Account

Sample Uses for Account

Account is a standard Salesforce object, augmented with education-specific fields and record types. It can look quite different depending on how it's used.

• An affiliated Account represents an organizational entity that a Contact is affiliated with, such as a department or an academic program that it administers, a sports team, or a business that partners with your institution. 

• A container Account is either a Household Account that contains a group of Contacts, or an Administrative Account that contains just a single Contact.

Here are some common ways to use affiliated Accounts.

• University—Track academic departments, athletics programs, student-led campus organizations, technology transfer offices, and alumni associations. Track the degree programs that your undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education programs administer.  

• K-12—Within a school, track departments, programs, parent teacher associations, and organizational partners. Within a district, track your member schools, district departments, and agency partners.

• Any educational institution—Track the entities that keep your institution thriving, from administrative departments to facilities and plant operations.

Account Record Types

Learn which container Account record types come preconfigured.

• Administrative—An Account-level representation of a Contact (generally a student), in a 1-to-1 relationship. An Administrative Account contains one and only one Contact.

• Household Account—A household that a student Contact belongs to. Household Accounts typically contain multiple Contacts besides the student.

These affiliated Account record types come preconfigured.

• Academic Program—In higher ed, a degree- or credential-granting program such as a B.S. in Biology or J.D. degree. In primary and secondary education, an academic, student support, or recreational program, such as an extended day program or an after school club.

• Business Organization—An organization that partners with your institution, such as a vendor, internship sponsor, or organization in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors.

• Educational Institution—An entity such as your entire institution or individual schools within it, such as a College of Letters and Science at a university, or Valley Elementary School within the Valley School District.

• Sports Organization—A sports organization, like the Women’s Soccer Team or the Intramural Coed Hockey League.

If your implementation requires other record types or page layouts, feel free to create them. For example, a university can create unique record types for Undergraduate Program and Graduate Program, or a page layout for a University Department Account. A K-12 school can create a record type for College Prep Program, or a layout for an Academic Department Account.

Configure Account

Set up Account data for your educational institution and learn about the steps required to maintain the data.

• Initial Configuration for Account
  It's essential to understand how to manage Account data and configure related settings. Review these resources to make sure you have the full picture.
• Keep Up with Account Updates
  Consider these updates, depending on which version of Education Data Architecture you originally installed.

Keep Up with Account Updates

Consider these updates, depending on which version of Education Data Architecture you originally installed.

Tip As with all objects, verify and customize the security settings, navigation, and layouts for Contact, as needed. Follow the general instructions in Display a New Custom Object After a Product Release, keeping in mind that you're editing settings for a standard object rather than a custom object.

If Installed Before Version	Configuration Task
	Add the following fields to your Account page layouts, as needed. Billing Address Inactive Credentialing Email Create a custom field for Credentialing Identifier and add it to your page layouts, as needed. See Model Certifications and Credentials. For more information, see Add Custom Fields and Picklist Values.
	Add the School Code field to your Account page layouts, if needed.
	Add these Mailing County fields to your Account page layouts, as needed. BillingCounty Shipping County
	Add the Time Block related list to your Account page layouts, if needed.

Create Account Records

Understand when to let Education Data Architecture create Account records automatically, and when and how to create Account records manually.

• Know When to Let Salesforce Create Container Accounts Automatically
  The best way to create Administrative or Household Account records—whichever your default account model specifies—is to let Education Data Architecture automatically create the Account record for you, when you save a new, independent Contact record. Doing so helps maintain the precise relationship between a container Account and its associated Contact by ensuring that:
• Create a Container Account Manually
  When you need a container Account that's a different type than the type specified by your default account model, we recommend that you not let us create it automatically. Instead, create the Account record yourself, and then create its associated Contact record.
• Create Affiliated Account Records
  Create affiliated Account records to represent all of the departments, programs, and institutional entities that make up your campus. Typically, you create these multiple Account records when you start implementing Education Data Architecture. Later on, if while creating a Contact record you find that the person is affiliated with an entity that doesn't have an Account record yet, you can then create the Account on the spot.

Know When to Let Salesforce Create Container Accounts Automatically

The best way to create Administrative or Household Account records—whichever your default account model specifies—is to let Education Data Architecture automatically create the Account record for you, when you save a new, independent Contact record. Doing so helps maintain the precise relationship between a container Account and its associated Contact by ensuring that:

• The correct type of container Account is created, consistent with your institution's default account model.

• The container Account is named appropriately, consistent with your institution's account naming conventions.

• The container Account is synced appropriately with its Contact, both upon creation and upon future updates to either the Contact or its Account.

For details about the Account record being created with the Contact record, see Create a Contact Record.

Tip If you’re integrating data from a Student Information System, course catalog, or other external system, learn about the automation that affects imported Account data and our Recommended Data Import Sequence for EDA .

Things to Know About Maintaining Account Data

Review considerations for how to maintain Account data for your educational institution.

Account and Contact data are tightly coupled. Updating data for a Contact that has a container Account, such as recording a name change or change of household, can trigger automatic changes to the name of the Contact's container Account. The specifics depend on your org's configuration. For details, see Customize Administrative and Household Account Names.