Follow these 7 steps to quickly create a new report and a dashboard in Salesforce.
One of the main advantages of Salesforce is its built-in, rich, and simple-to-use functionalities to create reports with frequently used fields and make use of numerous data processing tools such as selecting/ groupings/ filtering/ analyzing/ visualizing data. These will be upmost useful when our Report will serve as foundation of a Dashboard, as a widget (also known as a window).
Most of the daily Salesforce users enter or update information in the consumer relationship management (CRM), but when it comes to analyze your clients, Reports and Dashboards are the proper tools. The sooner you get familiar with those, the better.
Step #1 - How to approach a Salesforce Report
The best way to prepare for making a Salesforce Report is to relate it to a spreadsheet (e.g., Excel, Google Sheets).
A Salesforce “Report” relates to an “Object” (e.g., Account, Contact, Opportunities), consists of a series of columns ("Fields") and rows (“Records”) that are relate to a particular Object.
In the example above, the spreadsheet has 3 Sheets (->“Objects”: Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities), each with unique Columns (->“Fields”, identified by column headers) and Rows (->“Records”, each identified by unique identification code/ ID).
In the example, Contact sheet has 5 columns (named: ID, First Name, Last Name, Title, and Email). An ID is a required identifier, it should be unique, otherwise could be anything (say C006, C007, C008, or else). Indeed, we smuggled to the ID column some cryptic strings: the column is named as SFID (for SalesForce ID), and contains SFID-like identifiers, just to familiarize you with Salesforce style.
If we change the sheet to Accounts or Opportunities, we will have different columns and rows (-> ”Fields” and “Records”). It is very similar in Salesforce, indeed.
Step #2 - Start Creating a Report
It is key to understand as when we start to build a Salesforce Report, we will have to decide which Object (-> Sheet) we want to create a Report on.
Now we enter Salesforce, go "Reports" tab, and click "New Report".
We will first be asked to select a “Report Type”: meaning, on which Salesforce Object we want to create a Report.
In this example, we want to know how many Contacts possesses email, as we intend to send newsletters to them. The closest listed Report Type name is "Contact & Accounts", so we select that.
Step #3 - Adding Fields and Filters to the Report
Salesforce provides us with abundant, pre-defined “Fields”, and with the option to select which fields we want to see in our Report.
On the left panel, under the "Outline" section, wed select which fields to display.
Another feature provided here is, that we can also Group fields (like a Pivot Table in Excel or Google Sheets) by selecting a field under "Group Rows".
Under the Filters sections, we can narrow down to records what we want in our Report. In our example, we only want the list of Contacts with available emails.
Step #4 - Saving the Report
Once we are satisfied with our forming Report, clicking on the "Save & Run" button we save and run it. Once you are satisfied with your Report, click on the "Save & Run" Button.
“Save” means that the Report is now available for future use, “Run” means that an up-to-the-minute report will immediately be generated. Now we can see and evaluate the report, correcting/ modifying it - or leaning back.
The newly created Report is available now, or later, or could be recalled whenever it is needed (filled with that-time data). A perfect attachment to a weekly newsletter.
A Report presents a “current” situation in time, when it is run. Of course, when it is run again, it presents that-time situation.
Reports are good foundations of Dashboards, which could be considered as “live document”, typically prepared for and seen on computer screens, in real time of the Salesforce user.
Let’s take a step further towards the Dashboards.
Step #5 - Creating a New Dashboard
To create a new dashboard, we navigate to the "Dashboard" tab and click on "New Dashboard".
Here we select the Report we saved in Step 4 (to build our new dashboard on it) by clicking on "+ Component". That is it.
Step #6 - Modifying the Widget in the Dashboard
Now we can modify our widget's display with the Component options (left column).
Step #7 - Saving the Dashboard
Clicking on the "Save" button, we will be asked to specify a location. Once that's done, we can click on "Done" and we will be able to see our newly created Dashboard.
You've made it!
Whenever you will be creating a new Report or Dashboard, keep the result in mind with the following question: what information do you want to see? This will help you to narrow down which Report Type to use and then how to create the widget on your Dashboard.
Watch the video below.
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