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Writer's pictureRimsha Rasheed

Mastering Salesforce Reports and Dashboards: A Step-by-Step Guide

Updated: Sep 12, 2023




Salesforce reports and dashboards are essential for getting insightful analyses of your company's data. Access to reliable and timely information is critical for a business owner or manager to make informed decisions and drive success. You may analyze trends, follow important metrics, and find areas for improvement with the help of Salesforce reports and dashboards, which give you a thorough and appealing depiction of your data.


You can use the power of your data and make data-driven decisions by mastering the features of Salesforce reports and dashboards. You can learn important insights about your company's sales success, client behavior, and general business operations. With these insights, you can spot growth prospects, improve your tactics, and beat the competition.


Let’s dive deep and explore a step-by-step approach to effectively utilizing Salesforce reports and dashboards. Whether you are new to Salesforce or looking to enhance your existing skills, this guide will walk you through creating customized reports, designing impactful KPI dashboards, and leveraging the full potential of Salesforce's reporting capabilities.


Understanding Salesforce Reports


Salesforce reports are an effective tool for analyzing and visualizing your company's data, giving you the knowledge you need to make wise decisions. Salesforce offers a variety of report kinds to meet different needs for data analysis:


  • Tabular Reports: Tabular reports offer a clear view of individual records by presenting data in a basic, table-like style. They help list data, such as contact information or information about opportunities.

  • Summary Reports: Summary reports present grouped data that has been summarized. They enable you to view data at various aggregation levels and give you information on subtotals, grand totals, and subgroups. Summary reports are useful for analyzing data in various dimensions and spot patterns.

  • Matrix Reports: You can compare data across rows and columns using matrix reports, which provide a cross-tabular view of the data. They can analyze data from various angles, including regional sales performance and product type.


Methods for creating reports


Salesforce provides two ways to create reports:


  • Criteria-Based Report Creation: With this technique, the records that should be included in the report are chosen based on specified criteria, such as filters. You can use it to generate reports based on particular criteria, such as prospects with closing dates within a certain time frame or leads from a particular source.

  • Formulizing Reports: Formulizing reports based on formulae enables you to construct custom calculations and formulas to glean new insights from your data. You can construct formula fields to do calculations, apply logic, or integrate data from various fields.


Report Selection Based on Data


Your requirements for data analysis will determine which report type is best:


  • For short, comprehensive lists of records, use tabular reports.

  • Choose summary reports when you need to aggregate or organize data and display subtotals.

  • When comparing data across various dimensions, choose matrix reports.

  • When you need specific conditions or unique computations in your reports, consider creating them using criteria or formulas.


Creating and Sharing Dashboards


Salesforce dashboards enable data-driven decisions by visualizing and tracking crucial KPIs. Take these actions:


  • Introduce Salesforce dashboards to visualize data, track metrics, and make real-time choices.

  • Go to the Dashboard tab, click "New Dashboard," give it a name, and choose the format to create a new dashboard.

  • Use the Dashboard Builder to include charts, tables, and metrics.

  • Optimise space by logically grouping similar components and arranging them in rows.

  • By adding filters, users can customize displays and study particular data subsets.

  • Create dynamic dashboards for different users to personalize insights.


Leveraging Advanced Dashboard Features


Salesforce offers enhanced functions in addition to the standard features to improve KPI dashboard utilization and give a more engaging and dynamic experience. Here are some important aspects to think about:


  • Dashboard Drill-Downs: Create drill-downs in your dashboards to enable users to study the underlying data more thoroughly. Users can access the corresponding reports or records by clicking on data points or summary values in some dashboard components with drill-down links, allowing for a deeper level of examination.

  • Scheduled Dashboard Refreshes and Email Notifications: By setting up automatic refreshes and email notifications, you can keep your dashboards current and guarantee that stakeholders receive relevant insights. You can plan email notifications to be sent to particular users or distribution lists regularly and establish a refresh frequency to ensure the data is always up to date.

  • Dashboard Filters: Make your dashboards unique by adding filters that let users change the data shown based on their preferences. Users can interactively select numbers, date ranges, or other criteria to narrow the information displayed by adding dashboard filters, giving them a more unique and pertinent view of the data.

  • Dashboard Templates: Salesforce offers dashboard templates to simplify dashboard building and guarantee consistency across numerous dashboards. These pre-defined layouts, complete with pre-configured components, filters, and settings, serve as templates. You may save time, maintain a unified look and feel, and guarantee scalability as you construct and share numerous dashboards using templates.


Best Practices for Salesforce Reports and Dashboards


Designing effective reports and dashboards requires following these best practices:


  • Ensure accurate, consistent, and relevant data.

  • Organize and categorize reports and dashboards logically.

  • Consider user accessibility and security.

  • Regularly review and refresh reports and dashboards.

  • Incorporate user feedback for improvements.

  • Provide training and documentation for users.


By following these best practices, you can create and manage efficient Salesforce reports and dashboards that offer precise insights, align with corporate goals, and aid in informed decision-making. Your reports and dashboards' relevance is ensured by routinely reviewing and updating them, and their usability and cooperation are improved by organizing and categorizing them. Include user input and offer sufficient training to get the most out of these crucial tools.


Wrapping Up


You can master Salesforce reports and dashboards by using the pertinent data and the significance of these tools for data-driven decision-making. You can make reports and dashboards more useful by classifying and organizing them, taking user accessibility and security into account, and routinely reviewing and updating your insights.


Remember that learning to use Salesforce reports and dashboards effectively takes time. Continually look for ways to enhance and optimize your reports, considering user input and offering training and documentation to boost usability. Accept the value of data-driven decision-making and unlock Salesforce's full potential to advance your company.


Salesforce reports and dashboards let you explore, improve, and practice data analysis and decision-making. Your path to data-driven success has begun!



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