Users
Users is a Setup page that displays all user records in the org and provides tools to create, edit, freeze, and deactivate user accounts.
Definition
Users is a Setup page that displays all user records in the org and provides tools to create, edit, freeze, and deactivate user accounts. It shows each user's name, username, profile, role, license type, and active status, serving as the central hub for user management.
In plain English
“Here's a simple way to think about it: a User in Salesforce is anyone with access to the org - admins, reps, agents, executives, integration accounts. Each user has a profile, permission sets, and (most importantly) the ability to be the source of every change the platform records.”
Worked example
The admin at Forge Dynamics opens the Users page to onboard five new sales hires. She clicks "New User" for each, assigns them the Sales Cloud user license and "Sales Representative" profile, sets their role to the appropriate regional team, and sends them welcome emails with login instructions. The entire onboarding takes 15 minutes.
Why Users matters
Users is a foundational element of Salesforce administration. Admins rely on it to control how users interact with the platform, ensuring that the right people have the right access while maintaining data integrity across the organization. Misconfiguring this area can lead to security gaps, data leakage, or frustrated users who cannot do their jobs.
As your Salesforce org grows and evolves, Users becomes increasingly important for governance. It helps administrators enforce business policies without writing code, making it an essential tool for the 80% of Salesforce customization that happens declaratively through clicks, not code.
How to set up Users
Users (Setup → Users → Users) is the central management hub for every User record in the org — create new users, freeze suspicious accounts, deactivate departing employees, reset passwords, mass-edit profiles. The day-2 admin home for user lifecycle. Distinct from the User object record itself; this is the management page.
- Open Setup → Users → Users
Setup gear → Quick Find: Users → Users (the second "Users" leaf, not Roles).
- Review the user list
Default view: All Users. Filter by Active / Inactive / Frozen. Each row: Full Name, Alias, Username, Last Login, Role, Active.
- For new users: New User (top-right)
See the user term's how-to for the full new-user flow.
- For password reset: tick rows → click Reset Password(s)
Sends password-reset emails. Bulk-select supports up to 200 users at once.
- For account freeze: click into the user → Freeze
Freeze blocks login without freeing the license. Useful for suspected compromise — you investigate before deactivating.
- For deactivation: edit the user → untick Active → Save
Deactivation frees the license. Records owned by the user stay; reassignment may be needed for cases / opps with active workflows.
- For mass-reassign owned records: tools include Mass Transfer Records
Setup → Mass Transfer Records lets you reassign Account / Lead / Custom Object records from a deactivated user to an active one.
Standard list view filters.
Blocks login without freeing the license. Reversible.
Frees the license. Reversible (re-activate).
Bulk select up to 200 users → trigger password resets.
Opens the user creation flow — see the user term's how-to.
- Users can never be deleted — only deactivated. Their User record and all owned data persist for audit. If you really need to remove identifiable info, use the Right to Be Forgotten workflow on the Individual record.
- Deactivating a user can break automation that runs as that user (default workflow user, scheduled Apex). Audit Setup → Process Automation Settings before deactivating system-account users.
- Frozen users count against active license usage. To free a license, deactivate — Freeze is for investigation, not capacity management.
How organizations use Users
Manages a fluctuating workforce of seasonal dispatchers using the Users page's Freeze action - inactive seasonal staff are frozen rather than deactivated so their record-ownership history stays intact. When the next season starts, a single click reactivates them with all prior view permissions preserved.
Built a Flow that, when triggered by an HRIS-driven user-deactivation event, also reassigns the user's open Cases and unconverted Leads to their manager and removes them from any active Queue membership. The Users page is where the original deactivation happens; the Flow handles every downstream cleanup the page does not.
Use Username-with-suffix conventions (`name@argonbluff.com.prod`, `name@argonbluff.com.uat`) so the same person can hold a Users record in both production and sandbox without conflict. The Users page's Username field is unique across the entire platform - the suffix sidesteps the issue without requiring separate email accounts.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Users.
- Manage UsersSalesforce Help
🧠 Test your knowledge
Q1. Can a Salesforce admin configure Users without writing code?
Q2. In which area of Salesforce would you typically find Users?
Q3. What is the primary benefit of Users for Salesforce administrators?
Discussion
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