Add Ability to Restrict Views/Access Based on Business Units

[DEmmanuel]

Currently, HubSpot lacks the functionality to restrict record views (e.g., contacts, companies) based on assigned Business Units (BUs). While it is possible to manage access through "Team Only" permissions, this method requires assigning contacts to specific team members. However, newly created contacts without an owner remain visible to all users, even if a BU is already assigned to the record.

This limitation creates challenges for organizations managing multiple BUs, as users cannot be restricted to only seeing records associated with their BU unless every contact has an owner.

A proposed solution would be to enable user permissions to restrict access based on the BU assigned to records. This feature would enhance security, improve usability, and streamline workflows for organizations with multiple BUs.

I believe this would significantly benefit HubSpot users, and I encourage the product team to consider implementing this feature. 

[Gortiz10]

We need this! 

[JIrwin33]

The workaround I use for now if helpful: 

You can use Custom Owner Properties for permissions.  When you set a user's permission to view/edit/delete any records they or their team own - HubSpot will look at all HubSpot User type properties on that object.  e.g. Brand A Owner, Brand B Owner, Brand C Owner custom properties. 

Note that permission to view a record with an 'Unassigned owner' is different - It always refers to the default record owner property i.e. if you tick that a user can see unassigned companies, they will be able to see any companies without a Company Owner, it will not refer to custom owner properties in that instance.  (simply don't allow access to unassigned if you need permissions to refer to the Business Unit Permission properties)

[DEmmanuel]

Hi JIrwin33,

Thanks for sharing this workaround! It’s definitely helpful in some cases, but it doesn’t fully solve the issue.

The main limitations are:

• It relies on ownership assignment, meaning if a record is unassigned, access control won’t work as expected.
• The unassigned records issue means teams could still see contacts that shouldn’t be visible to them unless strict ownership rules are enforced.
• There’s no native way to restrict access purely based on Business Units, making it more complex to manage at scale.

For large organizations with multiple business units, a built-in solution that directly ties access to the Business Unit property would be much more effective. Do you know if there are any plans to introduce this as a feature?

Thanks again for your insights!

[JIrwin33]

@DEmmanuel A colleague actually shared with me perhaps a better approach. 

They recommended another way to achieve this with Teams Permissions if easier.  See below structure as an example:

Team 1 - Brand A
Team 1.1 - Brand A Sales
Team 1.2 - Brand A Mkt

Team 2 - Brand B
Team 2.1 - Brand B Sales
Team 2.2 - Brand B Mkt

Team 3 - Brand C
Team 3.1 - Brand C Sales
Team 3.2 - Brand C Mkt