Account Hierarchy uses the Parent Account field to link related companies in a tree — parent companies, subsidiaries, divisions.
Common scenarios:
1. Parent / Subsidiary — "Acme Corp (parent) -> Acme East (subsidiary) -> Acme East Sales (division)".
2. Holding company — financial holding owns multiple operating companies.
3. Franchise model — corporate parent + franchise locations.
4. Account branches — large bank with thousands of branches; each branch is an Account, parent is the corporate entity.
Configuration:
- Parent Account field (lookup to Account) on every Account.
- Salesforce displays a hierarchical view — clicking "View Hierarchy" on an Account shows the tree.
- Account Hierarchy UI — built-in, with up to 16 levels.
Sharing implications:
- Sharing on parents does NOT cascade to children. Each level has its own sharing.
- For "all access on parent + children" patterns: use sharing rules referencing custom fields, or Apex Managed Sharing.
Reporting implications:
- Standard reports don't auto-aggregate across hierarchy. Use custom report types or Roll-Up Summary fields (only across master-detail, not Account Hierarchy).
- For aggregated views: build a custom field "Total Hierarchy Revenue" via flow or Apex that sums across the hierarchy.
Common decisions:
- How many levels deep? Beyond 4-5 levels gets unwieldy. Consider whether deeper hierarchy actually delivers value.
- What goes at each level? Corporate -> Subsidiary -> Division -> Branch is one pattern. Country -> Region -> City is another.
- Do parents own opportunities or just children? Affects which level the sales rep targets.
Performance:
- Standard hierarchy navigation is fast.
- Custom queries traversing hierarchy can be slow at depth — use connection-by-design rather than recursive queries.
Multi-system integration:
- ERP often has its own hierarchy. Decide on source of truth; sync the rest.
- D&B / Dun & Bradstreet's DUNS hierarchy — popular external reference.
Senior consultants resist over-modelling: hierarchies that look beautiful in design rarely match how users actually work. Validate with sales reps before committing.