Account Settings
Account Settings is a Setup page where administrators configure organization-wide defaults for the Account object.
Definition
Account Settings is a Setup page where administrators configure organization-wide defaults for the Account object. Options include enabling or disabling Account Teams, allowing users to relate a Contact to multiple Accounts, and controlling whether Account hierarchies display in the Account record detail.
In plain English
“Here's a simple way to think about it: Account Settings is a small page of toggles that decide how the Account object behaves across the whole org - whether you can link a Contact to multiple Accounts, whether Account Teams exist as a feature, whether the hierarchy shows up. Tiny page, big impact.”
Worked example
The admin at Pinnacle Logistics opens Account Settings in Setup to enable the "Allow users to relate a contact to multiple accounts" feature. This lets the sales team associate a single Contact, such as a consultant who works with several vendors, to multiple Account records without creating duplicate Contact entries.
Why Account Settings shape every Account record's behavior
Account Settings is one of the smallest pages in Setup but one of the most consequential. The handful of toggles here decide whether your reps can put a Contact on more than one Account, whether Account Teams are even available as a feature, and whether the Account hierarchy shows up next to a record. Flip the wrong switch and you can break a workflow your sales team has been building around for years.
The reason to know this page is that it is where org-wide assumptions about the Account object live. If a salesperson asks why they can't link the same Contact to a parent and child Account, the answer is almost always here. If a Customer Success leader is rolling out account-team-based reporting for the first time, this page is the first stop. Many admins only visit Account Settings once during initial setup; treating it as a periodic review surface - every release, after every business model change - saves the costly conversation that starts with "wait, since when was that turned off?"
How to set up Account Settings
Account Settings is the org-wide configuration page for the Account object — toggles for Account Teams, Person Accounts, Account Hierarchy display, and a handful of related options. Most are one-time decisions made early in an org's life; some are one-way enablements.
- Open Setup → Account Settings
Setup gear → Quick Find: Account Settings → Account Settings.
- Click Edit
Top-right of the page.
- Tick Account Teams to enable team selling on Accounts
Allows the Account Team related list. Disabling later is a destructive operation — wizard exists but plan carefully.
- Tick Person Accounts to enable Person Accounts
**One-way** decision. Once enabled, can never be disabled. Adds a Person Account record type to the Account object.
- Configure Account Hierarchy display options
How parent-child Account hierarchies appear in lists and reports. Defaults to standard tree view.
- Configure Contacts to Multiple Accounts
When ticked, Contacts can have multiple Account relationships — Account Contact Relationship object becomes editable.
- Save
Settings apply immediately. Some changes (like Person Accounts) trigger background re-indexing.
Toggle. Enables Team Selling on Accounts.
**One-way enablement**. Adds a Person Account record type.
Tree depth, default expanded levels.
When ticked, Contacts can be on multiple Accounts (via Account Contact Relationships).
- Person Accounts is a one-way enablement. Once on, you cannot disable it. Test thoroughly in a sandbox before flipping in production.
- Account Teams disabling is technically possible via a wizard but destroys all Account Team Member records. Plan as a destructive operation.
- Contacts to Multiple Accounts is the gateway to a different sharing model. Enabling adds the Account Contact Relationship object — your sharing rules and reports may need updates.
How organizations use Account Settings
After acquiring two regional distributors, the admin enabled "Allow users to relate a Contact to multiple Accounts" so field reps could associate shared independent contractors to both subsidiaries without duplicating Contact records. Within a quarter, the duplicate-Contact backlog dropped from ~4,000 to under 200, and pipeline reporting on the consolidated channel finally tied out to finance.
Disabled "Show Account Hierarchy on Account Details" after a failed merger left orphaned hierarchy nodes that confused the patient-services team. Hiding the hierarchy from the layout while the data team rebuilt the parent-child relationships in a sandbox kept frontline reps focused on the records they could trust.
Toggled "Enable Account Teams" as part of rolling out their new commercial-banking RACI model, then locked the feature in their org's change-management policy so disabling it would require a change-advisory board review-an answer to the prior incident where an admin disabled it during a clean-up sprint and produced 700 orphaned team-member rows.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Account Settings.
- Enable Contacts to Relate to Multiple AccountsSalesforce Help
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Account Settings.
Test your knowledge
Q1. In which area of Salesforce would you typically find Account Settings?
Q2. What is the primary benefit of Account Settings for Salesforce administrators?
Q3. Can a Salesforce admin configure Account Settings without writing code?
Discussion
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