What is a Role and Role Hierarchy?

Role:
– Controls the level of visibility that users have to an organization’s data
– A user may be associated to one role

Role Hierarchy:
– Controls data visibility
– Controls record roll up – forecasting and reporting
– Users inherit the special privileges of data owned by or shared with users below them in the hierarchy
– Not necessarily the company’s organization chart

Notes:
• If using Customizable Forecasting, there is a separate forecast role hierarchy.
• EE can create Account, Contact, Opportunity and Case Sharing Rules. PE can ONLY create Account and Contact Sharing Rules.
• Assuming no sharing rules have been created, users in the same role cannot access one another’s records.
Example: Org Wide Default settings for opportunities are private. Creating a role and adding two users to that role does not allow those users access to one another’s opportunities.
• “Grant Access Using Hierarchies” allows you to disable the default sharing access granted by your role and territory hierarchies. This option can be changed for custom objects that do not have their organization-wide default sharing setting set to Controlled by Parent.