The Backstory: You want an easy way to review the contacts and activities that Backstory has automatically captured and synced to your CRM. Instead of searching through CRM records to confirm that your emails and meetings were synced correctly, you open the Engagement Log. There, you can view a complete list of your recently engaged contacts, emails, and meetings, giving you clear visibility into your activity data and confidence that the right records have been synced to your CRM.
The Engagement Log provides a record of the external contacts, meetings, and emails recently captured by Backstory. Use the log to review your activity, verify that contacts and activities have been synced to your CRM, and identify any records that should not be synced. The Engagement Log also allows you to manually filter contacts and activities, providing additional control beyond Backstory's automatic content filtering.
Access the Engagement Log
These steps walk you through opening the Engagement Log in the Backstory app.
Log into Backstory.
Click the Profile icon in the top right corner.
Select Engagement Log.
Review the Engagement Log
By default, the Engagement Log displays the contacts, meetings, and emails captured by Backstory and assigned to you for the current week. To view activity for a different user or time period, use the Activity By and Period dropdown menus.
The Engagement Log is organized into three tabs:
External People: Lists external people engaged.
External Meetings: Lists meetings with external people.
External Emails: List emails with external people.
The External Meetings and External Emails tabs show the activities that Backstory has captured. The Status column indicates whether the activity was successfully synced to your CRM.
Filter a Contact or Activity
By default, Backstory utilizes sensitive content filtering to identify private or sensitive content and prevent it from being synced to your CRM. However, if you review the Engagement Log and find a synced activity or contact that should be removed from CRM, you can manually filter it using the actions in the right-most columns of the corresponding row.
Filter a Contact
Use contact-level filters to prevent future activities involving a specific contact from being ingested or synced.
Open the External People tab in the Engagement Log.
Locate the contact you want to filter.
Choose one of the following actions:
Click Stop Ingesting to create an Email and Calendar Exclusion for the selected contact. After this filter is applied, Backstory will no longer process emails or meetings that include the contact. Future activities involving the contact will not appear in Backstory or your CRM.
Click Filter Activities to create a CRM Push Exclusion for the selected contact. After this filter is applied, Backstory will continue to ingest and display the contact's activities within the Backstory application. However, activities involving the contact will no longer be synced to your CRM. Backstory will also scan your CRM and remove previously synced activities that include the contact as a participant.
Filter an Individual Activity
Use an activity-level filter to remove a single email or meeting from your CRM without affecting future activities.
Open either the External Meetings or External Emails tab in the Engagement Log.
Locate the activity you want to remove.
Click Filter Activities.
This action removes the selected activity from your CRM but does not create a recurring filter. Future activities involving the same participants will continue to be ingested and synced according to your existing Backstory configuration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I only see external contacts and activities?
Backstory only syncs external activities to your CRM, so the Engagement Log displays external contacts and activities only.
Do I need to manually filter my own contacts and activities?
No. Backstory automatically filters sensitive contacts and activities to prevent them from being synced to your CRM. The Engagement Log is primarily a review tool, allowing you to verify what was captured and synced. If needed, you can also apply additional filters to contacts or activities that you do not want synced.
What if the contact or activity I want to filter is not listed in the Engagement Log?
If the contact or activity does not appear in your Engagement Log, contact your Backstory administrator. Administrators can use the Admin Panel to create additional Email and Calendar Exclusions, CRM Pull Exclusions, or CRM Push Exclusions to prevent specific contacts or activities from being captured or synced.
Will filtering a contact affect anyone else?
Yes. Filtering a contact affects all activities involving that contact, including those of other users who have engaged with them.
Need Help?
Contact your Customer Success Manager or support@backstory.ai.