Accounts

An account is a company (or any organisation) you do business with. It's the central hub everything else hangs off:

• Contacts work for an account.
• Opportunities are with an account.
• Cases are raised by an account.
• Quotes and contracts are signed by an account.

The 4 account types

Every account has a type that drives how the rest of the system treats it:

When a contract is activated for a prospect, the system automatically promotes the account to Customer. You don't have to remember to update it.

What each account record stores

The account detail screen is organised into 6 sections:

Account hierarchy

Use Parent Account to model global companies with subsidiaries:

Acme Corp Global
├── Acme Corp US
├── Acme Corp EMEA
│   ├── Acme Corp UK
│   └── Acme Corp Germany
└── Acme Corp APAC

The hierarchy gives you:

• Roll-up reports — annual revenue of the global parent sums all children.
• Cascading sharing — when an admin grants access to the parent, all children inherit it.
• Easier navigation — from a child you can jump to the global parent.

Built-in rules

• The account name must be unique across the system (case-insensitive). You'll get an error if you try to create a duplicate.
• Annual revenue must be zero or positive — no negative numbers allowed.
• You cannot delete an account that has open opportunities or active contracts. Set it to Inactive instead (is_active = false).

Automatic updates

• Last Activity Date is auto-stamped whenever the account changes owner or type, so you can always tell when there was last meaningful movement.
• The Customer Since date is captured on the first contract activation.
• The Total Opportunity Amount and Won Opportunity Amount roll up automatically from related opportunities.
• The Open Case Count is always live, so you can see at a glance if a customer is having a rough time.

Account detail layout

When you open an account, you'll see tabs for:

• Overview — description, key contacts, owner, primary address with a small map.
• Opportunities — all related deals, grouped by stage, with the pipeline total at the top.
• Contacts — everyone at this account, with the primary contact highlighted.
• Cases — open and recently closed support cases.
• Activity — calls, emails, meetings, latest first.
• Contracts — active and historical contracts.
• Files — attached documents (logos, signed PDFs, datasheets).

Sharing — who can see which account

By default accounts are private — only the owner and people above them in the role hierarchy can see them.

On top of that:

• Active customer accounts are shared automatically with all Sales Managers (read/edit).
• Territory rules share accounts by billing country:
  • North America (US, CA, MX) → North America sales team
  • Europe (UK, DE, FR, IT, ES) → Europe sales team

Admins can change these rules — see Administration › Sharing.

Who can edit what

• Annual revenue is read-only for Sales Reps. Only Sales Managers and above can change it (protects financial estimates).
• Description is editable by everyone with access to the account.

Standard list views

• My Accounts — accounts you own.
• All Customers — active customers.
• Top Accounts by Revenue — biggest first.
• Inactive Accounts — is_active = false, for clean-up.
• By Industry — grouped.
• Recently Updated — what changed last.

Tips for sales reps

• ✅ Always set a primary contact — many flows default to it (quotes, contracts).
• ✅ Use Parent Account rather than creating duplicate accounts per region.
• ✅ Promote prospect → customer the moment a contract is signed (this happens automatically, but verify).

Tips for admins

• Adding a new industry or country territory? See Administration › Sharing and Customization › Extending Objects.
• The 6 default sections on the detail screen can be reordered or hidden per profile.