Partner Resource assignment rules can stamp a resource during insert. The active first-party callers are Lead, Opportunity and Product Demo. A helper exists in QuoteHandler, but it is not invoked by the Quote save path; Service Order also has no equivalent assignment call. Do not advertise this feature generically for every record that has a resource field.
This procedure applies only where your tenant's Partner Resource layout exposes Assignment Sequence Number, Rule Success Criteria and the Resource Assignment Rules child collection. The first-party Partner Resource layouts currently shipped by the platform do not expose those controls. If your tenant has not added them through metadata customization, there is no standard screen to complete this setup; ask the configuration owner to expose and validate the fields before using the steps below.
Rules are authored on partner resources—the link between a resource and a partner account, optionally narrowed to a branch. When a supported insert carries that partner account and branch, applicable partner resources are ordered by Assignment Sequence Number and evaluated until one matches. Queue-routed work takes a separate path described in Skills, capacity and work routing.
Prerequisites
- Resources for the people who should receive work.
- Partner resource records linking each candidate to the partner account (and branch, where assignment should be branch-specific).
- Administrator access to edit partner resources and their assignment rules.
Procedure
Step 1 — Order the candidates
Create or open each partner resource, verify its partner account, optional branch and resource, and assign a unique sequence number. Evaluation stops at the first match. Equal sequence numbers have no documented secondary business tie-break, so ties can make the winner database-order dependent. Give specialists lower unique numbers and the fallback the highest unique number. Partner Resource From and To dates are not filtered by this assignment query; do not rely on them to activate or retire a candidate.
Step 2 — Choose the success criteria
The engine recognizes only these exact stored strings:
| Criteria | The candidate matches when |
|---|---|
All Rules Are Met (or an empty value) | Every rule on the candidate passes |
Any Rule Is Met | At least one rule passes |
Always (No Criteria) | Unconditionally—the catch-all |
The shipped Partner Resource picklist currently stores inactive, concatenated variants that do not match those strings. An unrecognized value silently assigns nobody. An empty value enters the all-rules branch, and all/any with no rules still fails. Only use this feature after the configuration owner has exposed the fields and verified the exact stored values through an integration test; place the exact Always (No Criteria) fallback last when one is required.
Step 3 — Write the rules
Add each rule with the target record property name, operation and comparison value. The evaluator supports numeric ordering for double, int and long, plus date comparisons. A decimal property does not enter the numeric branch; it only supports the text-path equals/not-equal behaviour. The field name must resolve on the concrete inserted entity. A misspelled or inapplicable field returns false without a diagnostic fallback.
Step 4 — Verify with a real record
Create a non-production Lead, Opportunity or Product Demo carrying values that deliberately exercise one candidate. Save once and inspect the actual resource field used by that handler. Repeat with boundary, no-match and fallback cases. Include a test for the stored success-criteria value; a label that looks correct in metadata is not sufficient if its stored value differs from the engine string.
Expected result
On the three supported insert paths, a tested exact criteria value and a uniquely ordered matching candidate can stamp the intended resource. Existing records are unchanged. Quote, Service Order, Partner Resource date windows, decimal ordering and inactive/mismatched picklist values are outside that guarantee.
Common problems
If nothing was stamped, first confirm the entity is Lead, Opportunity or Product Demo. Then inspect partner/branch scope, the exact stored success-criteria string, rule field names and supported data types. If the wrong person was stamped, check for a broad earlier candidate and duplicate sequence numbers before changing rule values.
Common questions
Do assignment rules re-run when a record is edited?
No — assignment happens as the record is created. Changing the record afterwards does not re-trigger the rules; reassignment after creation is a human decision, made on the record or on the dispatch console.
How do assignment rules differ from queue routing?
Assignment rules are static stamping: conditions on the record pick an owner from a configured list, once, at creation, with no notion of who is online or how loaded they are. Queue routing is live dispatch: it weighs presence, skills and current load at the moment of routing, and the work arrives as an offer to accept or decline. Use rules for predictable ownership (this partner's records belong to this account manager), routing for shared-pool work.
Related topics
- Skills, capacity and work routing
- The dispatch console
- Configuration reference
- Business rules — the general record-automation layer