Definition
Sharing Model is a Salesforce administration feature that helps system administrators configure, secure, and maintain their org. It provides control over how the platform behaves and how users interact with data and functionality.
Real-World Example
an admin at Redwood Financial recently implemented Sharing Model to ensure the Salesforce org runs smoothly and securely. They configure Sharing Model during a scheduled maintenance window, test it in a sandbox first, and then deploy to production. The result is tighter security and a more streamlined experience for all 200 users in the org.
Why Sharing Model Matters
The Sharing Model in Salesforce is the overall architecture that governs how record-level access is determined across the org. It is composed of multiple interconnected components: Organization-Wide Defaults (OWDs) establish the baseline, the Role Hierarchy provides upward visibility, Sharing Rules grant lateral access to groups, Teams allow record-level collaboration, and Apex Managed Sharing enables programmatic access control. The Sharing Model is not a single setting but a design — a deliberate combination of these tools that, together, determine exactly who can see and modify every record in the org.
Designing an effective Sharing Model requires understanding both the current organizational structure and anticipated future changes. A model built around today's team structure may break when departments merge or new business units are added. The best Sharing Models are built on principles rather than point solutions: start with the most restrictive baseline, open access through roles and rules rather than exceptions, and document every decision. As orgs grow past a few hundred users, sharing model performance becomes a concern — Salesforce must recalculate access for every user whenever group memberships, sharing rules, or role hierarchies change, and on large orgs this can take hours. Planning for performance from the beginning avoids painful retroactive fixes.
How Organizations Use Sharing Model
- Redwood Financial — Redwood designed their Sharing Model with Private OWDs for all sensitive objects and a carefully structured 5-level role hierarchy. They documented every OWD choice, sharing rule, and role assignment in a sharing model design document that is reviewed annually. When regulators asked about their data access controls, the admin presented the document and passed the audit with no findings.
- TerraFirma Construction — TerraFirma's Sharing Model includes Apex Managed Sharing for project records because their access requirements are too complex for declarative sharing rules — access depends on a combination of project phase, user role, and geographic region. The custom sharing calculation runs nightly and adjusts access as projects progress through phases, providing granular control that standard sharing rules cannot achieve.
- Clearview Analytics — Clearview restructured their Sharing Model when they grew from 100 to 1,000 users and discovered that their original design — with 45 sharing rules and an 8-level role hierarchy — caused sharing recalculations that took over 4 hours. They simplified the hierarchy to 5 levels, consolidated overlapping sharing rules from 45 to 18, and reduced recalculation time to 20 minutes.