How do you stop NPSP from automatically creating a Household when adding a Contact?

Question

Households on my system are created before contacts due to our data sources and workflow. So when I add a contact I need it to auto link to an existing household/account (which I've got working). HOWEVER NPSP also automatically creates a new household/account at the same time before the process I have links the contact.

Said another way, the contact will successfully link to an existing account but will also generate a new household.

I don't want this to happen because the created empty households are useless data and bloat.

e.g. I create a contact Aballa The Magnificent, and rather than ONLY linking, NPSP also creates The Magnificent Household.

How do I stop this? Thanks!

Answer 1

I know this question is old, but recent flow changes make this doable.

NPSP will not create a household if the Account Id is filled when the contact is created.

You don't say how you're "autolinking" the household, but if you can do that before the contact is saved, i.e. in a before-save triggered flow, then the contact will be saved with the linked account and a new household won't be created.

If you can't do that for whatever reason, you could create a single "dummy" account and, in a before-save trigger flow, assign that account to the contact. The contact would be created linked to that account, and your subsequent autolinking would then link it to the correct household.

Answer 2

NPSP 3

Go to the NPSP Settings tab, click on the Household Settings, and set the Household Rules to "No Contacts." This will suppress the default behavior and let your other code correctly create/attach household accounts as you desire.

NPSP 2 Or Earlier

Go to Setup > Develop > Custom Settings, click Manage next to Household Settings, find the "Disable Account Model Trigger" entry, edit it, and set it to "true" (checked).

Answer 3

The best resource for the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is the Power of Us Hub.

You will probably want to disable one of the NPSP's contact trigger modules in the NPSP Trigger Handler object. You'll need to create a tab for the object in order to view it. Be sure to search for / post on the Hub to determine the ramifications of disabling the specific NPSP trigger module.

Answer 4

Regarding @sfdcfox 's answer, the "No Contacts" setting only works if your Account Model (found in NPSP Settings>People>Account Model) is set to One-to-One or Individual. You can read up on the different Account Models at the following doc links:

• Household Account Model: https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/NPSP-What-is-an-Account-Model
• Legacy Models (One-to-One, Individual): https://powerofus.force.com/s/article/NPSP-Legacy-Account-Models#topic-6749

Basically, Salesforce requires that a Contact object has an associated Account. The only way to add a Contact without having SF create an account of some kind for you is to follow @vr8ce 's advice by adding an Account Id at creation.