Mastering Salesforce Person Account

Mastering Person Account

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini Lead Salesforce Architect fcathala@gmail.com @fcathala

Salesforce Solution Design in a B2C World

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini UK

Salesforce Lead Architect

Twitter: @fcathala

Blog: fcathala.com

Newsletter: news.fcathala.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fcathala

Introduction

As an out-of-the-box feature it is a critical design component

Still there’s a trend to avoid PA...

• Some think it’s over-engineered, too complex BUT there is a reason for that

• In our growing ecosystem, some new comers just don’t get it BUT we can explain

• Some old posts comment on the (old) “Cons” BUT PA has changed a lot in recent years...

PA, the Sitting Duck...Why this Session?

Why this Session?

Part I – Under The Hood

Problem

Solution

Activation

Setup

Behaviour

Transformation

Part II – Design Time

Alternatives

Pros & Cons of PA

Tips & Tricks

Roadmap

Part III – Annex

Conversion

IdeaExchange

Resources & References

Part IV – Q&A

Agenda

Under The Hood

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini Lead Salesforce Architect fcathala@gmail.com @fcathala

In 1999 Salesforce started as a CRM/SFA focused on B2B customers

Opening the door to B2C customers meant redesigning a core part of the application

A Little Bit of HistoryProblem

The new B2C model must be backward compatible (Salesforce + AppExchange)

Problem

Account

Contact

Opportunity

Campaign

Case

Lead

Backward Compatibility

Winter '07 introduces "Person Account"

• 1-to-Many relationship reduced to 1-to-1 relationship

• Contact fields accessible at Account level

• Switch via Record Types

Solution

PAAccount

Contact

Opportunity

Account

ContactLead

Campaign

1 Account record and 1 Contact record are merged into an extended Account record

Solution

Prepare your org

• Create an Account Record Type for Business Accounts

• Set the Contact OWD to "Controlled by Parent"

• Give at least "Read" permission on Contact to all Profiles that have at least "Read" permission for Account

Log a case with Salesforce Tech Support(https://help.salesforce.com/mysuccesshub?id=solutionFinder)

Open a Case with Salesforce Tech Support (https://goo.gl/rkuBen)

Activation

The standard data model around Account and Contact will be modified forever

Before Activation

1 RT:

• Business Account

After Activation

2 RTs:

• Business Account

• Person Account

Activation Setup Menu

Before Activation

~37 standard Account fields

Custom Account fields

After Activation

Most standard Account fields except:

• ParentId (not available on RT = PA)

New standard Account fields:

• Record Type

• IsPersonAccount

• PersonContactId

All custom Account fields

Activation Account Object, Account Fields

Before Activation

~46 standard Contact fields

Custom Contact fields

After Activation

Most standard Contact fields except

• ReportsTo

• Phone

• Fax

• Description

• System fields

All Contact custom fields

• API name suffix = "__pc" (instead of "__c")

Activation Account Object, Contact Fields

Before Activation

~46 standard Contact fields

Custom Contact fields

After Activation

All standard fields

New standard field

• IsPersonAccount

All custom fields

Activation Contact Object, Contact Fields

When activated make sure you assign a PA Record Type to whichever Profile needs to use it

Edit Profiles Accounts SettingsSetup

Depending on your config, users will either:

• Only create Business Accounts

• Only create Person Accounts

• Have the choice to create BA or PA record

Creating a New Account RecordBehaviour

Profile > Record Type > Page Layout > Fields & Related Lists

Person Account always behave like an Account and sometimes behave like a Contact

• Records appear in both Account and Contact List Views

• Records do not show on Contact Recently Viewed List (it opens as an Account not a Contact)

• Additional examples: https://goo.gl/1njvJs

Leads convert to PA if Company field is empty

Behaviour

Design Time

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini Lead Salesforce Architect fcathala@gmail.com @fcathala

Contact without Account

Only accessible by owner and View All users by default

Reporting require a Custom Report Type (https://goo.gl/DtkkZD)

Suggested use case: Avoid!

Private ContactsAlternatives

Account

Contact

Opportunity

Campaign

Case

Lead

1 Account record org wide (the bucket) and all Contacts stored as its children

Allow B2B and B2C running in parallel

Clear separation Companies (Accounts) vs, People (Contacts)

Suggested use case: Service Cloud implementation without plan to use Sales Cloud

The bucket modelAlternatives

Account

Contact

Opportunity

Campaign

Case

Lead

Accounts are representing families made of 1 or several members

Lead conversion can be an issue (Company name = ?)

Suggested use case: Solution managing interactions with various member of a same family

The household modelAlternatives

Account

Contact

Opportunity

Campaign

Case

Lead

Heavy duty AppExchange modules targeting NPO

1-to1 and household models available

Bending the package for traditional business use can be painful

Trailhead: https://goo.gl/9evorP + https://goo.gl/gjU37S

Suggested use case: Non profit organisations

The Non Profit Starter Pack v3Alternatives

Account

Contact

Opportunity

Campaign

Case

Lead

Lot of bespoke work to replace an out-of-the-box capability

Limited integration with Sales or Service Cloud

Although apparently used in the Financial Services and Health Clouds

Suggested use case: App Cloud solution with no plan to roll Sales/Service Cloud

Custom objectAlternatives

People

Custom 2

Custom 1Custom 4

Custom 3

Simple paradigm for the user

"An Account is the entity we are doing business with, should it be individuals or companies"

Allows B2B to run in parallel with B2C

Out-of-the-box

• Officially supported

• Compatible with existing solutions

• Benefits from future enhancement from Salesforce

Pros (1/1)Pros & Cons of Person Account

PA support is often late on the Roadmap

• Process Builder (Summer 15)

• Platform Encryption (Winter 16)

• Duplicate Management (Planned)

• Lightning Experience (Work In Progress)

Double Count (*)

• Typical record size in Salesforce = 2 KB. Record size for Person Account 2 x 2 KB = 4 KB

Cons (1/2)Pros & Cons of Person Account

(*) On the roadmap / #SafeHarbor

No Undo (*)

• Cannot be deactivated.

Limited AppExchange support

• Some AppExchange don't support PA

Mixing B2B and B2C comes with compromises

• 2 Account Types but 1 Security Model = Contacts stuck with Controlled by Parent even for Business Accounts

• 2 Account Types but 1 Tab name = cannot call BA records "Customers" and PA records "Consumers"

Cons (2/2)Pros & Cons of Person Account

(*) On the roadmap / #SafeHarbor

Design as if you were planning to roll-out Business Account as well

• Account custom fields on Account

• Contact custom fields on Contact (even if now accessed via the Account page)

If only using Person Account, simply the UI and remove the Contact tab

When creating a PA record from the API forget about the Contact record, just set the RT correctly

Tips & Tricks

Mixing B2B and B2C requires caution

• 2 Account Types with different fields BUT 1 Business Logic = include tests on "IsPersonAccount"

Tips & Tricks

Business Account Person Account

Workflow Rules, Flow, Process Builder

You can now access the Person Account fields on Formulas and Cross-Object Formulas

Tips & Tricks

Use field "IsPersonAccount" in Views to show a PA icon

Tips & Tricks

Full Lightning Experience Support

Eliminate Double Storage Count

Admin Enable/Disable PA

Duplicate Management

Roadmap

#SafeHarbor

Insight for PA

New Data Import Wizard

PA as Shared Contacts

Roadmap

#SafeHarbor

Keep an eye on "Shared Contacts" (Pilot)

Annex

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini Lead Salesforce Architect fcathala@gmail.com @fcathala

Conversion between Business and Person Account is possible

• Via Data Loader: https://goo.gl/RV8JtJ

• Via Process Builder & Headless Flows: http://goo.gl/DZwGRI

Conversion

Adding a "Person Account" filter in the AppExchange: https://goo.gl/NLMyyE via

Enable Duplicate Management on "Person Account": https://goo.gl/yqdUT2 via

"Person Account" shouldn't require double storage: https://goo.gl/6cB0zd via

Enable "Person Account" for all editions: https://goo.gl/niYFYo via

IdeaExchange

Vote for your favourite Community Idea (https://goo.gl/YhwjqE)

Salesforce PDF - Setting Up Person Accountshttp://goo.gl/k18HiK + Extract on behaviour: https://goo.gl/w2fFZ6

Salesforce Community - Salesforce People Chatter Grouphttps://goo.gl/2yckUN

Salesforce Community - Person Account in Spring '16

https://goo.gl/Te3IU1

Salesforce.org – NPSP & Account Models

https://goo.gl/P3b7CO

Jeff Douglas - Working with Person Accounts in Salesforce.comhttp://goo.gl/jY18m (June 2010)

Resources & References

Q & AContinue the conversation on Twitter:#iLikePA

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini Lead Salesforce Architect fcathala@gmail.com @fcathala

Thank You

Fabrice Cathala Capgemini Lead Salesforce Architect

fcathala@gmail.com @fcathala

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