How to Create Reports and Dashboards in Salesforce

A report contains data in an organized form. Salesforce reports contain data that is organized according to predefined criteria. The data that is uploaded on Salesforce is used to generate reports. Reports on Salesforce can be shared according to the user’s needs. There are various types of folders available to store Salesforce Reports which decide the accessibility of that report. The folders could be hidden, public, shared, private, read-only, etc. Reports are consistently needed in an organization to help better understand different processes.

A dashboard is used to see a pictorial representation of reports. Organizing visual data together helps in understanding them faster. You can use the dashboard to show the reports in various forms of charts like pie charts, funnel charts, etc. You can add different components to a Dashboard. Each of these components will correspond to a particular report. A report can be a part of two or more components.

It is very simple and quick to create reports in Salesforce. Let us see how.

First, log in to your Salesforce association group and then click on Reports. You would be navigated to the below screen.

• Use the Create New Report folder to create a new report folder.
• The New Report button is used to create a new report.

The following are the four types of reports in Salesforce:

• Tabular Salesforce Report
• Summary Report in Salesforce
• Matrix Salesforce Report
• Joined Salesforce Report

Tabular reports are the basic and most simple form of Salesforce reports. They are especially useful in cases when you need to export data. Tabular reports show the data very effectively in rows and a tabular form. It is suggested not to use Tabular reports when you are manipulating the data in any way such as calculations, presenting totals, etc. The following image shows what a Tabular report should look like.

Summary reports are basically used to show groups of data. They are the most commonly used reports in Salesforce. You can group data in the name of different accounts and perform calculations to check the total, averages, maximum and minimum, etc. The grouping is mostly done in the form of rows. Summary reports are also highly used in cases where you wish to see which accounts are giving maximum and minimum revenues. Below is a sample image of a Summary report.

Matrix reports in Salesforce show the data in rows as well as columns. They are complex when compared to Tabular reports and are used specifically to display large amounts of complex data. Matrix reports are almost similar to Summary reports; in Summary reports, data grouping is done in rows and in Matrix reports, the same is done in both rows and columns.

By using Joined reports, you can create two separate reports and compare their individual data.

• Click on the Reports tab and then click on the New Report button

• Select the report type and click on Continue

• Click on Save when your report is created with your preferred report customization.

• Fill in the Report Name and click Save.

Note: Remember to fill in the compulsory fields before saving the report. Report Name is a compulsory field.

Now, let us discuss these areas in detail.

The Fields section shows all the fields related to the object. For grouping the fields, the buttons to the right of Fields—All, a, and #—are used; “All” displays all the fields, “a” displays the text fields, and “#” displays the text fields.

The Filters section is used when you wish to filter the reports and view only the required data. The filters that are available depend on the fields that have been set up by the administrator for account records.

Preview allows you to get a preview of the reports as per the given criteria. So, if you wish to view how the object data looks in tabular format, you can select the Tabular option. If you wish to view a report in the matrix format, select Matrix Report.

• To create a dashboard in Salesforce, go to the Dashboard tab and select New Dashboard.

• Enter the Dashboard name and click Create. You can select the Folder you want the Dashboard to be in.

• Please note that if you wish to create a dashboard in Tabular format, you need to apply Raw Limit and Dashboard Settings to the report.
• At the next step, go to Components.

• Click on the report you want to use, and click on Select.

• Select how you want your data to display as and click Add.

• Your report is added to the Dashboard. You can repeat the process to add other reports in the Dashboard as well.

Salesforce Reports and Dashboards form an integral part of every business strategy. They are required for getting insights for forecasting and developing better business strategies. Hence, learning to create interactive dashboards and insightful reports is very important.