The sales management team at Universal Containers requires that the Lead Source field of the Lead record be populated when a Lead is converted What…

A validation rule is the most appropriate declarative tool to enforce data integrity and business logic. To meet the requirement, a validation rule can be configured on the Lead object. The rule's formula would check if the IsConverted field is true while the LeadSource field is blank. If both conditions are met, the rule triggers an error message, preventing the user from completing the lead conversion process until the LeadSource field is populated. This directly enforces the business requirement without needing custom code.

1. Salesforce Help

Validation Rules: "Validation rules verify that the data a user enters in a record meets the standards you specify before the user can save the record." This confirms their purpose is to enforce data integrity before a save or action completion. (See "Validation Rules" in Salesforce Help & Training).

2. Salesforce Help

Formulas and Validations Trailhead Module

"Create Validation Rules": This module provides examples of validation rules. A common formula for this specific scenario is AND(ISCONVERTED

ISBLANK(TEXT(LeadSource)))

which explicitly blocks conversion if the Lead Source is empty.

3. Salesforce Help

Map Custom Lead Fields for Lead Conversion: "Let your sales reps map custom lead fields to custom fields on accounts

contacts

and opportunities... When reps convert leads

the information in the custom lead fields is transferred to the mapped custom fields." This defines the feature's purpose as data transfer

not validation. (See "Map Custom Lead Fields for Lead Conversion" in Salesforce Help & Training).

4. Apex Developer Guide

"Triggers": The guide explains that triggers are used for custom actions. While a before trigger could be used for complex validation

the guide and best practices advocate for using declarative tools like validation rules first. (See "Triggers" section in the Apex Developer Guide).