Create a Geocode Accuracy Field

Overview

Note: Geocoding is licensed separately from address verification. Check that your subscription includes it before creating this field.

Coordinates on their own do not tell you how precise they are. A geocode accuracy value records what the latitude and longitude were resolved to: the building itself, the street, the postal code area, or something broader such as the city or state.

This matters when you act on coordinates. A proximity search or a territory assignment based on coordinates accurate only to city level will behave very differently from one based on a building-level match, and this field lets you tell the two apart.

The field is optional, but only useful alongside a geolocation field. See Create a Geolocation Field.

Note: The standard Salesforce address fields, and Salesforce's compound Address field type, already include a geocode accuracy component. Create this field when your address is built from separate text fields, which have no accuracy component of their own.

Step 1: Create the Field

1. Navigate to Setup > Object Manager.
2. Select the object, then select Fields & Relationships.
3. Click New.
4. Choose Picklist as the data type and click Next.
5. Enter a Field Label naming the address it belongs to, for example Billing Geocode Accuracy.

6. Select Enter values, with each value separated by a new line, and enter these values in order:

   Unknown
   Address
   NearAddress
   Block
   Street
   ExtendedZip
   Zip
   Neighborhood
   City
   County
   State
   

7. Set Unknown as the default value.

8. Clear the Restrict picklist to the values defined in the value set checkbox.
9. Click Next.
10. Provide visibility to all the users who will be verifying addresses, then click Next.
11. Add the field to the page layouts where you want the accuracy visible, then click Save.

Note: Enter the values exactly as shown, without spaces. They match the values Salesforce uses for its own geocode accuracy fields, and AddressTools writes them in that form. Leaving the picklist unrestricted means an unexpected value is still saved rather than rejected.

Step 2: Map it on the Address Block

1. Click the App Launcher to search for and select AddressTools Administration.
2. Select Address Blocks from the left menu.
3. Open the block for this address by using the dropdown to select Edit.
4. In the Location Fields section, set Geocode Accuracy Field to the field you just created.
5. Click Save.

What the Values Mean

The values run from most to least precise:

Value	Resolved to
Address	The address itself
NearAddress	A point close to the address
Block, Street	The block or the street
ExtendedZip, Zip, Neighborhood	A postal code area or neighbourhood
City, County, State	The city, county or state centre
Unknown	No accuracy was returned

Accuracy is written at the same time as the coordinates, whenever the verification service returns a latitude. See Create a Geolocation Field.

When Geocode Accuracy is Written

Geocode accuracy is returned when an address runs through verification, and you have the appropriate geocoding license. If an address only partially matches, the geocode accuracy field records how precise the geolocation fields are. See Create a Geolocation Field.

The geocode accuracy field is populated by address verification, so to fully enable this follow the setup steps in Verification and make sure you have the correct license.