How an administrator creates, configures and edits Circles. This is an administrator-only task: you need Administrator access in SwiftFox to reach Circle settings. Setting Circles up incorrectly can hide records or lock teams out of data, so plan your structure before you begin (see Circles — Limitations & best practice).
Before you start
- Confirm you have Administrator access. If you cannot see the Circle settings option, your admin toggle may not be enabled — contact your SwiftFox administrator.
- Design your Segments first, then group them into Workspaces and Hubs. Criteria are only ever set on Segments.
Open Circle settings
- Go to Administration in the Settings menu.
- Open Circle Settings.
- You'll see a table of all existing Circles showing each Circle's name, type, and any linked Hubs or Segments.
Create a Circle
- Select Create Circle at the top of the page. A slide-out panel opens.
- Enter a name for the Circle.
- Select the type: Segment, Workspace or Hub.
- Configure the type-specific settings (see below).
- Assign access to users or user groups.
- Save the Circle.
Edit a Circle
Select the three-dot menu at the right-hand end of the Circle's row and choose Edit.
Configure a Segment
Segmentation criteria settings are only available for Segments — not for Workspaces or Hubs.
- Select Set Up to open the List Builder and define the criteria for the Contacts that should belong to this Segment. You can also set criteria for organisations.
- From the Segment settings you can select which Hubs this Segment belongs to.
- After you save, the criteria are evaluated overnight — Contacts appear in the Segment the following morning, not immediately.
Configure a Workspace
- Optionally select the Hub this Workspace belongs to.
- Select the Segments that make up this Workspace. Those Segments define which Contacts users in the Workspace can see.
- You cannot set criteria at Workspace level — all criteria are set on the Segments.
Configure a Hub
- Optionally select the parent Hub this Hub belongs to (for nested structures).
- Select the Workspaces or sub-Hubs that sit within this Hub.
- Criteria are not set at Hub level.
Assign user access
For any Circle type you can assign access to individual users or to user groups. Users can be assigned directly to a Circle without needing a dedicated user group, which simplifies setup when only one or two people need access to a specific Circle. Only Circles that have been explicitly assigned to a user (or their group) appear in that user's Circle dropdown.
Managing a user's Circles from their profile
You can also work the other way round — open a user and manage their Circles there, which is easier when you are setting one person up rather than filling a Circle.
- Go to Settings → Users & access → Users.
- Select the user to open their drawer. It has four sections: User details, Groups, Circles and Permission flags.
- In the Circles section, search all active Circles and add the ones this user should reach, or remove one to take the access away.
The drawer shows only direct assignments — the note reads "Only circles explicitly assigned to this user are shown here." Circles the user reaches through a user group are not listed, so an empty Circles section does not mean the user has no Circle access. Check the Groups section as well, which carries the note "Access is inherited from the groups this user belongs to."
Removing a Circle here only removes the direct assignment. If the user is also in a group that grants that Circle, they keep the access through the group — you would need to change the group instead. This mirrors how the Permission flags table behaves, where every permission shows which group granted it (see Users & group membership).
Related capabilities
- Circles — Overview — what Segments, Workspaces, Hubs, the Global Circle and Global People are.
- Sharing resources across Circles — how resources created at Hub or Global level flow down.
- Circles — Limitations & best practice — overnight sync, design guidance and features not yet Circle-compliant.