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How-to guide

How to audit Account Settings without breaking things

The audit pattern: review each toggle, confirm it matches current business requirements, document any change, deploy through your normal change pipeline. Most toggles are reversible but a few (Person Accounts) are not; treat the page with respect even though it looks like a simple checkbox list.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Founder & Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated May 18, 2026

The audit pattern: review each toggle, confirm it matches current business requirements, document any change, deploy through your normal change pipeline. Most toggles are reversible but a few (Person Accounts) are not; treat the page with respect even though it looks like a simple checkbox list.

  1. Open Account Settings in your sandbox first

    Setup, Object Manager, Account, Account Settings. Document the current state of every toggle before changing anything. Sandbox first is non-optional for irreversible toggles like Person Accounts.

  2. Review each setting against current business needs

    Walk through the page top to bottom. For each toggle, ask: does this match what the sales and service teams currently expect? Document the answer per setting.

  3. Flag toggles that need stakeholder review

    Account Teams, Contacts to Multiple Accounts, Account Hierarchy access, Person Accounts. Each of these has business-process implications. Flag them for a sales ops or RevOps review before changing.

  4. Make changes one at a time and observe

    Toggling two settings simultaneously makes it hard to attribute any new behavior to a specific change. One toggle, validate, then the next.

  5. Document changes in the change log

    Account Settings changes affect every Account and every user. The change log entry should name the setting, the old value, the new value, the date, and the stakeholder who approved.

  6. Push from sandbox to production through the normal pipeline

    Change sets, source-tracked sandboxes, or DevOps Center. Skip the pipeline only for emergency rollback.

  7. Schedule the next quarterly audit

    Add the audit to your calendar. The quarterly cadence catches drift before the team experiences it as a surprise.

Account Teamsremember

Enables the AccountTeamMember related list and reporting object. Once enabled, hard to reverse cleanly.

Contacts to Multiple Accountsremember

Enables the AccountContactRelation junction so Contacts can relate to multiple Accounts.

Account Hierarchy display and accessremember

Controls whether parent and child Accounts display inline and whether parent access cascades to children.

Person Accountsremember

Enables the Person Account hybrid model. One-way; cannot be reversed by an admin.

Default Account Owner reassignment behaviorremember

Controls whether related records (Contacts, Opportunities, Cases) follow on Account owner change.

Gotchas
  • Person Accounts is one-way. Enabling cannot be undone by an admin and migrating off requires a Salesforce architectural engagement.
  • Account Teams data and reports persist after the toggle is turned off. The related list disappears but the data remains in the database.
  • Account Owner reassignment behavior is silent. Reps who do not know whether related records follow on owner change are surprised when Opportunities move with the Account.
  • Contacts to Multiple Accounts changes the data model. Reports and integrations that join Account and Contact must be reviewed for whether they want primary or all-relations behavior.
  • Account Hierarchy view-all access cascades parent permissions to children. A sharing model that worked at the Account level can over-grant when hierarchy access is enabled.

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