Profiles help you define permissions for users. Profiles are helpful because the permissions required for a person from the Sales team might differ from the permissions needed by a person in the Marketing team.

You can define the permissions for each profile and specify the profile when adding a new user; you can regularly adjust the profile of the user’s responsibilities, and systems need change. 

It’s best to keep the number of profiles at a minimum to limit confusion. By default, two profiles are provided upon initial set, Standard and Administrator. You can clone these and personalize them as needed.

Default Profiles

Administrator profiles are for those who need to access the entire system. There must be at least one user with this profile who can access all the data and features in your account. The Administrator is typically the CEO or top-level in the organization's hierarchy.

Standard profiles allow users to access data according to their defined roles in the organization. The standard profile is often cloned and customized for the needs of that type of Role. An example would be, Sales managers, marketing managers, support agents, and so on.

Managing Profile Permissions

Profile permissions are grouped so that you can easily enable or disable them with a single click rather than having to go enabling or disabling each checkbox, one by one.

The module permissions are grouped as they appear in the CRM, and the Setup permissions are grouped like the Setup page, making it easier for you to find them. The three main sections of permission are module permissions, set up permissions, and extensions.

Module Permissions

Module Permissions lets you define which module the users will have access to, and you can also specify what actions they can perform.

Basic permissions - These are based on modules such as leads, contacts, and accounts. The permissions for actions can be changed by using the check box that is available in the drop-down next to each module permission. These include which modules the users can access and what they’re able to do in each module.

Advanced permissions – These permissions include Import / Export, Send Email, Tool, and other advanced permissions that can only be enabled when their pre-requisite is enabled. Importing and exporting your data is an area you should be mindful of; you don’t want all users to have the ability to import data your CRM doesn’t need (or wasn’t prepared for). You also defiantly do not want users to be able to export and keep your sensitive data.

Advanced Permissions

Advanced permissions such as Import / Export, Send Email, Tool, and other advanced permissions can be enabled only when their pre-requisite is enabled. For example, a user can send Mass Emails only when Send Email permission has been enabled for their profile.

Setup Permissions

These permissions let you decide if the user associated with this profile can manage Templates, Automations, Webforms, and Data Administration.

These permissions are not generally given to all users, so you can disable all the Setup permissions at once to save time. These should be given to those who understand how and when to use these functions.

Extension Permissions

This section lets you define permissions for Extension, CRM API and Social Settings. These permissions deal with the communication of Zoho CRM with third-party integrations.

How to Create a Profile

1. Setup > Users and Control > Security Control > Profiles.
2. Click New Profile

1. Enter Profile Name
2. Option to Clone existing Profile 
3. Enter Profile Description

3. Click Create

How to Clone a Profile

You can clone an existing profile and rename it. When you create a new profile, you will need to enable or disable permissions for each category from scratch. If you clone a profile, you have a copy of the existing profile and all its permission settings, which you can then adjust as required. 

1. Setup > Users and Control > Security Control > Profiles.
2. Choose the specific profile or select the three dots next to the profile name.
3. Click Clone in the top-right corner.

How to Delete a Profile

You may wish to delete a Profile that is no longer in use.

1. Setup > Users and Control > Security Control > Profiles.
2. Choose the specific profile you wish to delete
3. Click the three dots at the upper right-hand corner
4. Click on delete.
5. On the confirmation page, click delete again.

When you want to delete a profile associated with a user, you will be prompted to transfer the user to another profile before deleting them. To know which users are associated with the profile, click View Users on the Profile View page.