What Related Records Go Where with Salesforce Lead Conversion?

In the Summer ’17 release, Salesforce shared an update regarding Lead Conversion now operating the same across the Classic, Lightning and Salesforce1 interfaces when it comes to how related records and Files are handled. Essentially, when you convert a Salesforce Lead, there are four places that your related records and Files can be reattached: Account, Contact, Person Account (if enabled), and Opportunity. To help you understand this default mapping of related records and Files, Salesforce included the chart below on page 116 of the Salesforce Summer 17 Release Notes:

Salesforce Related Files and Records When Reps Convert Leads from Page 116 of Salesforce Summer '17 Release Notes

An important consideration if you have built a Custom Object which looks up to Leads is that these related records will not be reattached to anything upon Lead Conversion. An example of this might be a company that tracks Demos in a Custom Object, as has them associated with both the Lead and Opportunity Objects. Out of the box, upon conversion, a Demo record associated with a Lead would not be reattached to the corresponding Opportunity. The information is effectively lost, similar to what happens in Lead Conversion when Custom Fields are not mapped using Map Lead Fields. In this case, however, it is possible to reattach related records and files that are converted by writing and deploying an Apex Trigger.

Over the years, the Convert Lead page in Salesforce Classic has been one of the worst pages in the system. We can not edit the Page Layout directly, and the default behaviors are dumb at best (ie creating an Opportunity by default and making it look like creating a Task is required). It is possible to override the Convert Lead button to redirect to a custom Lead conversion page, in which we can specify the behaviors you want. This requires involving a developer, to create the appropriate behavior in Classic, Salesforce1 and Lightning using Apex Triggers, Visualforce Pages, or Lightning Components. Need more tips on Salesforce Leads or other implementations? We can help.

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August 30, 2017

David Carnes - Founder & CEO

about the author

David Carnes

David’s role as Chairman & Chief Digital Evangelist is centered around driving meaningful client engagement and business development. The key to this is serving as an advisor to OpFocus’ SaaS clients as they scale their revenue operations and embrace digital transformation.

In his early career, David worked in IT and operations for software companies, developing an interest in CRM, marketing automation, and analytics while building out systems, processes, data, and reporting for the business teams he supported. He earned a Masters in Software Engineering and credits a Harvard summer class in database management for opening his eyes to what systems could do to support operations. In founding OpFocus in 2006 David took another step toward focusing on business operations, seizing on Salesforce’s vision and never looking back.

David is a frequent speaker at Salesforce and Salesforce community events around the world, mentors through the Trailblazer Mentorship Program hosts Dashboard Dōjō, and serves as a Platform Champion and a Pi-TaP board member. Due to his involvement in the trailblazer community, David’s recently been awarded the position of Salesforce MVP!