Record Ownership

When a new record is created, it’s owned by the user who created it. The owner has full control over the record. The owner can read, edit, and delete the record; share with other users; and transfer ownership to a different user.

You can experiment with record ownership by creating a record in the native user interface and examining its detail. Notice that its owner field is set to your user, the user creating the record. To share the record with others, click the Sharing button. To transfer ownership, click the Change link beside the owner name.

Owners are typically individual users, but a queue can also be an owner. A queue is a holding area for records to which users are assigned. When a user takes ownership of a record in queue, it leaves the queue and is assigned directly to that user. To configure queues, go to the Administration Setup area and click Manage Users, Queues.

Most objects support record ownership. The notable exception is child objects in a Master-Detail relationship. Records in these child objects have no owners. They inherit ownership from their parent records, and changes in ownership must be made on the parent record.