How To Map The Standard Lead Description Field to Opportunity Description Field In Salesforce
Have you ever wanted to map a standard lead field from Leads to standard fields on Opportunities? Of course, you have! That is why you’re reading this.
I recently had to do this exercise for a client of ours.
The Problem: Map the standard Lead Description field to the standard Opportunity Description field.
Salesforce does not allow you to re-map standard fields to change their object mapping. It would be super easy if I could just point the lead Description field to the Opportunity description field. By default, the Lead description field maps to the contact object.
The Not So Good Solution:
So first I decided to go with 2 formula fields, 1 on lead and 1 on the opportunity. On the lead object, I created a custom text field called Description__c and did the same on the opportunity object.
Then I created 1 Workflow Rule (WFR) on the lead object that would update the Description__c field whenever the lead was created or edited to meet the criteria.
I set the rule criteria saying Lead: Description Field NOT EQUAL TO null. And to evaluate the rule when a record is created, and every time it’s edited.
The issue comes in when I try to re-create the same rule on the opportunity object. After I mapped the custom fields from Lead <> Opportunity, I created a WFR on the Opportunity Object to update the Standard description field with the Description__c custom field. Here’s what that WFR looks like:
Now in most cases this “should” work. However, the ORG that I was working on was a mature org with a shit ton of WFR’s, Validation Rules, Apex Classes, etc. And this WFR was somehow causing a recursion, which in turn would not allow me to convert the Lead to an Opportunity. I would get an error message on the conversion window.
Process Builder To The Rescue!
So here is where I decided to switch to Process Builder to update the description field. I want to give a huge shoutout to my good friend George for helping me with the PB (not Peanut Butter). This is what my new process looks like and it works like a charm.
The best thing about using Process Builder is that I was able to map standard fields from lead to opportunity.
Step 1 > Entry Criteria
In the Set Conditions section, you’re going to look for 2 fields i.e.
- IsConverted = True
- Description (Is Null), Boolean = False
So this tells the system that when a lead is converted and the description field is not blank — go do something.
p.s. don’t forget to check the box under the advanced section i.e. “ Do you want to execute the actions only when specified changes are made to the record?”
Then I put a wait time of 0 days After the created date. This is an important step in the process because it gives Salesforce some time to go ahead and create the opportunity and grab that unique opportunity ID before actually send the field values over. If you skip this step the process will not work.
Step 2: Scheduled Action
This one is pretty straight forward. Choose the Record related to the lead and then select the Converted Opportunity ID field.
Step 3: Update Opportunity Description Field with Lead Description Field
Now simply enter your update criteria and watch the magic happen!
1 last thing to remember is that the description field is not going to map instantly. There is about a 30-second delay in mapping the 2 fields.
Let me know what you thought of this tutorial in the comments below!
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