Creating and Assigning Roles in Salesforce.com

Amy WallerMarketing Operations Manager
Published:
Updated:
Note: You must have administrative privileges in order to create/edit Roles.

Salesforce.com (SFDC) is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. It is a database most commonly used by sales and marketing professionals to track potential prospects, customers and sales opportunities.

Roles in SFDC allow you to create blanketed access to users throughout your organization. Roles are configured to create users groupings and a hierarchy, so those at the top have the highest access and visibility. Roles affect access to reports and other objects such as contacts, accounts and opportunities. Each role level can be configured so that only certain users can view, access, edit and report on certain objects.

Why would we want to restrict access to different users? The two biggest reasons are security and usability. Giving high-level access to users that do not know how to use it is risky. You wouldn’t want a sales representative to have administrative “powers”. Administrative users are able to delete several records at a time, mass transfer records and integrate other products. Oftentimes, a sales rep’s compensation is based off of SFDC data and information, therefore, you want to make sure that only certain users can edit these events. You wouldn’t want to pay the wrong sales rep based on a data issue. You want to protect your CRM and organization from possible record loss, whether it is intended or not. Use Roles to help restrict access and safeguard your organization from these issues.

Additionally, you want the user experience to be the best it can be to encourage your users to utilize the CRM. Restricting their access to only a few needed features for their specific role will help you to reduce the clutter on their screen and decrease their frustration, which in turn increases the likelihood they will use it. Roles are also useful for managers to be able to see their team’s work, without giving the entire group of subordinates access to that information.

Here is how you configure roles:

1. Click Setup on the top right of your screen, then Administer > Manage Users > Roles

image-1.png2. Here you will find the Role Hierarchy. Use this hierarchy, and place those who need the most access and visibility at the top. Here, you can add, edit, delete and assign users to a role. First however, you will want to add a Role.

Image-2---edit.png3. In this next screen, label your Role and who it reports to. Here you can also edit access rules. The Role’s level will determine whether or not you want them to have edit access to contacts and opportunities. For example, for a lower level sales rep, you may not want them to have edit access on other rep’s opportunities. Use discretion when you are configuring this access, if you are unsure, talk to other managers to determine what is appropriate. (You can always go back and edit these settings in the future)

Image-3.pngUse the look-up glass (above) to select what role you want your new role to report to.

Image-4---edit.png
4. Once you have your hierarchy set up, it is time to assign users to each role. Click into the role to see settings and who is already set up in that role. Click Assign Users to Role if you want to assign that role to other users.


Image-5---edit.png5. In this next screen, you can assign users to the role using the add arrows. Click save when you are finished. Use the search form to help navigate through your user base.

Note: Users can belong to multiple roles.

Image-6---edit.png

You have successfully set up and configured roles for your users. Your users do not need to take any action, and changes will be active immediately. Continue to monitor and audit these roles in the future to make sure that each user group has the correct visibility and access to different objects in SFDC.
 
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