Question:

How to determine why an end-user has access to a record in Salesforce.com (SFDC)?

Answer:

To determine if an end-user has access to a record in SFDC, follow these steps (Open the images in new tabs in order to read them):

1. Access the sharing detail of the record, by clicking on the Sharing button.
   The sharing detail page is displayed:
   
2. Click on the Expand List button.
   On the next page, all of the end-users who have access are displayed.
   
3. Click on the Why? button to view the exact access explanation:
   

Alternatively, if the Sharing button is not placed on the layout, the following links can be used to access the page:

• For accounts: (SFDC instance link)/p/share/AccSharingDetail?parentId=(id of the record)
• For custom objects: (SFDC instance link)/p/share/CustomObjectSharingDetail?parentId=(id of the record)

Note: Be sure to check and consider the Default Internal Access and Default External Access Sharing Setting Options, as the Default Internal Access Sharing option is the relevant one in most cases in Sharing Settings. The Sharing button does not check for / does not make a difference between these Sharing options.

Related Documentation: