As organisations grow, many divide their operations and workforce into territories and sub-territories, so that CRM shows people only the records and data belonging to their own area. There has been a gap in this model, however: when records are manually (re)assigned, the user selection pane has listed every user in the organisation, regardless of territory. That can lead to incorrect assignments, unintended exposure of records across territories, and incorrect contributions to forecasts and other evaluations.

Zoho CRM now fixes this at the user selection level with a new profile permission called Territory and sub-territory users only.

What the Permission Does

It is a demarcation-based profile permission that lists only the users belonging to a territory or sub-territory when selecting a user. It sits alongside the existing List subordinates only permission, as part of a permission group called User hierarchy filter.

How to Enable It

1. Open the profile you want to restrict.
2. Search for User hierarchy filter and switch its toggle on.
3. Select the Territory and sub-territory users only permission.

How It Behaves

• A user with the permission can see and select only users in the same sub-territory or territory as themselves.
• If a user is added to a sub-territory but not the wider territory, they will only see users in that same sub-territory.
• A user assigned to a territory can see users in the sub-territories nested beneath it.
• Users on the Admin profile can still see everyone, regardless of territory settings.

A Worked Example

Abigail, an SDR on the Inside Sales profile, converts a lead and creates a deal. She only handles top-of-funnel activity, so she wants to hand the pipeline to Davina on the field sales team. Both sit in the East Coast sub-territory, so with the permission enabled on her profile, Abigail can find Davina and assign the deal.

Now suppose the prospect wants billing and installation at a Seattle site, which falls in the West Coast sub-territory. Abigail cannot see West Coast users, as intended. She asks the sales manager, who belongs to the wider USA territory and can therefore see every user in every USA sub-territory, to reassign the deal.

Where the Permission Applies

It applies wherever a person manually changes an owner, including:

• Creating, importing, editing, transferring, changing, and converting records in Leads, Accounts, Contacts, or Deals, where territory management applies
• Mass transferring, mass converting, or mass updating records
• Sharing records and leaving in-note mentions
• User lookups in record forms and subforms, and owner lookups in the grid view
• Viewing wizards or Canvas details, and applying macros

Where It Does Not Apply