Control who sees what with Circles

What Circles solve

Circles are lightweight visibility groups. When a user belongs to a circle, they can see the records shared with that circle — and no others. Use them to:

Separate sales regions (EMEA, NA, APAC) without a separate tenant
Keep strategic accounts visible only to a named team
Limit contractor or junior-rep access to confidential deals
Share a customer with a partner team without exposing the rest

Estimated setup time: 10 minutes for a first circle.

Before you begin

You need admin access to create and edit circles.
Admins always see every record regardless of circle membership.
Existing records keep their default visibility until you explicitly scope them.

Create a circle

Define the group and invite members.

1 Go to Settings → Circles.
2 Click New circle and give it a name (e.g. "Sales EMEA").
3 Add team members to the circle — users can belong to several circles at once.

Scope a record

Pick the visibility mode per record at creation or from the edit page.

1 Open a customer, deal, file, or project.
2 Set Visibility to Tenant, Circle, or Owner only.
3 If you pick Circle, choose which circle should see the record.
4 Save — users outside that circle no longer see the record in lists, searches, or autocomplete.

Verify access

Confirm the scope is working before relying on it for sensitive data.

1 Sign in as a user outside the circle and confirm the record is not visible.
2 Check related list views (deals on the customer, files on the deal) — the filter applies everywhere.
3 Admin users always see the record — this is by design for audit access.

Tips & best practices

Start with a single circle per department — avoid over-engineering on day one.
Use Owner only for personal drafts you're not ready to share with the team.
Changing visibility is free and instant — iterate as team structure changes.
Notes on a deal inherit the deal's visibility — no separate scope needed.
Deleting a circle preserves records but clears the grant — scope them again before deletion.

Need help?

If a record unexpectedly disappears for a user, check circle membership first — the most common cause is a user being added to a new circle but removed from another.

Contact support

Scope visibility with Circles