---
schema_version: "1"
id: 81428ca94bdbc8acc3bc2fcf75b61927168a3695103d9300ef50dce774a6af5f
title: Administrators and Separation of Duties
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/users_separation_duties.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.users_separation_duties.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 288acb26ac7eca4a5cbd52079f85eb0c5ed8e1c460c142b02b5ecd728805c57a
description: Separating duties limits the power of any one person or entity so that you can help prevent a single point of failure. For example, you can have two or more administrators who have responsibilities for administering different portions of your org. If you have only one administrator, consider assigning a backup person to the role. You can give the backup person the same access that your primary administrator has.
products:
  - Security
  - Salesforce Platform
release: "264"
---
# Administrators and Separation of Duties

Separating duties limits the power of any one person or entity so that you can help prevent a single point of failure. For example, you can have two or more administrators who have responsibilities for administering different portions of your org. If you have only one administrator, consider assigning a backup person to the role. You can give the backup person the same access that your primary administrator has.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">The availability of each permission set license depends on the edition requirements for permission sets and the related feature.</td></tr></tbody></table>

While the practice of having one person perform all administrative duties can make sense, it can lead to troubles. For example, what if:

- Your administrator falls ill, and a mission-critical change must be made to your org.
- Your administrator left your company on unhappy terms but is the only person who has the administrator profile credentials.

Prevent possible problems by ensuring that more than one person can perform key administrative tasks. Consider implementing a process to ensure business continuity if your sole administrator is unavailable. You can also delegate administration tasks by assigning a delegated administrator.

- **[Define Delegate Administrators](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.delegating_user_administration.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Enable delegated administrators to manage users in specified roles and all subordinate roles. You can assign specified profiles to those users, and log in as users who have granted login access to administrators. A delegated administration group is a group of users who have the same admin privileges. These groups are not related to public groups used for sharing.
- **[Delegate Administrative Duties](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.admin_delegate.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use delegated administration to assign limited admin privileges to users in your org who aren’t administrators. For example, let’s say you want the Customer Support team manager to manage users in the Support Manager role and all subordinate roles. Create a delegated admin for this purpose so that you can focus on other administration tasks.
- **[Delegate Site Administration to an External User](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.networks_DPUA.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Delegate the administration of your site to an external user to increase your site’s capacity for growth and reduce bottlenecks. External administrators can add, update, and disable members, and they can reset passwords and manage user permissions.