Creating Contacts and Accounts

Overview

In Salesforce a Contact represents an individual. If you create a new Contact in Salesforce and do not associate them with an existing Household Account, Salesforce will automatically create a new Account for the Contact and append the word "Household" to the person's last name as the name of the Account.

There are multiple ways to add a Contact to Salesforce:

  1. Add a Contact from within an existing Household Account (if you want to identify the contact as belonging to that Account)
  2. Create a new Contact and automatically generate a new Household Account to associate with the Contact

Before you add a new Contact or Account to Salesforce, first search for variations of the name and/or other org info to ensure that you are not creating a duplicate record.

Note that account names have a limit of 83 characters. 

Add a Contact via an Existing Household Account or Organization Account

This is the preferred method of adding a Contact when you know that they will be associated with an existing account. You could of course, add the Contact via the Contacts tab, but you will have to perform the extra step of associating that Contact with an Account. There's also a chance that you could forget to associate the Contact when using that method, and that would cause the creation of a duplicate Account.

From a Household Account

  1. Search for and/or navigate to the Household Account to which you want to add the contact.
  2. Click on the Related tab and in the Contacts section, select New.
  1. On the New Contact page, enter as much information as possible for the contact including any primary affiliations.  Note that fields with a red asterisk are required.
  2. Be sure to indicate the Preferred Email as being the Personal, Work, or Alternate Email addresses you have entered in the Contact Information section of the record. This is important to ensure that all correspondence to the individual, for whatever purpose (tax receipts, newsletters, other correspondence) are sent to the correct email address.

Note: The address must be completed if a contact is going to be the Primary Contact for any household or organization from which we receive revenue. 

From an Organization Account

  1. Search for and/or navigate to the Household Account to which you want to add the contact.
  2. Click on the Related tab and in the Affiliated Contacts section, select New.
  3. In the Contact lookup field, you can search for an existing contact or add a new contact by clicking the + New Contact option
  4. Leave the status as Current
  5. If you have a start and end date, enter them
  6. Hit Save

Create a New Contact from the Contacts Tab

  1. Click the Contacts tab near the top of the Salesforce window, then click the New button at the top right of the Recently Viewed Contacts list.
  1. On the New Contact page, enter as much information as possible for the contact including any primary affiliations. Note that fields with a red asterisk are required.
  2. Be sure to indicate the Preferred Email as being the Personal, Work, or Alternate Email addresses you have entered in the Contact Information section of the page. This is important to ensure that all correspondence to the individual, for whatever purpose (tax receipts, newsletters, other correspondence) are sent to the correct email address.
  3. To associate the contact with an existing Household Account, click in the Account Name field on the New Contact pop-up to search existing accounts. Click the Account name you want in the Search Results list to populate it into the Account Name field. Note that you cannot manually enter an Account name.
  4. If the contact is not associated with an existing Household Account, Salesforce will automatically create a new Account for the Contact and append the word "Household" to the person's last name as the name of the Account.
  5. When you are done entering information into the New Contact, click Save.

Add a New Account

Accounts can be of different types -- households, businesses, government, etc. The type of account will also impact other automations built into the system (such as tax receipting) whenever a transaction (such as a donation) is made against the account.

  1. Click on the Accounts tab located near the top of any Salesforce page
  2. Depending on your view settings, click on the New button at the top of the Accounts list
  1. On the Select Account Record Type page, choose Organization, then click the Next button. The Account Record Type should always be Organization – Household Accounts are automatically created when a new Contact is created
  1. On the New Account page, enter a name for the Account. Use the full name, no abbreviations or special characters (unless they are part of the legal name). For government accounts, follow the naming convention outlined in in the Government Naming Convention and Account Types articles.
  2. Select an Account Type from the Type drop-down list.

Creating Accounts for Registered Charities and other Qualified Donees

To determine if an organization is a registered charity or qualified donee, search for it here.  If it is a registered charity, scroll down to the Grantee Section of the account object, set the CRA Status to Registered, enter the charitable number, and enter the date in the Last CRA Check field.

If it is a Municipal or public body performing a function of government in Canada (e.g. First Nation), set the CRA Status to Registered and enter the date in the Last CRA Check field.

Note: Charities with family funds, divisions, etc. should each be set up with their own account. (see Accounts for Family Funds at Foundations) with the Grantee Section completed on each. To evade Salesforce duplication errors in these situations, please enter the information in the following order:

  • Set the CRA Status to Registered
  • Populate the Last CRA Check field and hit save  
  • Enter the Charity Number and hit save.  

6.     Populate as many fields as possible using the information you have about the Account.

7.     Click the Save button when done.