Sharing Rules in Salesforce and Its Types

I worked for an organization that uses Salesforce to manage data security. We set up the organization-wide default to be private so that no one could access other users’ data. But now, we need to give other users access to some records. To achieve this requirement, we have a sharing rule feature in Salesforce.

Here, I will explain Salesforce sharing rules and their types, and then show you how to create an owner-based and a criteria-based sharing rule in Salesforce. Additionally, I will explain manual sharing and how to set up manual sharing in Salesforce.

Sharing Rules in Salesforce and Its Types

A Salesforce sharing Rule allows us to extend access to records beyond what is granted by the organization’s defaults. Sharing Rules provide users access to records they do not own or usually cannot see based on criteria such as role, public group, or record ownership.

The Sharing Rule helps users share records based on conditions. We use it for objects whose organization-wide defaults(OWD) are set to public, read-only, or private. When creating sharing rules, we can set the level of access (read-only or read/write).

Types of Sharing Rules

• Owner-Based Sharing Rules: In Salesforce, owner-based sharing rules extend access to records based on their ownership. This means that users who own certain records can share them with other groups or roles.
• Criteria-Based Sharing Rules: In Salesforce, criteria-based sharing rules are used when we want to share records that meet particular criteria or conditions.
• Manual Sharing: Manual sharing in Salesforce allows us to grant specific users access to records (such as accounts, opportunities, or cases) that they usually don’t see.

Create an Owner-Based Sharing Rule in Salesforce

Using the following steps, we will see how to create an owner-based sharing rule.

1. Go to Setup. -> Home Page. -> Quick Find Box search for ‘Sharing Settings‘ and click on it.

2. Scroll down to the Sharing Rules section and click the New button for the object you want to create a sharing rule for. Here, I’m creating on Lead Object.

3. Now, enter the Label, and the Rule Name will automatically populate.

4. In the Rule Type field, select the Based on Record Owner option.

5. In Lead: Owned by members of the option, we can select Public Group, Queues, Roles, Roles & Subordinates. Here, I have chosen Roles.