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Full Account Assignment Rule entry
How-to guide

How to set up Account Assignment Rule in Salesforce

Account Assignment Rules in older orgs route incoming Accounts to specific owners based on criteria — "new Tech Industry Accounts go to the West Coast SMB team." Salesforce de-emphasized this for direct Account assignment in favor of Lead Assignment + Lead Conversion routing, but the page still exists for legacy use.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Apr 20, 2026

Account Assignment Rules in older orgs route incoming Accounts to specific owners based on criteria — "new Tech Industry Accounts go to the West Coast SMB team." Salesforce de-emphasized this for direct Account assignment in favor of Lead Assignment + Lead Conversion routing, but the page still exists for legacy use.

  1. Open Setup → Account Assignment Rules

    Setup gear → Quick Find: Account Assignment → Account Assignment Rules. May not appear in newer orgs.

  2. Click New Rule

    If the page is available.

  3. Set Rule Name and tick Active

    Only one Account Assignment Rule can be active at a time.

  4. Save, then click into the rule → Rule Entries → New

    Each Rule Entry routes a subset of Accounts.

  5. For each Rule Entry: set Order, Criteria, and Action

    Order = priority (1 first). Criteria = Field-Operator-Value rows. Action = User or Queue assignment.

  6. Save

    First matching entry wins. Newly-created Accounts matching the rule get auto-routed.

Key options
Order per Rule Entryremember

Priority. First match wins.

Criteriaremember

Field-Operator-Value rows + filter logic.

User or Queueremember

Where the Account goes.

Gotchas
  • Account Assignment Rules require an explicit "Assign using active assignment rule" tick on the New Account form. Without it, manual creates skip the rule.
  • Salesforce has de-emphasized this feature. Modern orgs typically build assignment via Flow on the Account or use Lead Assignment Rules (with Lead-to-Account conversion).
  • Only one Account Assignment Rule can be active at a time. Activating a new one deactivates the previous — plan staging carefully.

See the full Account Assignment Rule entry

Account Assignment Rule includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.