The end-to-end loop for granting team access via a group is a 10-minute Setup task once the use case is clear.
- Open Setup, Public Groups
Setup, Quick Find, type Public Groups, click the result. The page lists every existing group with edit and delete actions.
- Click New Group
Enter a Label (user-facing name) and Group Name (API name). The Group Name should be descriptive; future admins reference it in sharing rules by name.
- Add members
Use the Search dropdown to pick Users, Roles, Roles and Subordinates, Public Groups, or Portal-related options. Add the relevant members to the group.
- Set Grant Access Using Hierarchies
Check the box if managers above each member should also get access through the group. Most modern orgs leave it unchecked to keep sharing intentional.
- Save and reference in a sharing rule
Save the group. Open the relevant object''s sharing settings, create a sharing rule targeting the new group with the desired access level.
- Verify access by impersonation
Log in as a group member and confirm the expected records are visible at the granted level. Sharing-rule recalculation can take minutes for large data sets.
User-facing name shown in pickers.
API name referenced by metadata and SOQL.
Users, roles, groups, or portal users that belong to the group.
Boolean controlling whether the role tree above members also inherits the group''s access.
- Chatter Groups and Public Groups are different objects (CollaborationGroup vs. Group). Documentation and admins frequently conflate them; pick the right one before configuring.
- Removing a user from a Public Group revokes their group-granted access on the next sharing-rule recalculation, which is asynchronous and can take a while.
- Personal Groups are not visible to admins or to other users. Audit them by querying the Group object filtered on Type = ''Regular'' and OwnerId IS NOT NULL.
- Roles + Subordinates groups update automatically as the role hierarchy changes, which is convenient but means a role move can silently grant access to a different population.