Account Assignment Rule and Rule Criteria

(account_rule__aln, account_rule_criteria__aln)

Included in this section:

  • Account Rule and Inheritance
  • Basic and Account Hierarchy Rules

    • Account Rule Criteria

    Validating Rules and Assignments for Send to CRM

Account Rule and Inheritance

A Rule identifies the attributes of an Account, the Account's Address, or the Account's Hierarchy which qualify the Account to be assigned to a Territory. The evaluation of the Account Rule determines when the Account assignment is created and updated. The assignment’s life is impacted by the frequency of Account updates, Territory assignment updates (such as Geo assignments), and the Account Rule evaluation. This is controlled by the user.

An Account Rule can be assigned to a Field Force or a Territory, but not both. This is referred to as a Field Force Rule or Territory Rule. During Rule evaluation, the Territory assigned to a Field Force inherits the Field Force Rule. Each Rule has a Detail and Criteria section combined to make up the Rule. The Field Force Rule's Detail and Criteria are applied to the Territory as if they are a Territory Rule.

It is considered best practice to give each Rule a unique name to distinguish it from other Rules.

Basic and Account Hierarchy Rules

Two types of Rules are supported: Basic Rules, and Account Hierarchy based Rules. Basic rules apply criteria to the universe of Align Accounts to create assignments between their Territories and Accounts matching the rule's criteria. Account Hierarchy rules apply criteria to Accounts related to other Accounts currently assigned to the rule's Territories. The Rule's Detail section includes a picklist named Account Hierarchy Rule. It identifies the Rule's type. The options are:

  • No
  • Rule is a Basic Rule; not Account Hierarchy based
  • The Account Hierarchy Criteria section is disabled
  • An Account must meet all Account and Address Criteria to be assigned to a Territory
  • Assign Parent
  • Rule is Account Hierarchy based
  • Account Hierarchy Criteria is enabled
  • Accounts in this Rule's results must meet the following requirements to qualify for assignment to the Rule's Territory
  • Satisfy the Rule's Criteria sections

  • Are on an affiliation branch above another Account that is either explicitly assigned to the Territory or assigned by a Basic Rule

    Veeva recommends making the parent account the primary parent of the child account. This ensures that large numbers of accounts are not assigned.

Example - Assign Parent:

Assume the following affiliation branches exist, with HCO1 at the top, and HCO3 is the previously assigned Account
Branch 1 HCO1->HCO2->HCO3->HCPx
Branch 2 HCO1->HCO2->HCO5
Results Align creates assignments for HCO2 and HCO1, assuming criteria is met
  HCO4, HCPx, and HCO5 are not assigned. They are irrelevant.
  • Assign Child
  • Rule is Account Hierarchy based
  • Account Hierarchy Criteria is enabled
  • Accounts in this Rule's results must meet all of the following requirements to qualify for assignment to the Rule's Territory

  • Be affiliated below another Account that is either explicitly assigned to the Territory or assigned by a Basic Rule

    Veeva recommends making the parent account the primary parent of the child account. This ensures that large numbers of accounts are not assigned.

  • Either satisfy the Rule's Criteria sections or be an Account on the branch between the previously assigned Account and the Account that satisfies the Rule's Criteria sections

Example - Assign Child:

Assume the following affiliation branches exist, with HCO1 at the top, and HCO2 is the previously assigned Account, HCO4 is the Primary parent of HCPx, and HCPx satisfies the Rule's criteria
Branch 1 HCO1->HCO2->HCO3->HCO4->HCPx
Branch 2 HCO1->HCO2->HCO5
Results Align will create assignments for HCPx, HCO4 and HCO3, assuming the HCP met the criteria
  HCO5 is not assigned. It is irrelevant.

 

Set the Send to CRM field to Yes to include the resulting assignments in CRM. See Account Assignments for possible restrictions. Set the Send to CRM field to No to prevent the resulting assignments from reaching CRM. This action also causes previously sent assignments to be removed from CRM.

Account Rule assignments display as a related list on the Territory detail view. They can be created, edited, and deleted manually.

Rules and Rule Criteria are not sent to Veeva CRM.

Special Notes and Restrictions

  • A Rule cannot switch between Territory and Field Force. Once saved, a Field Force Rule cannot become a Territory Rule, and vice versa
  • A Field Force Basic Rule cannot impact a Territory Basic Rule, and vice versa
  • A Field Force Account Hierarchy Rule cannot impact a Territory Account Hierarchy Rule, and vice versa
  • An Account Hierarchy Rule reacts to the results of Field Force and Territory Basic Rules; the Account Hierarchy Rule's assignment to a Territory vs a Field Force does not make a difference

Account Rule Criteria

Each row is a single record in the database object. The object's Type field is indicated by the Criteria's section title, for example, "Account Hierarchy", "Account". The data entry row consists of three fields: Field, Operator, and Value. "Field" is a virtual picklist displaying all non-system fields stored on the Object, including custom fields. The subsequent Rule Criteria fields are virtual picklists, or free text. Selecting from the picklist determines the possible values of the next field.

The Combined Logic field at the end of each Rule Criteria section identifies how each criterion row relates to another row. Rows are referenced by the number Align assigned to the row. Align populates this field in the sequence Rule Criteria rows are added. Every row has an AND relationship to the other rows. “AND” can be replaced with “OR”. Additionally, parentheses can be added to group rows differently than Align assumed. For example, Align assumes (1 AND 2 AND 3) is correct. The user may change it to (1 OR 3) AND 2, as needed. The Combined Logic fields from each section are used together to identify which Accounts will be assigned to the Rule's Territory. In SQL terms, the Combined Logic fields have an AND relationship to each other. They are stored on the Rule's object.

The objects referenced by Account Rule Assignments are:

  • territory__aln
  • account_rule_criteria__aln
  • field_force__aln

The following objects are referenced by Rule Criteria. account_rule__aln is a direct reference. The others are used as virtual references.

  • account_rule__aln
  • parent_hco__aln
  • account__aln
  • address__aln
  • country__aln
  • specialty__aln
  • account_type__aln

Special Notes and Restrictions

  • Select the green plus sign to add the row to memory in preparation for selecting Save
  • Remove a row from memory by selecting the red minus sign
  • Changing Combined Logic has a large impact. Ensure the Rule Criteria makes sense before selecting Save. Incorrectly placed parenthesis or operators can significantly lengthen processing time and produce an overwhelming number of Account assignments.

    • A boolean field having a null value is treated as though it is equal to No (false) during the Rule Critera Evaulation

Example 1: Completed Rule Criteria with AND operator

Example 2: Completed Rule Criteria with OR operator

Validating Rules and Assignments for Send to CRM

Align triggers were added to enforce the Send to CRM values on rules and Territories.

Territory Scenario Rule CRM Field UI Default Rule Value Rule Trigger Territory Trigger

Terr CRM = True

Edit

null

n/a because both True & False are supported n/a because both True & False are supported
Terr CRM=False Read Only FALSE Insert/Update, RuleCRM cannot be True if TerrCRM=False Insert/Update, TerrCRM cannot be False if any RuleCRM=True

Several error messages were added to assignments:

  • If a user sets an assignment’s end date to a value less than the start date, an error message displays
  • If an assignment has previously been sent to CRM and a user changes the Send to CRM value to No, an error message displays
  • If a user attempt to extend the end date of an assignments with CRM is Deleted set to Yes, an error message displays
  • If a user attempts to align an assignment that has an Account exclusion, a validation error message displays
  • If a user attempts to change an assignment’s start date to be greater than the sysdate, an error message displays

Updating Rule Lifecycles

Align users can now freeze their targets for the duration of a cycle. This allows users to account for the unpredictability of Accounts during a business cycle and provides greater consistency to planned activity goals. To facilitate this feature, the lifecycle__aln field on the account_rule__aln and account_rule_model__aln objects controls the lifecycle status of the rule.

To help audit mc_cycle_plan__aln records, the align_rule_id__aln field has also been added. This field automatically stamps with the rule ID of the targeting rule that created the mc_cycle_plan__aln record.

Use

To change the lifecycle status of a targeting rule:

  1. Navigate to the appropriate account rule's detail page.
  2. Select the Action menu. This displays as a Gear icon.

  3. Select Set Lifecycle, then select one of the three lifecycle options:

    • Active – The rule creates and end-dates account territory records. This is the default state for all new rules.
    • Inactive – The rule is excluded from assignment previews. Account territory records previously created by this rule are end-dated by the next rules run that previously included this rule.
    • Frozen – The rule is excluded from assignment previews and does not create new account territory records. Account territory records previously created by this rule persist and are not end-dated.

To assist in auditing Frozen rules, a list displays in assignment previews that displays all Frozen account rules.