The Salesforce integration user license has arrived! This new user license is here to make system-to-system integrations more secure and org best practices easier to maintain. According to Salesforce, an integration user license is a “dedicated (not used by any human) full Salesforce license that has a custom Profile, Permission Set, and is used for any 3rd party integrations”. Yes, this user will take up a license. However, the first 5 licenses are free! 
The Salesforce integration user license, rolled out during the 2023 TrailblazerDX, has a few key benefits:
- Security
- Reporting
- Traceability
- Cost
Steps to set up an integration user license correctly:
- Create a new user using the Salesforce Integration User License.
- Assign the Permission Set License Assignment (Salesforce API Integration).
- Create a Permission Set for the integration user (Salesforce is retiring permissions on profiles!).
- We recommend as a best security practice, configuring a separate user for each integration, so you’d create a permission set with all of the object and field permissions required for each integration:
- When you create a permission set you can specify a license so it is only available for certain licenses. However, keep in mind if you use the Salesforce Integration license, this permission set won’t have access to standard objects. For that reason we recommend leaving the license set to None here.
- This step can be tedious because you have to select every field manually but there is a Chrome Extension called Boostr for Salesforce that gives you the ability to check and uncheck all items in a Setup column!
- You may also want to set the following system permissions, (1) Password Never Expires, and (2) View Encrypted Data (depending on the needs of the integration).
- We recommend as a best security practice, configuring a separate user for each integration, so you’d create a permission set with all of the object and field permissions required for each integration:
- Assign Permission Set to the User.
A few things to keep in mind:
- You can assign custom icons or logos to particular integration users to clean up the user experience and help integration users stand out. Simply go to the user and update the profile photo.
- Not all integrations will work with the new Salesforce integration license. You won’t be able to log into the user interface with this new user type and you may not be able to assign a managed package’s permission set to the user due to permissions it contains.
- Salesforce doesn’t allow you to establish default record types through a permission set and you can’t set these for standard objects on the Salesforce API Only System Integrations Profile. Have no fear, here is a related workaround that will allow you to set a default record type for this profile on a standard object.
As always, we’re here for your Salesforce questions. Not sure how to best utilize an integration user license? Let us know by completing the form at the bottom of this page or by emailing us at booking@elevation.solutions.
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