Person Accounts in Salesforce: What are they and how to enable them?

In Salesforce, you get a business account by default. But there are two types of accounts in Salesforce, Business and Person. A Business Account stores information about business entities. A Person Account in Salesforce stores information about individual people. 

A Person account extends the functionality of a business account by enabling you to store information about individual customers. In Salesforce you can use a business account and person account in the same org.

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

 

Person accounts don’t have contacts associated with them because they already represent individual people. They have the characteristics of both accounts and contacts fields. In simple words, Person accounts are a hybrid version of accounts and contact objects. They are often used in scenarios where you directly sell to customers like in retail, e-commerce healthcare, etc.

 

Person accounts in Salesforce are designed to represent individual customers, rather than companies. This makes them particularly useful for businesses that operate in a B2C (Business-to-Consumer) model.

• B2B (Business-to-Business): In a B2B model, a business sells products or services to other businesses. For example, A large insurance company offers group health insurance plans to businesses.
  In this scenario, the business (e.g., a tech startup) is the customer. The insurance company sells a comprehensive health plan to the business, covering its employees.
• B2C (Business-to-Consumer): In a B2C model, a business sells products or services directly to individual consumers. For example, the same insurance company also sells individual health insurance policies to consumers.
  The individual consumer is the customer in this case. The company offers a range of individual health plans to cater to different needs and budgets.

Let’s consider again the insurance company, selling group health insurance plans to businesses. The insurance company can manage their information in both their business and Person accounts. Here is how it works:

• Business Account: The insurance company would create a business account for the company purchasing the plan. This account would store information, such as
  • Company Name: The name of the business.
  • Industry: The industry or sector the business operates in.
  • Number of Employees: The size of the company’s workforce.
  • Annual Revenue: The company’s financial performance.

• Person Accounts: Within the business account, the insurance company could create person accounts for each employee covered by the plan. These person accounts would store information specific to the individual, such as:
  • Name: The employee’s full name.
  • Date of Birth: Used for determining eligibility for coverage.
  • Contact Information: Phone number, email address, and mailing address.
  • Health History: Any pre-existing conditions or medical information relevant to the coverage.

In this way, Person accounts extend the functionality of business accounts. It allows you to store information about individual customers associated with the business. This is particularly useful for companies that deal directly with individuals, even if those individuals are part of a larger business.
 

To get a better understanding of the advantages of a Person account. Let’s consider the insurance company that we have discussed above. We know that by using Person Accounts, the insurance company provides a more comprehensive approach to customer management that includes:

• Personalized Communication: The insurance company can send targeted marketing messages. It also can communicate directly to individual employees, based on their specific needs and preferences.
• Efficient Claims Processing: When the companies have detailed information about individual employees, the insurance company can process claims more quickly and accurately.
• Improved Customer Service: Person accounts provide a more complete view of the customer, enabling the insurance company to offer better customer service and support.

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Apart from the benefits of using Person accounts in Salesforce, there are also some pitfalls that you need to know. Here we have discussed some common pitfalls below.

• You can’t disable a Person account after you enable it.
• Make sure that the AppExchange packages are compatible with the Person account. Check the AppExchange and contact the app builder to check the compatibility.
• A Person account uses more storage than a Business account.
  Person accounts have additional fields that are specific to individuals, such as date of birth, social security number, personal contact information etc. These fields require additional storage space.
• Some Salesforce features work differently with Person accounts. 

 

Think of record types as different categories or labels for accounts.

The “IsPersonAccount” field is like a toggle that tells Salesforce whether an account is a person account or a business account. If this field is true, it’s a Person account. If it’s false, it’s a business account.

In Person enabled org, Salesforce has one person account record type called “PersonAccount”. This is the default type for all person accounts. But you can create more specific record types within Person accounts to further categorize them. For example, you might have record types like “Customer”, “Employee” or “Partner” within Person accounts.

Business accounts, on the other hand, usually have their own set of record types. These can be based on industry, size or other relevant criteria. For example, you might have record types like “Small Business”, “Enterprise” or “Government Agency” for business accounts.

So, record types are for categorizing your accounts.
 

There are some prerequisites before enabling your Person account in Salesforce. You should review and accept the org impact acknowledgement and prepare at least one record type in your org. 

1. Review and accept the org impact acknowledgement.
2. Create at least one business account record type: Before enabling Person accounts, you can create a record type for business accounts. To do this, you can: 

• Go to Setup and click Object Manager 
• Select the Account object, then Record Types 
• Click New 
• Enter Business Account for the Record Type Label 
• Click Next 
• Select Account Layout as the page layout to apply to all profiles 
• Click Save

You can see that, now you can enable a Person account after completing all the required steps.
 

You can now enable Person Accounts without reaching out to Salesforce Support. To enable a Person account follow the below steps.

1. Click the gear icon on the right side of your org. Then, open setup, enter Person Accounts in the Quick Find box and then select Person Accounts. 
2. Follow the steps listed on the Setup page (already discussed above). 
3. Turn on Person Accounts. 
4. After Person Accounts is enabled, a person account record type is created automatically. You can also create additional record types for a person’s account if needed.
5. Assign the person account record type to user profiles.

Note: Remember once a Person account is enabled, it can’t be disabled. It is strongly recommended to test it on a sandbox preview.
 

After the Person account is enabled on your Salesforce you can make some configuration to make your Person account better work for you. These are some changes listed here that can be performed in any order and at any time.

• Rename the Business account and Person account field names according to your business use.
• If your organization uses Person accounts only, then to avoid user confusion change the visibility settings for the contact tab to “Default off”.
• After the Person account is enabled a person account record type is automatically created. You can customize this person account record type and also add more person account record types.
• You can add a Person account icon to search results. This will help you distinguish Person’s account from other accounts.
• Modify public reports and customize public dashboards to include Person account information.

 

Person accounts in Salesforce are a great asset to businesses that aim to deepen ties with their customers. You have known the benefits and considerations as well as the steps necessary for implementation.

Now, you are in a perfect position to utilize Person accounts to enhance customer satisfaction, increase profitability, and have a good understanding of customers. 
 

Intimidated by Person account setup in Salesforce? Our team of experienced Salesforce consultants is here to help. We specialize in simplifying the process and ensuring a seamless implementation tailored to your specific needs.

Click here to raise a ticket and discover how we can help you streamline your sales operations and improve customer engagement.