Implementing Person Accounts

Salesforce.com, Winter 15

@salesforcedocs
Last updated: November 7, 2014

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CONTENTS
About this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Useful Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Introduction to Person Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Accounts Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What is a Person Account? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Person Account Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Feature Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Converting Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Implementing Person Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Required Implementation Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Recommended Implementation Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Testing the Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Importing Person Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Import My Organization's Person Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
What Is Imported for Person Accounts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

This guide describes how to implement person accounts, which are an exciting major enhancement to the Salesforce data model. Person
accounts represent the individual clients with whom you do business. If your company operates on a business-to-consumer (B2C) model,
person accounts are a simple yet powerful way to manage the entire life cycle of each customer relationship.

Audience
This guide is intended for administrators of organizations that operate on a business-to-consumer model and plan to use Salesforce to
track their client relationships. The procedures in Implementing Person Accounts on page 8 and Importing Person Accounts on page
11 require familiarity with the Salesforce user interface and how it can be customized to meet particular business requirements.

Additional Resources
This guide is part of a comprehensive documentation set published by Salesforce.

Useful Websites
Force.com AppExchange
Visit Force.com AppExchange at http://sites.force.com/appexchange to browse on-demand apps that you can easily install into your
Salesforce organization.

Salesforce Developers
Visit developer.salesforce.com for developer-oriented resources such as toolkits, API documentation, blogs, and discussion boards.

IdeaExchange
Visit IdeaExchange at ideas.salesforce.com for information on upcoming products from Salesforce.

INTRODUCTION TO PERSON ACCOUNTS

Does your business operate on a business-to-consumer model? By default, accounts in Salesforce are designed for a business-to-business
model in which accounts represent firms, corporations, and other institutions such as nonprofit organizations. To facilitate interactions
with customers who are individual human beings, such as a client buying an insurance policy or a patient receiving medical care, consider
implementing person accounts.
Read the following sections to learn whatperson accounts are, their capabilities, and their supported fields.

Accounts Overview
Accounts are your organizations customers, competitors, and partners. Each account stores
information such as name, address, and phone numbers. For each account, you can store related
information such as opportunities, activities, cases, partners, contracts, and notes.
The Accounts tab displays a home page that lets you quickly create and locate all types of accounts,
and also sort and filter your accounts using standard and custom list views. In addition, this tab lets
you view and edit detailed information on each account to which you have access.
You can also enhance your traditional account data with your customers social information. With
the Social Accounts and Contacts feature, you can see your accounts social network profiles and
other social datadirectly in Salesforce. Easy access to this information helps you know your
customers better, so you can solve their problems and build stronger relationships.

EDITIONS
Business accounts available
in: All Editions except
Database.com
Person accounts available
in: Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

Learning about Types of Accounts for Managing Your Business

You can manage your business with business accounts and person accounts. Depending on your organizations business model, you may
use business accounts, person accounts, or both.
When you do
business with

You can use

For this type of account,

Companies

Business accounts

The individuals who work at those companies are contacts.

If your organization has a partner portal, you can create partner accounts, which
are business accounts that a channel manager uses to manage partner
organizations, partner users, and activities.

Individual consumers

Person accounts

The individuals can be people who, for example, may be a financial services client,
an online shopper, or a vacation traveler.

Note: In the Salesforce Help and other Salesforce documentation, the word account by itself always refers to both business
accounts and person accounts. We use the terms business account and person account when there are differences between the
two kinds of accounts.

Introduction to Person Accounts

What is a Person Account?

What is a Person Account?

Note: Person accounts are not enabled by default in Salesforce. To quickly verify whether
your organization uses person accounts, see if you have an option to select Person Account
as the record type when you create a new account. To request person accounts, check with
your administrator.
A person account is an individual consumer with whom you do business, such as a financial services
client, an online shopper, or a vacation traveler. Person accounts are applicable to organizations
that operate on a business-to-consumer model as opposed to a business-to-business model.

EDITIONS
Business accounts available
in: All Editions except
Database.com
Person accounts available
in: Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

In a business-to-business model, there is a natural differentiation between the other businesses

with whom you work and the people associated with those businesses. In Salesforce, that translates
to accounts and contacts having different fields, features, and tabs. In a business-to-consumer
model, because you are providing products or services to people rather than companies or
organizations, the distinction between accounts and contacts does not exist. Consequently, person accounts in Salesforce have a
combination of fields from both accounts and contacts, and can be used as contacts in most situations that involve contacts. For example,
business accounts do not have standard fields for email address and job title, but person accounts do. Also, person accounts can be
associated with campaigns just like contacts, but business accounts cannot. For details on the contact-specific functionality that applies
to person accounts, see Person Account Behaviors in the Salesforce Help.
The ability for person accounts to act like contacts is made possible by applying an account record type which has special properties.
The default name of this record type is Person Account. Your administrator may have changed the name of this record type, and also
may have created more account record types that have the same special properties.
Note: In the Salesforce Help and other Salesforce documentation, the word account by itself always refers to both business
accounts and person accounts. We use the terms business account and person account when there are differences between the
two kinds of accounts.

Person Account Behaviors

Note: Person accounts are not enabled by default in Salesforce. To request person accounts,
contact Salesforce.
Person accounts are accounts that can also be used as contacts in many situations. The following
table summarizes the key areas in which person accounts differ from business accounts or have
unique considerations:
Salesforce Functionality

Person Account Behavior

Account Merge

Person accounts can only be merged with other

person accounts. See Merging Duplicate
Accounts in the Salesforce Help.

Account Quick Create

On the accounts home page, the fields in the

Quick Create area are based on whether the
default account record type set on your profile
is a person account record type or a business
account record type.

EDITIONS
Business accounts available
in: All Editions except
Database.com
Person accounts available
in: Enterprise, Performance,
Unlimited, and Developer
Editions

Introduction to Person Accounts

Person Account Behaviors

Salesforce Functionality

Person Account Behavior

Accounts

Person accounts are accounts that support contact fields and

capabilities.

Activities

Person accounts can be associated with activities using either the

Name or Related To fields.
As with contacts, person accounts can be invited to events and
requested meetings.
For users to request a meeting with a person account, the Email
field must be added to the Person Accounts page layout.

Campaigns

As with contacts, person accounts can be added to campaigns and

have a Campaign History related list.

Cases

On cases, person accounts can be entered in the Account

Name field, the Contact Name field, or both.

Chatter Feed Tracking

When you follow person accounts, you follow the account fields,
but not the contact fields.

Communities and Customer Portal

As with contacts, person accounts can be enabled as users for your

Salesforce Communities and Customer Portals.

Contact Roles

As with contacts, you can add person accounts to the Contact

Roles related list on cases, contracts, and opportunities.

Contacts

In most situations, you can use person accounts as if they were

contacts. You can include them in all contact list views except on
the contacts home page.
Unlike business accounts, person accounts do not have a Contacts
related list. However, you can use the Partners related list to track
relationships between different person accounts.

Custom Objects

Custom objects with relationships to either accounts or contacts

can be added as related lists on person accounts.

Data.com

Person accounts are not supported by Data.com Prospector or

Data.com Clean.

Desktop Integration

Person accounts are currently supported in Connect Offline,

Salesforce for Outlook, Salesforce Side Panel, and Connect for
Outlook version 3.2 and later.

Email

As with contacts, you can send individual emails and mass emails
to person accounts.

ExactTarget

Person accounts are supported, but additional configuration is

required.

Field History

Account fields for person accounts can be tracked using the

account field history settings, but contact fields for person accounts
are configured on the contact field history settings page.

Introduction to Person Accounts

Person Account Behaviors

Salesforce Functionality

Person Account Behavior

Fields

A predetermined combination of standard account and contact

fields is available on person account page layouts. In addition, all
custom account and contact fields are available. See Person
Account Fields in the Salesforce Help.
Note that some business account fields are not supported for
person accounts, such as Parent Account and View
Hierarchy. Also, the Reports To field on contacts is not
supported for person accounts.
You can rename field labels for a person account so alternate terms
display in Salesforce.

Icons

Person accounts have a person icon ( ), while business accounts

have a folder icon ( ). The person account icon can be added to
search results, list views, and lookup dialogs using the criteria Is
Person Account equals True.

Import Wizards

Person accounts can be imported using the Data Import Wizard.

Alternately, person account data can be imported using the Import
Wizard for Person Accounts.

Leads

Leads with a blank Company field are converted to person

accounts. The default person account record type for your profile
is applied to the new person account. Note that you can only create
leads with a blank Company field using the Force.com API. Leads
with a value in the Company field are converted to business
accounts. The default business account record type for your profile
is applied to the new business account.

List Views

Person accounts appear in both account and contact list views.

Add the Is Person Account icon to list views to visually
differentiate person accounts from other records, and to include
or exclude person accounts in a list.

Mobile Configurations

Mobile configurations that include the account object automatically

deliver person accounts and business accounts to users' mobile
devices.
Person accounts can be excluded from the configuration's data
set using the criteria Is Person Account equals False. To
mobilize only person accounts, use the criteria Is Person
Account equals True. If a mobile configuration includes
accounts but not contacts, users assigned to that configuration
will see a Contacts tab in the mobile client application, and the tab
will contain person accounts.

Packaging

Person account components and attributes can be included in

managed and unmanaged packages.

Introduction to Person Accounts

Person Account Behaviors

Salesforce Functionality

Person Account Behavior

Page Layouts

Person accounts have unique page layouts that can have account
fields, contact fields, account custom links, account related lists,
and contact related lists. Person accounts page layouts do not
support the Reports To and Parent Account fields.

Pardot

Person accounts are supported, but additional configuration is

required.

Partners

You can use the Partners related list to relate person accounts to
each other. We recommend that you rename the Partners related
list to Related Accounts, Relationships, or a similar term that
reflects how your person accounts are connected.

Record Types

Administrators can configure multiple record types for person

accounts. A person account can only be changed to another person
account record type.

Renamed Tabs and Standard Fields

Administrators can customize the names of tabs and fields related

to person accounts, such as:
The Accounts tab name, the business account field
label, and the person account field label.
The Contacts tab name and the business contact field
label.

Salesforce1

For organizations that have enabled person accounts and

Salesforce1, person accounts can be created, accessed, and
managed within Salesforce1 for most features.

Search

Person accounts only appear in account search results.

Administrators can add the Is Person Account icon to
account search layouts in order to differentiate person accounts
from business accounts.

Self-Service Portal

As with contacts, person accounts can be enabled as users for your

Self-Service portal.
Note: Starting with Spring 12, the Self-Service portal isnt
available for new organizations. Existing organizations
continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

Sharing Settings

Contact sharing is not available if you have enabled person

accounts. The organization-wide default for contacts is set to
Controlled by Parent and is not editable.
If your organization has customized your contact sharing settings
and you want to enable person accounts, change your
organization-wide default for contacts to Controlled by Parent,
which removes all your contact sharing rules and manually shared
contacts.

Introduction to Person Accounts

Considerations

Salesforce Functionality

Person Account Behavior

Social Accounts, Contacts, and Leads

As with contacts, you can link person accounts to social network

profiles

Stay-in-Touch Requests

As with contacts, you can send individual and mass Stay-in-Touch

requests to person accounts.

Storage

Person accounts count against both account and contact storage

because the API considers each person account to consist of one
account as well as one contact.

Workflow Rules

Creating or editing a person account triggers account workflow

rules.

Considerations
Prior to implementing person accounts, note the following considerations.

Feature Availability
As a prerequisite, an administrator must have defined at least one account record type before Salesforce can enable person accounts
for your organization.
Person account functionality is permanent and cannot be reverted. For example, after person accounts have been enabled, the list
of account fields that you can access from Setup at Customize > Accounts > Fields will always include contact fields.
Organizations with person accounts cannot be downgraded to Personal Edition.

Converting Records
Before conversion, there must be a one-to-one relationship between each business account record and its corresponding contact
record. Furthermore, fields common to both records such as Owner and Currency must have identical values.
After conversion, the new person accounts will have unique one-to-one relationships with the contact records that formed them.
As is true for all person accounts, no other contacts can be associated to a person account.
We strongly recommend testing your conversions in a sandbox before modifying actual production data.
You can use version 8.0 or later of the API to separate person accounts into individual business account and business contact records.

IMPLEMENTING PERSON ACCOUNTS

This section contains required steps and recommendations for implementing person accounts.

Required Implementation Steps

Person accounts are available upon request for Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance, and Developer Edition organizations.
Note: Person accounts count against both account and contact storage because the API considers each person account to consist
of one account as well as one contact. Additional storage may be necessary when you implement person accounts, so you should
review your storage usage.
Enabling person accounts is permanent and cannot be reverted. If you are an existing customer, we recommend creating a sandbox
to preview how person accounts will affect your organization.
Follow these steps to get started with person accounts.
1. Create at least one record type for accounts.
2. Grant read permission on contacts for profiles that have read permission on accounts.
3. Ensure that the contact sharing organization-wide default is set to Controlled by Parent.
4. After you do steps 13, contact Salesforce to enable person accounts.
5. From Setup, click Customize > Accounts > Person Accounts.
6. Assign person account record types to profiles that require person accounts.
For more information, see Creating Record Types in the Salesforce Help.

Recommended Implementation Procedures

Salesforce recommends that you follow additional implementation procedures for person accounts. These procedures are optional;
implement them as needed for your organization's unique configuration. You can perform these procedures in any order, at any time.
Customize the names of tabs and field labels
1. Rename the Accounts tab and the business account and person account fields to reflect your business use.
2. Rename the Contacts tab and the business contact field to reflect your business use.
3. Rename the Partners related list to Related Accounts, Relationships, or a similar phrase or term that reflects how your person
accounts relate to one another.
Customize person account page layouts
1. From Setup, click Customize > Accounts > Person Accounts > Page Layouts.
2. Add contact fields and related lists to the page layout as needed.
Customize person account record types
When person accounts are enabled, a default person account record type is automatically created. You can modify this default
person account record type, and you can also add additional person account record types.

Implementing Person Accounts

Recommended Implementation Procedures

Add the person account icon to search results and lookup dialogs
The person account icon corresponds to the Is Person Account field. The icon visually distinguishes person accounts from
business accounts in account lists and from business contacts in contact lists. If your organization works exclusively with person
accounts, adding the icon is not necessary.
Add the person account icon and other person account fields as columns in public list views
Add these icons to the Accounts and Contacts tabs and for Mass Email and Mass Stay-in-Touch requests.
You can also configure the search criteria of public list views so that person accounts are included or excluded as appropriate.
Note that individual users will need to update their personal list views as well.
Customize public reports and customize public dashboards to include person account information
Note that individual users will need to update their personal reports and dashboards as well.
Add the Is Person Account field to rules
Add the Person Account field to rules such as:
Workflow rules
Assignment rules
Escalation rules
Field validation rules
Territory assignment rules
Note: When configuring lead assignment rules, create separate email notification templates for business accounts and person
accounts. That way you can show only the fields that are supported for each type of account. For example, a person account
email notification template should not have the Company field.
Customize partner roles for person accounts
Examples of customized partner roles include Spouse, Neighbor, Attorney, and Accountant.
Customize leads
Create lead record types for person accounts.
Create lead page layouts for business accounts and person accounts. Page layouts for leads that will become business accounts
must contain and require the Company field. Page layouts for leads that will becomeperson accounts must not contain the
Company field.
Note: Leads with a blank Company field are converted to person accounts. The default person account record type for your
profile is applied to the new person account. Note that you can only create leads with a blank Company field using the
Force.com API. Leads with a value in the Company field are converted to business accounts. The default business account
record type for your profile is applied to the new business account.
Convert existing account-contact pairs to person accounts
1. Create one-to-one relationships between account and contact records. In other words, remove all contacts on the accounts
except for the contact that will be converted with the account.
2. Identify the accounts that have a different owner than the associated contact. Change the ownership of either record so both
are owned by the same user.
3. If your organization uses multiple currencies, identify the accounts that have a different currency than the associated contact.
Change the currency of either record so both have the same currency.
4. Make sure the Parent Account field is blank on all accounts that will be converted. Also, make sure none of the accounts
are the parent account of another account.
5. Make sure the Reports To field is blank on all contacts that will be converted. Also, make sure none of the contacts are in
the Reports To field of another contact.

Implementing Person Accounts

Testing the Implementation

6. As much as reasonably possible, edit the accounts so they contain all desired field values.
7. Using the SOAP API, update the record types of the chosen accounts to convert them to the desired person account record type.
We recommend running a test conversion in your sandbox.
Note: The following field values are lost during conversion. To preserve the information in these fields, migrate the data to
custom fields prior to conversion. You can later expose the custom fields on a person account page layout.
Accounts lose Account Name, which is replaced by the First Name and Last Name of the contact.
Contacts lose Salutation, Phone, Fax, Description, Created By, Last Modified, and Last
Activity. Converted person accounts contain the Phone, Fax, Description, Created By, Last
Modified, and Last Activity from the source account.
Update integrations
For more information on the API, visit Salesforce Developers.

Testing the Implementation

Perform the following tests to confirm a successful implementation:
Verify that each person account page layout correctly contains related lists for any associated custom objects.
Verify that custom object page layouts correctly contain account lookup fields, if such relationships have been configured.
Verify that workflow rules involving accounts trigger correctly.
Verify that API-based integrations correctly create, update, and access person accounts and business accounts.
Verify that leads correctly convert into person accounts and business accounts.
Verify that account assignment rules correctly assign person accounts and business accounts to territories.

Best Practices
If your organization exclusively uses person accounts (meaning you never use business accounts, which have a Contacts related list),
consider giving the Accounts and Contacts tabs the same name. However, to differentiate the tabs, append a character such as a
period (.) or asterisk (*) to the Contacts tab name. For example, the Accounts tab becomes Clients and the Contacts tab becomes
Clients*.
Alternatively, modify user profiles to prevent the Contacts tab from displaying: change the visibility setting for the Contacts tab to
Default Off or Hidden.
Consider renaming the standard field Account Site and repurposing it as a unique identifier for person accounts. For example,
you could rename the field Client Number and use it to store a number that a uniquely identifies each person. By default this field
displays in many list views and other areas throughout Salesforce, and can help differentiate people who have similar names.
As leads must have a blank Company field in order to convert to person accounts, substitute a custom lead field (for example, a
custom field named Employer) to contain what otherwise would be tracked in the Company field.

10

IMPORTING PERSON ACCOUNTS

As an administrator, you can import person accounts for your organization by running the person account import wizard. The following
sections describe how the wizard works.
Note: An additional wizard not described in this guide allows individual users to import person accounts they own. For more
information, see the online help.

Import My Organization's Person Accounts

Important: Salesforce is replacing individual import wizards for accounts, contacts, and
other objects with the unified Data Import Wizard. (Individual import wizards open in small
pop-up windows, while the unified wizard opens in a full browser with dataimporter.app at
the end of the URL.) To start using the unified wizard, click Data Management > Data
Import Wizard in Setup, or click the Import option under My Settings. (The options you see
depend on your permissions.)

EDITIONS
Person account import
available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

With the Import My Organization's Person Accounts wizard, you can import person accounts that
are owned by different users. To understand how person account records are matched to prevent
duplicates, see What Is Imported for Person Accounts? in the Salesforce Help.

USER PERMISSIONS

Note: If the label for person accounts has been renamed for your organization, the renamed
label will appear in the import wizard itself and in the Tools area of the accounts home page,
but not in the Data Management area under Setup. (Renamed labels do not appear in any
pages in Setup.)

To import your
organization's person
accounts:
Import Person
Accounts

Follow these steps to import person accounts for your organization.

1. Launch the wizard
2. Prevent duplicate records
3. Specify owner and lookup relationships
4. Select record type
5. Upload your import file
6. Map fields
7. Confirm and submit your import
8. Complete your import
Note: The import wizard is dynamic; it displays different screens depending on what you are importing and the setup of your
organization.

Launch the wizard

To import person accounts for your organization:
1. From Setup, click Data Management > Import Person Accounts.
Alternatively, click Import My Organization's Person Accounts in the Tools area of the accounts home page.

11

Importing Person Accounts

Import My Organization's Person Accounts

2. For best results, perform all of the steps provided on the introductory page.
3. Click Start the Import Wizard! to begin your import.

Prevent duplicate records

1. The import wizard can compare the records in your import file with existing records in Salesforce in order to prevent duplicate
records from being created as a result of your import. Indicate whether you would like to prevent duplicate records from being
created. You must select Yes in order to update existing records.
2. If you choose Yes, then additional choices will appear:
Choose the field that you are using to match existing records in Salesforce with records in your import file. The External
ID option is disabled if no external ID fields have been created for your records.
Choose what you want to happen if matches are foundonly import new records, only update existing records, or update
existing records and import new ones.
Note: If you have chosen to match by Salesforce ID, you can only update existing records; you cannot import
new ones.
3. Click Next.

Specify owner and lookup relationships

1. Specify the field in your import file that contains person account owners.
When you choose Name, the following formats are valid:
First name followed by last name
Last name followed by first name
Alias
Username
2. Records can have custom fields that create lookup relationships with other records. If you have included lookup fields in your import
file, then check the corresponding boxes.
Note: Any related records must already exist in Salesforce before proceeding. Related records will not be updated during
your import even if your import file contains different values for fields on those related records.
3. Click Next.

Select record type

1. Choose the record type that you want to assign to the records in your import file.
2. If you are inserting new records and updating existing records at the same time, then choose whether to override the record types
of existing records.
3. Click Next.

Upload your import file

1. Click Browse... to provide the location of your import file.

12

Importing Person Accounts

What Is Imported for Person Accounts?

2. Choose the character encoding of your import file. In most cases, you can accept the default value.
3. Make additional settings depending on the setup of your organization, such as whether workflow rules will be triggered and the
language of the records in the import file.
4. Click Next.

Map fields
1. Map the fields in your import file to the appropriate Salesforce fields by matching the fields on the left, which includes all the columns
in your import file, with the appropriate Salesforce field on the right. If the column labels in your import file exactly match field labels
in Salesforce, the wizard automatically maps those fields for you. However, if two or more of your file's column labels are identical
matches with a field in Salesforce, you must map the fields manually.
Note: Some Salesforce fields cannot be updated using import, for example, the Created Date and Last Modified
Date. So even though you may be using an exported report as your import file, some of the Salesforce fields in your file
cannot be mapped.
2. Click Next. The import wizard warns you if you have not mapped all of the fields in your import file. Unmapped field values are not
imported.

Confirm and submit your import

1. Read any warning messages that the import wizard displays. Optionally, click Previous to return to earlier steps and resolve potential
problems.
2. Click Import Now! to submit your import request to Salesforce.

Complete your import

1. A message indicates approximately how long the import will take. When the import operation is finished, a message from Customer
Support will be sent to the email address shown.
2. Click Finish to exit the wizard.
3. To monitor the status of your pending import, from Setup, click Monitoring > Imports.

What Is Imported for Person Accounts?

Important: Salesforce is replacing individual import wizards for accounts, contacts, and
other objects with the unified Data Import Wizard. (Individual import wizards open in small
pop-up windows, while the unified wizard opens in a full browser with dataimporter.app at
the end of the URL.) To start using the unified wizard, click Data Management > Data
Import Wizard in Setup, or click the Import option under My Settings. (The options you see
depend on your permissions.)

EDITIONS
Person account import
available in: Enterprise,
Performance, Unlimited,
and Developer Editions

The import wizards for person accounts allow you to prevent the creation of duplicate records by
matching records according to one of the following fields: Account Name, Salesforce
ID, or Email. In your import file, include a column for the field that you are using for record matching.
Note: Your administrator may have renamed person account to another term. If so, the import wizard will refer to the new
name.

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Importing Person Accounts

What Is Imported for Person Accounts?

Matching by Name
When you select this option, the import wizard will detect existing records in Salesforce that have the same name. Note that this type
of matching is not case-sensitive - for example, names that begin with a capital letter will be matched with the same name that begins
with a lowercase letter. If necessary, scan and standardize your custom object names before performing the import to prevent unintended
matches.

Matching by Salesforce ID
A Salesforce ID is a system-generated, case-sensitive string of 15 or 18 letters and numbers that uniquely identifies each Salesforce record.
When you select this option, the import wizard will detect existing records in Salesforce that have the same Salesforce ID. Note that
Salesforce IDs are case-sensitive and must match exactly. Salesforce IDs can be obtained by running reports that include the ID field of
the record.

Matching by Email
With this option, person accounts in your import file will be matched with existing person accounts in Salesforce according to the exact
value in the Email field.

Matching by External ID
An external ID is a custom field that has the External ID attribute, meaning that it contains unique record identifiers from a system
outside of Salesforce. When you select this option, the import wizard will detect existing records in Salesforce that have the same external
ID. Note that this operation is not case-sensitive - for example, ABC will be matched with abc. However, there is an exception: if the
custom field has the separate Unique attribute and the case-sensitive option for that attribute is selected, uppercase and lowercase
letters will not be considered identical.
If necessary, scan and standardize your external ID values before performing the import to prevent unintended matches.
When matching by external ID, if the import wizard finds duplicate records, only the first three duplicate records are reported to you in
the confirmation email.
Note: Only account custom fields with the External ID attribute are available for this step. While all custom contact fields are
available on person account page layouts, custom contact fields with the External ID attribute are not available as matching fields
during person account import.

Ignoring or Updating Matching Records

When the import wizard detects existing records in Salesforce that match according to the field you have chosen, you can choose one
of the following actions:
Do not update existing records and only insert new records - If there are records in your file that are new and do not match
any existing records, then insert them into Salesforce. Also, ignore any records in your file that match an existing record, and do
nothing to the existing record.
Update existing records and do not insert any new records - If there are records in your file that match an existing record, then
update the existing record. Also, ignore any records in your file that do not match an existing record, and do not insert them as new
records.
Update existing records and insert new records - If there are records in your file that are new and do not match any existing
records, then insert them into Salesforce. Also, if there are records in your file that match an existing record, then update the existing
record.

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INDEX
Importing
person accounts 13

A
Accounts
overview 2
Person accounts 3
Social Accounts and Contacts 2

O
Overview
accounts 2

Consumers
See Person accounts 3

Person accounts
importing 13
overview 3

I
Import wizards
Import My Organization's Person Accounts 11

15