Working with Owner Assignment Rules

What are Owner Assignment Rules?

Definition

Owner Assignment Rules enable you to create rules to automatically assign owners to new data records. 

How can I use Owner Assignment Rules?

When a new record is created in the system, Owner Assignment Rules automatically assign the new record to an owner based on the rules you've created in the system. 

Where can I find Owner Assignment Rules?

Owner Assignment Rules are located in CRM Setup.

From the Main Menu, click My Profile > App Setup > CRM Setup > Owner Assignment Rules

Navigating Owner Assignment Rules

You are looking at a screenshot of Owner Assignment Rules:

Figure 1. Owner Assignment Rules. 

How can I use Owner Assignment Rules?

What are some common examples of Owner Assignment Rules?

As you begin working with Owner Assignment Rules, you must decide what kind of rules you want to create. How will new records be assigned owners? Companies often create one kind of rule for each type of owner assignment.

Some common Owner Assignment Rules include the following:

• Owner Assignment Rules based on Record Creator: Assign User who created the [ Record Type ] as the Owner.
• Owner Assignment Rules based on Sales Division Owner: Leads inherit the owner of Sales Division to which they are assigned.
• Owner Assignment based on Activity Creator: Assign User who created the Activity as the Activity Owner.

How do Owner Assignment Rules work?

• Lead Assignment Rules and Opportunity Assignment Rules run before Owner Assignment Rules.
• Not all Data Records have owners. Data Records may have multiple owners, single owners, or no owners. (See Owner Assignment Type below.)
• Each rule must specify a child data type. The child data type specifies the record type being assigned an owner. A rule will not be evaluated if the new record is of a different data type.
• When a new record is created, Owner Assignment Rules will run, in order, until one of them finds matching criteria and assigns the record to an Owner.
• Rules with a lower order value will run before rules with a higher order value. For example, Rule 1 will run before Rule 2.  Rule 2 will run before Rule 3, and so on.
• If no rules are able to find matching criteria, then the new record can't be assigned to an owner. (We recommend creating a "Catch All Rule" as the last rule in your system to be sure all records are assigned an owner.)
• Only rules marked "active" will run.
• Active rules are validated when saved.
• If they are not valid, they will not be able to be saved until they are fixed or marked inactive. 

Tips for using Owner Assignment Rules

• After configuring your Owner Assignment Rules, create a test record for each of the new Owner Assignment Rules you've created. Run the Record through the system to make sure the Record is correctly assigned. If the Record is not correctly assigned, return to this section and adjust your rules. When you are finished, remember to delete the test Record.
• Create a "Catch All Rule" as the last rule in your system. If the data record doesn't meet the criteria for any of the configured rules, the record will still be assigned an owner and not fall through the cracks. 

How can I create a New Owner Assignment Rule?

Click Add New Rule to add a new owner assignment rule.

1. Select the Child Type from the pick list. For what kind of data record (child) are you creating an Owner (parent)? 

The following chart lists the Child Types and maximum number of owners each child type can be assigned.

2. Select the rule type. The rule will look for an Owner that satisfies all of the rule terms and, if it finds any, will assign the record to that Owner. 

There are four types of rules that can be created:

• Rules that use terms comparing the record's field values to the field values of all Owner records. (The record's fields can also be compared to static values). The rule will look for fields on a child type that match fields on a user. 
• Rules where the user picks a specific Owner to use as parents. The rule terms will compare field values of the record to static values. The owner is specified. Is the child valid for the rule? If so, the the child is assigned.
• Rules where the selected Owner will be the user that created the record. If the child is valid for the rule, whoever made the child record is the record owner. 
• Rules where you choose a parent type.  The rule will locate parents of that type above the new record. It will then look for Owners directly above those records. Any owners that are found will also become owners of the new record. This Rule works well for Sales Divisions.

Tip: The fourth type does not take any rule terms. The second and third types can also be created without any rule terms. These rules will always be considered satisfied, so the assignment will always occur if the rule is evaluated. This can be useful as a "default" rule, to ensure that all eligible records get assigned to some Owner. (Give this kind of rule a large "order" value, to ensure it runs only after all other rules have failed). 

3. Click OK to confirm your selections. 

You are looking at a screenshot demonstrating how to Create a New Owner Assignment Rule:

Figure 2. Creating a New Owner Assignment Rule. 

How can I Create the Rule Term?

Use the following steps to create the rule term:

1. Select the Account Field from the pick list.
2. Select the Operator (only operators that work with your selected Account Field will be shown):
   1. =   (an exact match)
   2. ≠   (show results that don't have the value you enter)
   3. is contained in (show results that are contained within a specific value)
   4. contains  (use for fields that include your search string, but sometimes include additional information)
   5. > (greater than)
   6. ≥ (greater than or equal to)
   7. < (less than)
   8. ≤ (less than or equal to)
3. Select either User Field or Value. 
4. Enter the User Field or Value.

Let's look at an example of creating a rule term that assigns the user who created the new record as the record owner.

You are looking at a screenshot that documents how to Create the Rule Term:

Figure 3. Creating the Rule Term.