functions are not carried out, check that it was activated for the same email box as one for which you installed the Add-In


 

 

27. Can Salesforce data corruption occur under any circumstances when it’s handled by RG Email Sidebar, e.g. when my Internet connection is unstable?

Data processing and transfer via RG Email Sidebar excludes the possibility of data corruption, the only known case of excessive data creation in Salesforce by RGES Sync occurs in the situation described in the entry 7 of this FAQ article.


 

 

28. My company purchased several licenses of RG Email Sidebar. How can I manage various aspects of the Solution’s functioning, e.g. the end users’ RGES Sync and their access to Customization settings, or adjust the under-the-hood settings?

That can be done via RG Email Sidebar Admin panel. Admin panel access is available exclusively for Enterprise RGES customers. To access the panel, check with your local administrator whether they have the access URL and credentials provided to them on product purchase. Or, if you are the administrator or account owner, send us a corresponding request to gain the access.


 

 

Yes, the local Admin can selectively deploy the Add-In for everyone or for specific users or groups of users in the company. See article 1 and article 2 and this Microsoft article for details.

RG Email Sidebar can be granted permissions to work with your Org’s Exchange data via consent settings applied for:

A. For all users in the Org (Admin consent permissions)
B. For individual users to have a choice (User consent permissions)
C. The Admin sets up RGES and enables self-service access or assigns the users directly to the application. The Admin can grant consent on behalf of all users in this directory, ensuring that the end users will not be requested to give consent to run RG Email Sidebar

Tip

Also see these articles to learn more: about users provisioning in RGES Admin panel and about available deployment scenarios

 

The following mail server data access permissions settings are required:

 

For EWS mail server connection

This mail server connection type is currently the default one for both MS Exchange mail servers. See complete information on this connection type in this article. This connection type’s limitation is that it does not allow to configure data access permissions in a flexible way: it allows either all user Email, Calendar, Tasks, and Contacts data access for RGES or none. Therefore, for this connection type no limited data access deployment options are available to meet special security demands which some Enterprise environments may have. The alternative that includes this possibility is MS Graph connection for O365, see the next FAQ section for details.

EWS-specific Admin Consent permissions set (EWS.AccessAsUser.All):

>>> Click to see a screenshot <<<

 

For O365 with Exchange Online servers, individual end users approve their data access over O365 OAuth.

 

For MS Graph O365 server connection

MS Graph connection type can be configured to provide access to very different end user data types, ensuring maximum flexibility and security; however, presently, it does not support all RG Email Sidebar functions.

MS Graph Admin Consent permissions

>>> Click to see a screenshot <<<

 

MS Graph User Consent permissions

>>> Click to see a screenshot <<<


 

 

30. I’ve opened RG Email Sidebar and cannot see the icons Book Me, Time Slots, Engagement, etc. at the bottom. How to fix that?

See this article to learn how to manage the Smart Action icons via RGES Customization settings.
Besides that, note that the Book Me and Time Slots actions are not displayed if you select a meeting invite message in Inbox or Sent folders.


 

 

31. Does Revenue Grid allow handling items for an Exchange Delegated Access use?

Some use scenarios are supported for MS Exchange Delegate Access configurations. See this article for more information.


 

 

32. When I try to authorize Revenue Grid to access my Office 365 data, I get a “Need Admin Approval” error. How to tackle that?

See this article for instructions how to resolve this issue.


 

 

33. I synchronized an Outlook calendar Meeting / Appointment in Sales by mistake, how can I delete it via RG Email Sidebar?

RG Email Sidebar can delete Salesforce Events it created to match synced Outlook calendar items. To initiate deletion of a matching Salesforce Event, simple assign the custom Salesforce Unsync category to the item in Outlook calendar. The Salesforce Event will be deleted not immediately but within 1 to 30 minutes on the following Sync session.


 

 

34. How does RG Email Sidebar convey Events created or modified in Salesforce to MS Outlook or Gmail calendar?

Such Events are handled automatically by RGES Sync engine. See the following articles for all details:


 

 

35. For security considerations our company uses Shield Platform Encryption. Can we still use RG Email Sidebar?

RG Email Sidebar is compatible with some SPE deterministic encryption setups; that depends on what objects get encrypted and what algorithm is applied. Please submit a request with these details to our CSM team to find out if your SPE configuration is supported.


 

 

36. Some RG Email Sidebar elements become completely unclickable in MS Outlook (Desktop) on Windows OS. How to fix that?

The issue where important Sidebar elements become unclickable, e.g. the Save or Create button, has a technical cause on Microsoft Outlook side. Specifically, due to the ongoing Microsoft transition from the old MS Edge to Chromium MS Edge some MS Outlook for Windows versions have an Outlook frames rendering issue with MS Edge. Microsoft is planning to roll out a complete solution in a future MS Windows update.

In the meantime, follow the provided steps in this article to apply an official workaround provided by Microsoft. Also see this Microsoft article for more information.


 

 

37. What is the purpose of the Salesforce managed package offered by Revenue Grid to support its solutions? Are these mandatory to install?

There are 3 free Salesforce managed packages that we developed for our customers and keep improving to ensure full Revenue Grid components compatibility with Salesforce for a seamless integration experience. All managed package updates meet Revenue Grid Data Privacy and Security standards and get reviewed by Salesforce AppExchange specialists. Each package serves to perform Revenue Grid functions and expand Salesforce functions.
Specifically:

A. The Revenue Grid + Revenue Guide managed package. It is also used to configure Revenue Grid widgets in Salesforce interface. This package is mandatory to install in a Salesforce Org to use the solutions

B. The managed package required for unrolling all Revenue Engage functions. This package is mandatory to install in a Salesforce Org to use Revenue Engage

C. The obsolete Invisible Suite package. It is no longer used, except for specific old configurations


 

 

38. I see Revenue Grid and Revenue Grid are ever-evolving, obtaining new features and functions every several months. Where can I check the schedule of solution’s feature updates?

We unroll a major update on a monthly basis and a couple of intermediate Hotfix updates in between, see the release notes: Revenue Grid all packages, Revenue Grid Email Sidebar.


 

 

39. I want to use Revenue Grid to work with data from a Salesforce Customer / Partner Community DB. How can I do that?

See this article to learn how to configure Revenue Grid to work with Customer / Partner Community CRM data.


 

 

40. How does RGES handle data for Salesforce Customer / Partner Community users? Is the flow secure and isolated?

Salesforce Customer / Partner Community users’ data handling is performed in an isolated targeted manner that always observes the access rules set for individual users or groups of users in Salesforce. See this article for detailed information about RGES data handling for such scenarios.


 

 

41. Why do Activity Timeline and other pinned sections in RGES Chrome extension not show any data?

Activity Timeline and object sections are designed to show parsed information from Salesforce after the email is opened. Chrome extension has a state when none of the emails are opened (e.g. while viewing Inbox or Sent folders), but all pinned in Customization settings sections/objects are displayed.

This is the expected behavior, and the information will appear after opening an email as a result of the Initial Search process.