Guide

Your Salesforce lead assignment rule is not working. Here is why.

An assignment rule rarely breaks with an error. It keeps running and quietly sends leads somewhere you did not mean. These are the causes we see most, in the order worth checking.

1. An entry above it matches first

Salesforce stops at the first entry that matches. A broad entry high in the list (a whole region, or "Country is not blank") takes leads meant for a narrower one below it. Everything after a catch-all never fires.

2. A value carries stray quotes

A criterion typed as 'France', quotes included, only matches a lead whose country is literally 'France'. No lead ever is.

3. A country name tested against a code field

CountryCode holds two-letter codes such as GB. An entry testing it for United Kingdom can never match.

4. A picklist value that no longer exists

Someone renamed or removed a picklist value; the rule still tests the old one.

5. The owner has left, or the queue has nobody in it

Leads arrive, get assigned, and sit with someone who cannot work them.

6. A Flow changes the owner after the rule

Salesforce runs before-save flows, then the assignment rule, then after-save flows. A record-triggered flow that sets the owner after save has the last word, whatever the rule decided.

7. Omni-Channel is routing the queue

If the lead lands in a queue that Omni-Channel serves, the agent who accepts it becomes the owner, and a lead nobody accepts waits.

Check it yourself

SELECT COUNT() FROM Lead WHERE IsConverted = false AND Owner.Type = 'Queue'
SELECT COUNT() FROM Lead WHERE IsConverted = false AND Owner.IsActive = false AND CreatedDate = LAST_N_DAYS:90

Then walk one misrouted lead through the rule's entries by hand, in order, comparing each criterion with the lead's real values.