Notification when Account Owner changes (pro)

[AgiSob_42]

Hi folks,

I'm facing a challenge and might be missing something, so I'd love your input.

The client is using the Professional edition (Marketing, Content, Sales, no Ops Hub) and syncing with Salesforce. Initially, the goal was simple: prevent standard users from editing the Account Owner field. This, however, is only possible with the Enterprise edition.

So, we considered making Salesforce the source of truth for this property and setting up a one-way sync. Unfortunately, this property can't be set as one-way sync.

Next idea: use a workflow to notify the team when the Account Owner changes, so they can at least manually verify the change. Sounds straightforward.

First attempt:
Trigger the workflow when the Account Owner changes.
Works, but it also triggers when an owner is assigned for the first time (i.e., from blank to known).
Tried adding an enrollment condition: Owner is known.
Doesn’t help, because assigning an owner makes it known, so it still qualifies.

Second attempt:
Enroll records only if the Owner is known AND the Owner was updated in the last day.
Same issue, assigning a new owner meets both criteria, so it still triggers on initial assignment.

Third attempt:

• Enroll only accounts that already have an Owner (via an active list)

• Delay the workflow until the Owner changes

• Then send the notification

Works! Newly assigned owners on blank records are not enrolled. Yay! 
But now the problem is: how to re-enroll accounts if the Owner changes again, without creating an endless loop? ...

Hope this explanation is clear. Would love to hear your ideas!

[Josh]

Hi @AgiSob_42,

No, I think you're right. I chatted with @zachh and we determined that the best approach might be just one workflow that re-enrolls every time the account owner is known and uses branches.

The first branch checks if Account Owner Change is unknown (your custom property). If it is, it routes it down that branch and checks that box.

The second branch would be "None Met" and would send the alert. This should work for all three of your example scenarios.

Josh

[Josh]

Hi @AgiSob_42,

Here's my idea without using the list. Have a separate property for "Account Owner Change". By default this is off and your first workflow looks at account owner change and the only action it takes is applying the checkbox or whatever to your account owner change property.

You would have then another workflow looking for that property change but also that "Account Owner Change" property is marked yes (or whatever) and in that case it notifies the team of a change. This would stay checked so that it would continue to notify changes, but you would fix the issue you were previously having of when the first owner is assigned.

The other thing I'd do here is check that "Account Owner Change" box to yes for all accounts that already have an owner assigned, bypassing that first workflow that only checks that box. 

[AgiSob_42]

hey Josh, 

thanks for your idea! 

For existing accounts I think it will work as intended.

But for new accounts, following scenario: 

1. An account has no owner. Account Owner Change is unknown. 

2. An account gets its first owner. Account owner changes, 1st workflow triggers: Account Owner Change is set to YES.

3. New account now meets both criteria from the 2nd workflow (Account Owner Change=YES AND Account Owner Updated=YES) 

Or am I missing something? 

Thank you!