Skip to main content

​
Overview

Standard Salesforce lets a Contact belong to only one Account (Contact.AccountId). The Affiliations for Base Salesforce accelerator adds a dedicated junction object, FS_Affiliation__c, so you can track many-to-many relationships — an employee at more than one organization, a partner or supplier relationship between two Accounts, or a family relationship between two Contacts — each with a role, a date range, and a status. It targets organizations on base Salesforce (not Fonteva or NPSP) that need relationship history, not just a current snapshot. This accelerator is not installed by default with fusionCore — it’s an add-on package installed separately.
The current version verified against source is 1.0.1. Confirm the version installed in your org before relying on details below.

​
Key Concepts

  • Affiliation (FS_Affiliation__c) — one relationship record, in one of three shapes set by its record type: Account to Contact (roles: Admin, Employee, Manager), Account to Account (Partner, Supplier), or Contact to Contact (Spouse, Parents).
  • Every affiliation carries a FS_Start_Date__c, an optional FS_End_Date__c, and a FS_Status__c (Active, Past, Future) that a nightly batch job keeps current based on those dates.
  • FS_Is_Default__c marks a Contact’s one “home” affiliation — the automation keeps this in sync with the Contact’s standard AccountId.
  • FS_Is_Primary_Account__c / FS_Is_Primary_Contact__c mark the primary Account for a Contact, or the primary Contact for an Account (synced to Account.FS_Primary_Contact__c).
Automatic syncing (primary/default flags, the write-back to Contact.AccountId, and the nightly activation batch) only runs for the Account to Contact record type. Account-to-Account and Contact-to-Contact affiliations are data-model only — their status still updates, but nothing else syncs automatically.

​
Prerequisites

  • A “bucket” Account already created in your org — a generic holding Account for Contacts that lose their active primary affiliation.
  • The package ships no permission set. Plan to grant Create/Read/Edit/Delete on FS_Affiliation__c and its fields, plus access to the three record types, to any profile or permission set that needs it.

​
How to Configure

1

Set the bucket Account

Open the Custom Metadata record Affiliations Accelerator Settings (FS_Affiliations_Accelerator_Settings__mdt, Setup → Custom Metadata Types → Affiliations Accelerator Settings → Manage Records) and set FS_Bucket_Account_ID__c to the real Account Id you created above. The shipped record ships with a placeholder Id from the build org — leaving it unchanged breaks re-parenting when a Contact’s primary affiliation expires.
2

Decide the sync behavior

On the same settings record, set:
  • FS_Use_Default_Account__c — checked to keep a Contact’s AccountId following its default affiliation’s Account; unchecked to fall back to the bucket Account instead.
  • FS_Support_Primary_Contact__c — checked to write affiliation changes back to Account.FS_Primary_Contact__c and Contact.AccountId.
  • FS_Support_Affiliation_Creation__c — checked to auto-create an affiliation record whenever a Contact is inserted with an Account, or Account.FS_Primary_Contact__c / Contact.AccountId is edited directly.
  • FS_Default_Relationship__c and FS_Batch_Size_for_Nightly_Job__c (keep this between 1 and 200).
3

Grant access

Assign Create/Read/Edit/Delete on FS_Affiliation__c, its fields, and the three record types to the relevant profiles or permission sets. Assign the four shipped page layouts (one general, one per record type) to match.
4

Expose affiliations on Account and Contact pages

Add the Affiliations related lists and the Account.FS_Primary_Contact__c field to your Account and Contact page layouts, and add the FS_Affiliation__c tab to the relevant app.
5

Confirm the nightly batch is scheduled

On a managed-package install, FS_Affiliation_InstallScripts automatically schedules FS_AffiliationsBatch nightly at 1 AM (job name FS_Affiliation_Nightly01). If your team deployed this as unmanaged source instead of installing a package, the install script never runs — check Setup → Scheduled Jobs and schedule FS_AffiliationsBatch manually if it’s missing.

​
Limitations and Common Pitfalls

  • Parent Account and Child Contact are locked after creation. Once both are set on an affiliation, you can’t change them — create a new affiliation instead of editing an existing one.
  • A default affiliation can’t be deactivated directly. Un-flag FS_Is_Default__c first if you need to expire a Contact’s default affiliation.
  • You can’t resurrect an expired affiliation by editing its status. If FS_End_Date__c is in the past, change the dates — moving the status field back to Active or Future is blocked.
  • Primary flags are locked during a status change. You can’t toggle FS_Is_Primary_Account__c / FS_Is_Primary_Contact__c in the same edit that expires or defers an affiliation.
  • The nightly batch only activates and deactivates Account-to-Contact affiliations, and only those with both a Parent Account and Child Contact populated — it does not touch Account-to-Account or Contact-to-Contact records.
  • FS_Batch_Size_for_Nightly_Job__c isn’t range-validated. A non-numeric value falls back to 50, but an out-of-range number (for example, over 200) is accepted as-is — keep it between 1 and 200 yourself.