How to Create a Sharing Rule in Salesforce

Quick summary

A Salesforce sharing rule lets admins extend record access beyond the default org-wide defaults by sharing based on record ownership or field criteria. This step-by-step guide walks through locating Sharing Settings, selecting an object, and saving a new rule with the correct access level.

Steps

1. Go to Setup in the top right corner of the Salesforce page.
2. Search for Sharing Settings in the Quick Find menu under Security.
3. Click "Manage sharing settings for" to open the object dropdown.
4. Select the object you want to create a sharing rule for, such as Accounts or Contacts.
5. Click New to initiate the creation of a new sharing rule.
6. Define the rule and its properties in the configuration panel.
7. Define your Rule Type — choose between owner-based or criteria-based sharing.
8. Choose the users or groups who will gain access to records based on your defined criteria.
9. Determine the level of access these users will have, such as Read Only or Read/Write.
10. Review the sharing rule type examples: Owner-Based Sharing shares records by owner, while Criteria-Based Sharing shares based on specific field values.
11. Click Save to create the sharing rule and activate it to make it functional immediately.