IsPersonAccount field invalid when querying Account

Question

I am using the Developer Console and Real Force Explorer to run what seems like a simple SOQL query:

SELECT Id, ParentId, Name, Phone, IsPartner, IsPersonAccount FROM Account LIMIT 10

But I get an error:

ParentId, Name, Phone, IsPartner, IsPersonAccount 
                                  ^
ERROR at Row:1:Column:46  No such column 'IsPersonAccount' on entity 'Account'.

When I remove IsPersonAccount the query runs fine and there are no complaints about IsPartner. Also, I see IsPersonAccountlisted as a field of the Account object. I get the same error in Developer Console and Real Force Explorer.

Am I missing something basic and is there a better resource for valid SOQL fields per object? The site's Setup mode and online API docs don't seem accurate for SOQL. Thanks.

Answer 1

IsPersonAccount is only available for orgs that have the person account feature activated.

To verify whether you have person accounts activated follow the following steps;

Setup | Customize | Accounts | Person Accounts (under Settings). If you do not see the menu item Person Accounts then you do NOT have person accounts activated.

To enable person accounts you can review this link to the Salesforce documentation: https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=account_person_enable.htm&language=en_US