Updating a Converted Lead Record in Salesforce

This article answers a common question about converted Leads: can a converted Lead record still be modified, and what happens to it when its related Account is merged? Understanding this behavior helps you avoid confusion when reviewing Lead history or building reports based on modification timestamps.

Editing a Converted Lead

Once a Lead is converted, most of its fields become read-only by default. To make changes to a converted Lead's fields, a user needs the "View and Edit Converted Leads" permission, described above in the Description section.

Impact of Merging the Related Account

When the Account associated with a converted Lead is merged with another Account, Salesforce updates the `ConvertedAccountId` and `SystemModStamp` fields on that Lead. This update can cause the Lead to appear more than once in queries that are ordered by `SystemModStamp`.

Notes on Querying Converted Leads

• This can result in unexpected results when querying converted Leads, and may display duplicates, such as the original Lead record followed by an entry reflecting the post-conversion Account, when querying based on `SystemModStamp`.

• Keep this behavior in mind when maintaining a history of converted Leads or issuing queries against Leads based on `SystemModStamp`, since a single Lead can appear multiple times - once for each Account it becomes associated with.