Zoho CRM: Roles

Zoho CRM: Roles

With role-based security, in Zoho CRM, you can set up the organization-wide hierarchy using Roles.


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Users at a higher ranking can access all the records owned by users at a lower ranking; for example, a Sales Manager can access all the Sales Execs records, whereas Sales Execs can access only their own records.


Users of the same Role cannot access the data from other users by default. For example, the Director of Sales cannot access the Director of Marketing’s data. You do have the option of sharing data with peers when creating a new role, overriding this.

How to Create Roles


  1. Setup > Users & Control > Security Control > Roles.
  2. In the Roles section, click New Role.
  3. On the New Role page, do the following:
  1. Enter the Role Name; it must be unique. 
  2. Select the direct manager's Role from the Reports To lookup. (The Role will be created under the CEO role if this field is left blank).
  3. Select the Share Data with Peers box if you want to enable access rights to peers.
  4. Enter the Description for the Role.
  1. Click Save



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How to Assign Roles to Users


  1. Go to Setup > Users & Control > Users.
  2. On the Users page, click on the user you wish to assign a role. 
  3. On the User Details page, click the Edit icon.
  4. In the Edit User page, select a specific Role from the dropdown list. 
  5. Click Save.



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How to Edit Roles

You can modify the user roles as the organization's hierarchy changes. When editing roles, you can change the following:

  1. The name of the Role
  2. Change the Superior Role
  3. Change the settings for sharing data with peers


  1. Setup > Users & Control > Security Control > Roles.
  2. In the Roles list, click the Role you wish to edit.
  3. On the Role Details page, click Edit.
  4. On the Edit Role page, make the required changes.
  5. Click Save.



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How to Delete Roles

You will need to transfer the users to a new role when deleting an existing Role.


  1. Setup > Users & Control > Security Control > Roles.
  2. In the Roles page, click the Role you wish to delete.
  3. On the Role Details page, click Delete.
  4. On the Delete Role page, click on an existing Role to transfer the child roles to the selected Role.
  5. Click Transfer & Delete. The role and child roles are transferred to the new Role, and a different organizational hierarchy is created.