Case updates with Account in email to case

Question

I need to assign the case (created through email-to-case) to the account owner if certain condition satisfies. In the before insert of the trigger event, I assign the newly created cases' owner id , however owner doesn't get updated for the case. I checked the debug log and see in the before insert event account is null.

I put the same code in before update and it's working fine , obviously account is not null in before update when case is created through email to case. I checked the debug log and couldn't find why account will be null in before insert, but not in before update. Neither, I can find any automated process which will populate account on the case. I set the field tracking for account on case and see , 1) Case is created first 2) Account on case is updated if the case is created from the email and the contact->account exists with that email id.

I wanted to know, if this is expected behaviour? Or am I missing some automated process in my org which may be updating account on the case? If this is expected, is there any documentation around it?

Answer 1

I'm not sure where, or if, this is documented, but I do know that this is normal behavior. The Contact and Account will not be resolved until the after-insert phase of the trigger process. In fact, the OwnerId field will be "wrong" in the after-insert trigger phase as well, because assignment rules don't run until later. You could use a Process Builder/Autolaunched Flow to make sure that you have access to the correct owner/contact/account values while creating the record.