Every record in Zoho CRM has an Owner field (a user lookup field). Record ownership determines default visibility and is the foundation of data access control.
Ownership assignment mechanisms:
- Manual: User selects owner during record creation or edit.
- Assignment Rules (automated): Round-robin or criteria-based assignment on record creation or import (Zoho CRM help: Assigning Record Owner).
- Workflow "Assign Owner" action: Triggered on workflow criteria; supports Users, Roles, or User Field-based categories; round-robin distribution; online-user filter option; and transfer of related records to the new owner (Zoho CRM help: Assigning Record Owner).
- Zia Assignment: AI-driven assignment based on geography, industry, product interest, workload, and historical performance (Zoho CRM Zia overview).
Key rule: Record owners always have access to their own records regardless of territory or sharing rule settings (Marks Group: Territory Management).
Team Selling and Deal Split (2025): Multiple users can be formally added as contributors to a single Deal. Revenue credit is split by percentage among contributors, enabling collaborative deal management and accurate forecasting attribution (Zoho CRM 2025 highlights).