Salesforce Beginner’s Guide to Setting Permissions to Prevent Unauthorized Customization of Reports

Someone else edited the report I worked so hard on without my permission!”
Such a sad thing can happen when using Salesforce.

For example, a report that you took the time to create for a sales meeting is edited by someone else and displayed in an unintended way….
In the worst case, “I don’t know who made the change.

To prevent such problems, it is recommended to set up the report so that it cannot be edited from the beginning.
In this article, we will explain in an easy-to-understand manner the “permission settings to prevent reports from being edited without permission,” which even Salesforce beginners can do.

1. The cause of the problem is the “Create and Customize Reports” privilege

In Salesforce, each user has a “profile” setting that determines the scope of operation.
The ” Create and customize reports” privilege is an important point that determines whether or not a report can be edited.

If this permission is enabled…

• You can freely edit the report
• Duplicate the report with “Save As
• You can delete the report.

In other words, you can modify reports created by others.

Examples of common problems

• The conditions of a report were changed without permission before the meeting.
• A report I created suddenly disappeared.
• Saved figures have been altered to a form different from the original intent.

This is a major disruption to business operations.

2. How to prevent a report from being edited

The recommended solution is to remove the “Create and customize reports” permission.
This will allow the user to only run (view) the report, but not edit or delete it.

The procedure is very simple.

Procedure: How to remove privileges

1. [Click on “Settings” (⚙️ icon)
2. Open “Users” > “Profiles
3. Select the profile that the target user is using.
4. Under “System Permissions” > “Reports and Dashboards
   Uncheck “Create and customize reports
5. Save and complete.

The user will no longer be able to edit reports.

3. Screen image after removing permissions

In Lightning Experience, the following items will disappear from the menu of the report screen after removing privileges.

• Edit (Salesforce Classic)
• Edit (Salesforce Classic)
• Save As
• Save as
• Delete
• Add to Campaign (for reports on leads and account managers)
• Add to Dashboard

This means a simple screen dedicated to “view only”.

This way, there is no need to worry about inadvertently destroying a report due to an operational error.

4. Cautions and operational tips

Removing privileges is safe, but there are a few points to keep in mind.

(1) Removing privileges will disable report creation itself.

Users who have had this privilege removed will not be able to create new reports.
Make sure to separate “viewers” and “creators”.

(2) Use permission sets if you want to allow editing of only certain parts of a report.

If you want to allow only certain users to edit a report but not others, it is convenient to use a permission set.
You can grant “Create and customize reports” privileges only to those who need them.

5. Conclusion

• Trouble with reports being edited without permission is caused by the “Create and customize reports” privilege.
• If you remove the permission, the report will be view-only, which is safe.
• The key is to separate the people who can create reports from those who can only view them.

Salesforce beginners tend to set up a situation where “anyone can create reports” at first.
However, as the operation progresses, the number of reports increases, and problems are likely to occur.

It will be much easier later on if you organize the permissions at an early stage and start separating the “creators” and “viewers”!

Reference links

• Official help on user profile permissions