Field Level Security in Salesforce

In this blog, we will delve into the intricacies of field-level security in Salesforce and explore other sharing options such as Public Groups, Queues, and Teams. Understanding these aspects is crucial for effective data management and maintaining confidentiality within your Salesforce org.

Field-Level Security

Controlling the visibility of fields to users is a critical aspect of Salesforce’s security model. While your Salesforce org contains vast amounts of data, not every field should be accessible to all users, especially sensitive information like salary details or social security numbers.

Field-level security in Salesforce determines whether a user can view, edit, or delete the value for a specific field on an object. This security setting extends beyond the visibility of fields on page layouts to include reports, list views, related lists, API access, and search results.

Key Considerations

• Field-level security is available in professional, enterprise, performance, unlimited, and developer editions.
• It overrides page layout settings, being more restrictive.
• Can be configured for multiple profiles simultaneously from the Field Accessibility section in Setup.
• Extendable to specific users using permission sets.

Security Options for Profiles

• Visible: Checking this option makes the field visible to users of the corresponding profile.
• Read Only: Restricts profile users from editing the field value. If unchecked, the field remains editable.
• Users cannot view or edit a field if neither option is selected.

Factors Determining Field Level Access

Several factors influence users’ access to a field, broadly controlled at the record type, user, or field level.

• Field-Level Security: Restricts access to fields and works alongside page layouts for organizing detail and edit pages.
• Page Layouts: Manage field visibility for specific record types and profile combinations.
• Permissions: Certain profile permissions can override layout and field-level settings.
• Universally Required Fields: Custom fields set as universally required override other settings, making them visible and editable.
• Lookup and System Fields: The ‘Require permission’ setting restricts viewing record names in lookup and system fields unless users have specific access.

Use Case Scenario

Challenge: A company needs to restrict certain profiles from viewing payroll and SSN information on a custom Employee object.

Solution: Deselect the Visible option in field-level security for profiles that should not have access.

Reason: Removing a field from a profile’s page layout only affects visibility on detail and edit pages. Field-level security ensures comprehensive restriction.

Record Sharing Options in Salesforce

In addition to field-level security, Salesforce provides various options to share records among different users. Let’s explore Groups, Queues, and Account, Opportunity, & Case Teams, which offer flexible sharing settings.

Groups

In Salesforce, a group is a set of users, roles, territories, or other groups, facilitating collaborative work and record sharing.

Types of Groups

1. Public Groups:Created by administrators and delegated administrators.Accessible to any user in the Salesforce organization.Example: A CSR group for sharing information about CSR activities.
2. Personal Groups:Created by individual users for personal use.Exclusive to the creator.Example: Sharing specific records with a select group of users.

Uses of Public Groups

• Setting up sharing access via sharing rules.
• Manually sharing records.
• Sharing Salesforce CRM Content libraries.
• Assigning actions in Salesforce Knowledge.
• Synchronizing contacts.

Key Considerations

• Create groups for similar access needs (e.g., Direct Sales Reps).
• Limit nesting of public groups to avoid complexity.
• Use ‘Grant Access Using Hierarchies’ for sharing with group members’ hierarchy.

Queues

Queues in Salesforce prioritize, distribute, and assign records to groups, enhancing collaborative efforts.

Queue Members

• Individual users.
• Roles or Roles and Subordinates.
• Public Groups.

Record Assignment

• Assignment Rules: Automatically add records based on criteria.
• Manual Assignment: Update record ownership to a Queue (e.g., changing the owner of a Case record).

Account, Opportunity, & Case Teams

These teams facilitate collaboration on Accounts, Opportunities, and Cases without owning the records.

1. Account Teams:

• • Group of users working on an account.
  • Grants Read, Read/Write, or Private access to related records.

2. Opportunity Teams:

• • Collaborate on Opportunities.
  • Extend record-level sharing to other users.
  • Users can create default teams for automatic addition to opportunities.

3. Case Teams:

• • Groups that work together on cases.
  • Extend read or read/write access.
  • Allow adding contacts as customer portal users.

Use Case Scenario

Challenge: A sales rep works with a predefined team for each account created, including a Sales Manager, Customer Success Manager, and Finance contact.

Solution: Utilize Default Account Teams.

Reason: Users can set up default account teams in their personal settings, which are automatically added to accounts upon creation or ownership transfer.

Next, explore – Roles and Profiles in Salesforce

Conclusion

Navigating the diverse landscape of Salesforce’s security and sharing settings is essential for optimizing both data protection and collaborative efficiency. From the detailed exploration of field-level security to the in-depth analysis of various sharing options like Public Groups, Queues, and Account, Opportunity, & Case Teams, this guide has covered the pivotal aspects of managing data access in Salesforce.

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