Last Edit: 7/1/2025

Account

When creating an Account in Salesforce, there are a few standards that need to be employed to ensure we have clean and useful data for the Business. With the exception of CMS IDR, the following is a list of recommended Required Fields that should be added to an Account Record prior to Saving.

• Account Complete Formal Name
• Account Billing Address or Location Address (One is required)
• Account Type
• CCN or NPI or TIN (One is required for Facility Accounts)
• Checkboxes related to business unit (Task Order 3 Account, SHCA Account, etc) OR Scope of Work 13 Facility Dropdown.

Additional fields that should be completed as soon as the information is known, but not required to save record:

• Billing Address or Location Address
• Parent Account if applicable
• All Business Specific Fields
• Account Phone number

The type of Account will often require Subtypes in order to properly store and display Accounts in Salesforce.  For instance, Facility Types will request a Subtype to determine if the Account is a Hospital, Nursing Home, Dialysis Facility, etc.  More information on Account Types and Subtypes can be found here: Account Types and Account Subtypes Definitions – IPRO Salesforce Support

Contact

When creating a Contact in Salesforce, there are a few standards that need to be employed to ensure we have clean and useful data for the Business. With the exception of CMS IDR, the following is a list of recommended Required Fields that should be added to a Contact Record prior to Saving.

• Contact Formal Name
• Account Name
• One method of contact: Phone Or Mobile Number, Email Address
• Contact Type
• Contact Source – where the information for this Contact originated.
  • SHCA
  • IDR
  • HQIC
  • QIN T3
  • Task Order 1
  • Task Order 2
  • ESRD
  • NYSEQRO

Additional fields that should be completed as soon as the information is known, but not required to save record:

• Mailing Address
• Title
• Contact Relationship (if existing)
• All Business Specific Fields

If possible, information should be added to the Account/Contacts Relationship Table denoting the role of the contact for each relevant business unit.  Each unit has a role field, and the list of possible Role values can be found here: Contact Role Definitions – IPRO Salesforce Support.  It should be noted that a Role is intended to reflect the actions the contact needs to take for IPRO activities, not the person’s Title at their place of work.

IPRO Data Management

For duplicate rules to be utilized most accurately, it is best practice to standardize the data entry. The following guidelines are recommended and encouraged to be followed whenever adding information to a record.

Name: Whether it be an Account Name or a Contact Name the full legal name should be used.

Address: Addresses should follow USPS guidelines for formatting and abbreviations. Salesforce does employ a search that looks up the USPS format for Shipping Address and Billing Address, but there are times that the client’s address is different than what is recommended by the search. Use the best judgement and follow the abbreviation standards in these cases.

Phone/Fax Numbers: Enter the phone number in digits only, do not use ellipses (), dash – , or periods between the numbers. Salesforce will automatically format once the record is saved but will only do so if there are only numbers in the field. 

ID Fields: Each ID field is unique to whatever it is referencing. Please be sure to follow the guidelines of the agency that created the codes in how alphanumeric IDs are entered.

Duplicate Resolution

The process for recognizing and resolving duplicate records in Salesforce uses a combination of “exact” and “fuzzy” rules to determine if two records are referencing the same Account or Contact. An exact rule would reference something that is unlikely to change frequently and will be an exact match, such as a Formal Name, Mailing Address, or Phone Number.  These exact rules allow the system to make suggestions on what it thinks could potentially be a duplicate record.

“Fuzzy” matching is a term that is used when something looks like it might be similar, so best judgement is needed by the individual trying to review the records to conclusively determine that the records are in fact the same entity. This requires less reliance on exact matches, and more on similar characteristics. It is most used in trying to match names, “William” and “Bill” for example, or it may be used to identify data errors. “12345 Main St, Somewhere, NY” vs “12345 Main, Somewhere, NY”.

It is best practice when determining if a record is a duplicate, that two or more values can conclusively be determined as a match. By nature, CRMs default to email address as being a hard and fast unique identifier, however in practice it is not, so it is recommended that email address be used only as one piece of record puzzle.

IPRO stores several types of alphanumeric code fields referencing outside databases or national identification numbers such as a CCN, HSA, NPI, Pellucid ID etc. While these numbers may at first appear to be unique, due to IPRO business practices some of them may not be. Therefore, when looking to merge two Account records with these fields, only rely on the Pellucid ID to be unique. Two or more records may share a CCN due to billing or parenting practice, however, no two records should have the same Pellucid ID.  NPI numbers are used to uniquely identify a physician, but may also be used for all physicians within the same practice.

A combination of any required fields should be used to determine if the record is a duplicate. For an account record, that could be Account Name, Phone Number, and Mailing Address as well as the Pellucid ID.

When looking at records that seem similar but have fields with a data mismatch, a decision must be made as to which value should be kept in the record and which should be deleted. Example:

John Smith                              John Smith

Data Analyst                           Analyst

12345 Main St                        12345 Main

NYC, NY                                 New York City, NY

555.555.1254

When comparing the first column with the second, it is easy to conclude that this is the same John Smith. However, we next need to determine which of the mismatched fields should remain. Because Data Analyst is more descriptive than Analyst, Data Analyst should be selected as the title to keep. Addresses are broken out by Street, City and State, so for this you would also want to save the most complete information. You would keep:

12345 Main St from Column 1, New York City from Column 2, and then because Column 2 has no phone number, the one in Column 1 would be saved.

Once duplicate records are merged, the ancillary data connected to the records such as cases and activities will be added to the newly merged record. When in doubt on if two records are the same, or regarding which mismatched data field to keep, it is best practice to reach out to the department or person who last edited or owns the record for clarity. When merging a duplicate, all field data that is not selected to be stored will be deleted, so when in doubt, do not submit records as possible duplicates or merge them until more information can be attained.

When updating an Account or Contact, it is important to ascertain if the entry is shared with other business units.  This can generally be determined by reviewing the Roles fields in Contacts and the Business Unit Checkboxes in the Accounts Object.  If a Contact/Account belongs solely to an updater’s business unit, it is acceptable to proceed with updates.  If not, representatives from other units should be contacted to review the desired changes and confirm that their business activities will not be impacted.  If necessary, the Data Governance and Salesforce Administration teams can be consulted to reach a resolution.

It should also be noted that certain business units will be given precedence over certain types of Accounts and Contacts entries.  For instance, ESRD will be given authority over Dialysis Facilities.  SHCA may be seen as the authority concerning hospitals within New York State.

Additional information can be found here:

https://iprohealthcare.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/sites/EXTSalesforceSteeringCommittee/Shared%20Documents/General/Accounts%20and%20Contacts/Phase%202/Trainings/A%26C%20Management/Merging%20Accounts%20and%20Contacts%20in%20Salesforce.pptx?d=wfe94cc552cb746469c97f2e1b865c12b&csf=1&web=1&e=Jc3ZCY