Enabling the feature and adding the related list to page layouts takes about ten minutes. The judgement call comes later, when you decide which roles your business actually tracks.
- Turn on multi-Account relationships
Setup, Feature Settings, Sales, Account Settings, then check Allow Users to Relate a Contact to Multiple Accounts. Save. The button to add an indirect Contact now appears on Account page layouts.
- Add the Related Contacts component
On the Account Lightning record page, add the Related Contacts component, or the related list if the org is still on Classic. This is the list that shows direct and indirect Contacts side by side.
- Configure the Roles picklist
Setup, Object Manager, Account Contact Relationship, Fields, Roles, Picklist Values. Start narrow. Three to five roles is enough. Add more only when reporting demands it.
- Review sharing on the AccountContactRelation object
Setup, Sharing Settings. AccountContactRelation defaults to Controlled by Parent. If sales teams complain they cannot see indirect Contacts, add a sharing rule from Account ownership to the junction.
- Train users to use Add Relationship, not new Contacts
The most common mistake is creating a new Contact at every Account. Train reps to search first, then click Add Relationship if the person already exists somewhere in the org.
- Disabling the feature after going live is effectively impossible without deleting all indirect ACR rows first. Plan as if the switch is one-way.
- Standard report types do not cover indirect relationships. Build a custom report type before promising the data to a stakeholder.
- Sharing for indirect Contacts is separate from Account sharing. Add explicit rules or indirect Contacts will be invisible to teams that own the related Account.
- OpportunityContactRole and AccountContactRelation answer different questions. One tracks deal involvement, the other tracks ongoing affiliation. Do not try to merge them.