EN Login Sign Up
Features Pricing Knowledge Base Contact
EN
Login Sign Up
Back to Knowledge Base Security

Scope visibility with Circles

Share customers, deals, files, and projects with specific team members, without building a second CRM.

6 min read

The circles settings page with member counts per circle

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.
1

Create a circle

Define the group and invite members.

The new circle form with name, color, and members
  1. 1Go to Settings → Circles.
  2. 2Click New circle and give it a name (e.g. "Sales EMEA").
  3. 3Add team members to the circle. Users can belong to several circles at once.
2

Scope a record

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

The visibility picker on a record with tenant, circles, and owner modes
  1. 1Open a customer, deal, file, or project.
  2. 2Set Visibility to Tenant, Circle, or Owner only.
  3. 3If you pick Circle, choose which circle should see the record.
  4. 4Save. Users outside that circle no longer see the record in lists, searches, or autocomplete.
3

Verify access

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

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

Tips & best practices

  • Start with a single circle per department to 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, so iterate as team structure changes.
  • Notes on a deal inherit the deal's visibility, so no separate scope is needed.
  • Deleting a circle preserves records but clears the grant, so 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

Ready to scope visibility properly?

Start your free OneBob trial and set up circles in minutes.

Start free trial