Report and dashboard folder sharing versus record-level access
Key Takeaway
Folder access decides who can open a report or dashboard. Record-level access decides which records they see. To reveal hidden records, grant record access. To show each viewer only their own records on one shared dashboard, make it a dynamic dashboard.
Salesforce stores reports and dashboards in folders, and you share them by sharing the folder. Folder access decides who can open, save, or manage a report or dashboard. Which records that person sees is a separate layer, set by record-level access. In Agentforce Financial Services, Compliant Data Sharing is one way to control record access. Dashboards add one more piece: a running user whose access decides what viewers see.
Folders and records are separate layers
Reports and dashboards are stored in folders. To share a report or dashboard, you share its folder, not the report or dashboard itself. A folder can be private, public, shared with specific users, or shared with the whole organization.
Giving a user access to a folder lets them reach the reports and dashboards in it, but folder access doesn't mean they see all the data. Security controls on the data, such as roles and permissions, still decide what a report shows. So when a user runs a report, they see only the records their own record-level access allows.
Priya, a branch manager, gets access to the Client Reviews folder. She opens the Accounts by Advisor report inside it. Marco built the report and sees many rows when he runs it. Priya sees fewer rows, because the report lists only the accounts her own record access allows. Folder access let her open the report, and her record access decided which rows appear.