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Revenue Cloud: EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION when querying AssetStatePeriodAttribute or other Revenue Cloud Advanced objects

Publish Date: May 26, 2026
Description

This article explains why queries against Revenue Cloud Advanced objects fail with EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION and how to grant the correct access. Customers describe this as: "When I try to query SELECT Id FROM AssetStatePeriodAttribute I get EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION" and "backup service on Own getting EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION since 01.01.2026 even as admin". The exact error returned is "EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION: Cannot invoke 'common.udd.EntityInfo.getName()' because the return value of 'revenue.common.attributes.AbstractTransactionalAttributeDataSourceQuery.getEntityInfo(common.udd.EntityId, common.udd.UddMode)' is null". Trigger conditions: a user runs a SOQL query, REST/Bulk API call, Data Loader extract, or third-party backup/integration job against a Revenue Cloud Advanced object such as AssetStatePeriodAttribute, RevenueAsyncOperation, ProductSellingModel, ProductRelationshipType, or ProductRelatedComponent. Root cause: these objects have OrgShareAccess set to Never, so org-wide defaults, role hierarchy, profile object permissions, and sharing rules do not grant read access — even the System Administrator profile and the Salesforce API Integration license cannot read them without an explicit Revenue Cloud permission set. This issue affects Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Edition orgs with the Revenue Cloud Advanced license, and applies to internal users, integration users, and backup/ETL service users.

Resolution

Resolve the EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION by assigning the dedicated Revenue Cloud permission sets to the affected user. Assigning a powerful profile alone (System Administrator) or the Salesforce API Integration license alone is not sufficient because the affected objects have OrgShareAccess set to Never.

  1. Identify the user that hit the error. Navigate to Setup > Users > Users and open the affected user record (for example, the API Integration user running the backup job or the SOQL query).
  1. Confirm the Revenue Cloud Advanced license is active in the org. Navigate to Setup > Company Settings > Company Information and verify that the Revenue Cloud Advanced permission set licenses (for example, Rate Management Run Time, Rate Management Design Time, Revenue Lifecycle Management) show available licenses.

3. Assign the required Revenue Cloud permission sets to the user. On the user record, click Permission Set Assignments > Edit Assignments and move the following permission sets to Enabled, based on the user's role:
- Revenue Cloud Run Time User — required for read access to runtime Revenue Cloud objects, including AssetStatePeriodAttribute [AssetStatePeriodAttribute], RevenueAsyncOperation [RevenueAsyncOperation], and ProductSellingModel [ProductSellingModel].
- Revenue Cloud Design Time User — required when the user must also read or write design-time configuration objects such as ProductRelationshipType [ProductRelationshipType] and ProductRelatedComponent [ProductRelatedComponent].
- Rate Management Run Time User — required if the integration reads rate management data (for example, RateCardEntry [RateCardEntry], AssetRateCardEntry).
- Rate Management Design Time User — required if the integration reads design-time rate management objects.
Click Save.

  1. For Salesforce API Integration license users specifically, verify that the same permission sets above are assigned to the integration user. The Salesforce API Integration license restricts standard object access (see Known Issue KI-58763), so explicit Revenue Cloud permission set assignment is mandatory.
  2. Configure org-wide sharing for related Revenue Cloud objects whose OrgShareAccess is not Never. Navigate to Setup > Security > Sharing Settings and confirm the organization-wide defaults documented for Revenue Cloud objects (Quote: Public Read/Write for Partner Users; Price Book and Price Book Rate Card: Public Read Only; Binding Object Custom Extension: Public Read Only).
  3. Clear the user's session by signing out and signing back in, then re-run the original query. For the API Integration user, regenerate the access token before retrying.

Confirm the issue is resolved by re-running the original failing query "SELECT Id FROM AssetStatePeriodAttribute" (or the backup/integration job that previously failed) as the affected user and verifying that records return successfully without the EXTERNAL_OBJECT_EXCEPTION error.

Knowledge Article Number

005385070

 
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