Users at Universal Containers are complaining that a field has disappeared from the Account page after last weekend's deployment. The page layout did…

The most efficient way to troubleshoot why a field is not visible is to use the "Field Accessibility" tool. This feature provides a consolidated view that shows a field's access level (e.g., Hidden, Visible, Read-Only) based on the combination of a user's profile, the record type, and the page layout. Since the page layout was confirmed to be unchanged, the issue is almost certainly related to Field-Level Security (FLS) for the users' profiles, which was likely modified during the deployment. The Field Accessibility tool directly diagnoses this by showing the resulting visibility from all controlling factors.

A. Run a Who Sees What report, filtering on Account.

This is not a standard Salesforce feature. Sharing tools and reports determine access to records, not the visibility of specific fields on a page.

B. Log in as a user and check several accounts to isolate the problem records.

This step confirms the user's experience but does not diagnose the root cause. It is a verification step, whereas the Field Accessibility tool is a diagnostic tool.

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1. Salesforce Help - View and Edit Field Accessibility: "From the management settings for an object, you can view a grid that shows the access levels for all fields in that object for different profiles and record types... The field accessibility grid shows the access level for a field according to page layouts and record types." This document confirms that Field Accessibility is the designated tool for this exact purpose.

2. Salesforce Help - Field-Level Security: "Field-level security settings let you restrict what fields users can view and edit based on their profiles... Field-level security is the primary way to control field access." This establishes FLS as the likely cause when a page layout hasn't changed.

3. Salesforce Architects - Record-Level Security: "Before a user can see a record, they must have access to the object and the fields they want to see. Field-level security (FLS) controls which fields a user can see and edit on an object." This highlights that field visibility is a prerequisite for any data interaction and is controlled by FLS.