What is the main purpose of Criteria-based Sharing Rules?

The main purpose of Criteria-based Sharing Rules is to share records based on specific criteria. This type of sharing rule allows organizations to automatically share records with particular groups of users based on field values, such as record types, field data, or other attributes of the records. This means that when certain conditions are met—such as the status of an opportunity being "Closed Won"—the defined users or groups will automatically gain access to those records.

Criteria-based sharing rules are especially helpful in large organizations where manual sharing would be too time-consuming and impractical. They ensure that users who need access to certain records for their roles can receive it without individual interventions, improving efficiency and data accessibility across the organization.

Other choices do not accurately capture the primary function of Criteria-based Sharing Rules: manually sharing records pertains to a direct interaction that must be done user by user; automation via workflow rules deals with a different process of actions triggered under particular conditions; and default sharing for new users speaks to a general sharing model that applies uniformly rather than specific record criteria.