--- schema_version: "1" id: f57cffd204bb220ad2d49569b01819ebb8e6bd027c9ad013abfae27f1725f379 title: Person Accounts collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/sales/264-0-0/account_person.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: bad4b94e372ee98aef500fa734abdf629a23278811b0164453b8f5b04fa0f481 description: By default, Salesforce accounts are business accounts. Business accounts store information about companies or other entities. Person accounts extend the standard business-to-business account functionality by allowing you to store information about individual consumers. Person accounts combine certain account fields and contact fields into one record. You can use both business accounts and person accounts in the same org. products: - Sales Cloud release: "264" --- # Person Accounts By default, Salesforce accounts are business accounts. Business accounts store information about companies or other entities. Person accounts extend the standard business-to-business account functionality by allowing you to store information about individual consumers. Person accounts combine certain account fields and contact fields into one record. You can use both business accounts and person accounts in the same org. ### Required Editions

Business accounts available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

Business accounts available in: All Editions

Person accounts available in: Both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

Person accounts available in Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-sales-sales_core-264-0-0-production-enus/3c339c40-ca6c-49ba-9c6e-684be7a55f80/images/icon_note.png) Note In Salesforce Help and other documentation, the word account by itself always refers to both business accounts and person accounts. We use the terms business accounts and person accounts when there are differences between the two types of accounts. - **[Considerations for Enabling Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_before_enabling.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Keep these key considerations in mind before turning on person accounts. - **[Considerations for Using Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_behavior.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Review how person accounts differ from business accounts and contacts. - **[Prepare Your Organization for Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_prereqs.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Before enabling person accounts, prepare your sharing settings and record types. - **[Enable Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_enable.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Person accounts store information about individual people by combining certain account and contact fields into one record. - **[Optimize Person Accounts with These Recommended Configurations](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_optimize.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Person accounts are ready to go when they're enabled, but a few tweaks make them work better for your organization. The procedures listed here are optional, and can be performed in any order at any time. - **[Test Your Person Account Setup](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_optimize_checklist.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** After you enable and configure person accounts, we recommend testing your setup to ensure that it's optimized for your organization. You can use this list as a starting point. If you made other custom configurations, don't forget to add tests for them to the list. - **[Business Contact Sharing for Orgs That Use Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.security_sharing_b2c_contact_sharing.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Orgs that use person accounts can modify the Organization-Wide Sharing Default for Contacts. Modifying the Organizing Sharing Default provides flexibility in how you share business contacts, including the ability to define contact sharing rules and manually share business contacts. - **[Considerations for Using Merge Fields for Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.accounts_merge_fields_person_accounts.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** A merge field is a field you can put in an email, an email template, a mail merge template, a custom link, or a formula to incorporate values from a record. You can use merge fields in the subject and body of custom HTML templates. When using merge fields, it’s a good idea to understand how they work and what to expect in your merged documents and emails. - **[Considerations for Using Merge Fields in Validation Rules for Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.accounts_validation_rules_person_accounts.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** A merge field incorporates values from a record. You can add merge fields to an email template, mail merge template, custom link, or formula. If your person account validation rules include merge fields, here are some things to keep in mind. - **[Convert Business Accounts to Person Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_person_ba_to_pa_intro.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** There's no easy way to convert business accounts to person accounts, but it can be done. #### See Also - [Merge Duplicate Accounts](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sales.account_merge.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Keep your records clean and free of duplicates so you can reach more customers and maintain better relationships with them.")