Allowing Updates to Salesforce Audit Fields

If your organization imports records on a regular basis or if you are doing a one off data migration/import, it can be helpful to have the ability to map users to Salesforce Audit fields.  These fields include owner and createby and can contain historical data that you want to keep.  For example when migrating Leads, you can set the owner to the Sales Rep’s userid so the default “My<object>” lists immediately populate.  You can also set the createdby field for imports to be the Sales Rep’s if they are not the ones doing the import.

By default, the audit fields will not be available in DataLoader.  In order to see them in the mapping list you will need to configure the audit fields to be set and then create a permission set for the users that have this ability.

Configure Audit Fields:

1. Click on the Setup (Gear) icon and choose Setup.
2. Type “User Interface” into the Quick Find Scroll to the bottom of the menu list and click on User Interface.

3. Scroll down to the Setup section and check the box next to “Enable “Set Audit Fields upon Record Creation” and “Update Records with Inactive Owners” User Permissions”

4. Click the Save button.

Create/Configure a Permission Set:

1. Click on the Setup (Gear) icon and choose Setup.
2. Type “Permission Sets” into the Quick Find Scroll to the bottom of the menu list and click on Permission Sets.

3. Click the New button on the top left side of the Permissions list.
4. Give the Permission Set a Label (name) and Description. Leave the rest as is and click the Save

5. Scroll down the page to the System section and click on System Permissions.

6. Click the Edit button at the top of the page and scroll down until you find “Set Audit Fields upon Record Creation” or “Update Records with Inactive Owners“. Permissions are listed alphabetically.  Check the box next to it and click the Save

7. Click the Manage Assignments button.

8. Click the Add Assignments button and check the box next to the user(s) who will be able to set the audit fields. Click the Assign button to assign the users and then Done to save.

After the User Interface and Permission Sets are configured, you will be able to map Owner and Createdby field in Data Loader.  You may also need to before these steps to set an owner/createdby using a process or flow.