Universal Containers uses a private sharing model on Accounts. User A and user B both own Accounts of their own and have both been sent a new account…

The question addresses record-level access in a private Organization-Wide Default (OWD) model, where the role hierarchy is not the differentiating factor. The discrepancy in access between User A and User B must be due to other sharing mechanisms.

1. Account Teams (A): A user can be granted access to a specific Account record by being added to its Account Team. If User A is on the team for User C's account, they would have access.

2. Manual Sharing (C): The record owner (User C) can use the "Sharing" button to manually grant access to specific users. This is a direct way to provide access to User A but not User B.

3. Sharing Rules (E): An administrator can create sharing rules that grant access to records based on ownership or criteria. If a rule shares records with a public group that User A is a member of, User A would gain access.

These three options represent the standard methods for extending record-level access beyond ownership and the role hierarchy.

B. User A and user B have different profiles.

This is unlikely because both users own their own Account records, which confirms they have the necessary object-level "Read" permission on their profiles. The issue is record-level, not object-level access.

D. User A was granted an additional permission set.

While a permission set could grant "View All" access, this is a broad object-level override, not a specific record-sharing mechanism. The other options are more precise methods for sharing individual records.

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1. Salesforce Documentation, A Guide to Sharing Architecture, PDF, Page 11, "Declarative Sharing": This document outlines the primary methods of declarative sharing. It explicitly lists Role Hierarchy, Sharing Rules, and Manual Sharing as key components. It also discusses Teams (e.g., Account Teams) as a method for sharing specific records.

"Sharing rules represent the exceptions to your organization-wide default settings... to give them access to records they don’t own." (Supports E)

"Manual sharing provides a mechanism for users to share records with other users on a one-off basis." (Supports C)

2. Salesforce Help, Control Who Sees What, "Sharing Settings": This section details how OWDs set the baseline and how sharing rules, roles, and manual sharing grant wider access. It confirms that in a private model, other mechanisms are required for non-owners to see records.

3. Salesforce Help, Set Up Account Teams, "How Do Account Teams Affect Account Access?": "Adding a team member to an account’s team gives that member access to the account." This directly supports option A as a valid reason for User A to have access.

4. Salesforce Help, Share Records Using Manual Sharing, "Considerations for Manual Sharing": "Manual sharing gives other users access to certain records... Use manual sharing to grant access to a specific record to a user or group of users." This directly supports option C.