In today’s data-driven business landscape, having access to real-time insights is crucial for making informed decisions. Salesforce is nothing but a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with a wide user base. It offers robust tools for creating dashboards and reports that empower organizations to visualize and analyze data efficiently. In this blog, we will delve into the essential steps to build effective dashboards and reports in Salesforce, enabling businesses to harness the power of data for better decision-making.
What is a dashboard in Salesforce?
Salesforce dashboards enable you to build a visual representation of data extracted from Salesforce reports. Each dashboard is made up of components, which are various sorts of charts, graphs, and tables that provide a quick overview of essential indicators for your business.
What is a dynamic dashboard in Salesforce?
A Salesforce dynamic dashboard is a single dashboard that allows you to expose essential information to many types of stakeholders, such as employees, CEOs, CFOs, clients, and customers, based on their permissions and needs, without having to develop separate dashboards for each one.
The distinction between Salesforce reports and dashboards
Before we get into the different Salesforce report types, let’s review the distinction between reports and dashboards.
A report is merely a series of data points or records created based on the criteria you specify. Your reports will be shown in columns and rows in Salesforce. Reports can be refined by filtering them or grouping them with other data sets.
Each Salesforce report is saved in its own folder. You can restrict access to these reports by configuring custom permissions. Reports can be made public, shared, or remain private.
Unlike Salesforce reports, which are displayed in columns and rows, the dashboard provides a visual representation of this data. Each dashboard component displays data from a single report. There is no component that will display data from numerous reports.
On the other hand, a Salesforce report can be viewed using a variety of dashboarding tools. For example, you can turn report data into a pie chart or a bar chart.
Salesforce’s dashboard is quite customizable. You can include several dashboard features on your page. This adaptability enables you to quickly consume information from many Salesforce reports containing linked data.
Salesforce reports and its 4 types
Salesforce reports enable you to quickly and easily understand data in your system. This information can be used to inform corporate decisions and improve consumer relations.
Salesforce provides four different sorts of reports. Each report format is intended for a unique type of data examination. Some reports just provide a high-level overview of specific data, but others provide more in-depth insights.
The following are the four Salesforce report types:
Summary – Popular & Common
Salesforce Summary Reports are one of the most fundamental and widely utilized types of reports. A summary report can be generated to display different groupings of data.
You can group data from different accounts when creating a summary report. Then, your team can compute KPIs such as average sales, minimum purchase quantities, total income earned, and so on.
Summary reports are an excellent approach to determining which services or items are most popular with your customers. You may also use summary reports to determine which accounts are earning a lot of money.
Tabular – The simplest and fastest export format
Tabular reports are quite simple and are mostly used to prepare data for export. Your data will be shown in rows when you build a Salesforce tabular report. If you intend to change or engage with the data, avoid using tabular reports.
Tabular reports are an excellent tool for completing activities such as exporting a mailing list. The essential information, which may include client names and email addresses, is easily accessible to the report’s addressee. Salesforce dashboards also provide tabular reports.
Matrix- Excellent for large data sets
Salesforce Matrix Reports are among the most complex sorts of reports on the platform. Setting up matrix report creation also takes a long time because you can group data by columns and rows. Dashboard tools can be utilized with matrix reports, just as summary and tabular reports.
When reviewing statistics such as the number of products sold or revenue totals, the matrix reporting format is an excellent choice. Once the report has been prepared, you can easily skim through it to discover the information you need.
Joined Reports – Dataset comparison
Salesforce’s Joined Reports function, as the name implies, allows you to generate two separate reports and ‘join’ the data. Each report’s data will be displayed side by side so you may compare the two sets of information.
While most users only create two reports using the Joined Reports functionality, you can add up to five separate blocks. This tool might provide you with vital information about a certain account.
The only Salesforce reports that are incompatible with dashboarding solutions are joined reports. This conflict exists because a dashboard component can only display information from a single report.
As many businesses prefer to view data visually, the Joined Reports feature is one of the least used types of Salesforce reporting products.
How to create a Salesforce report? (step-by-step guide)
Now that we’ve gone over the various report types let’s look at how to create a report in Salesforce.
When you’re ready to start building your Salesforce report, go to the Salesforce Report Builder. The Builder can be found on the top toolbar under the ‘Reports’ option. After opening the Salesforce Report Builder, choose ‘New Report.’
You will then be asked to select a report type and category. When building your first Salesforce report, start with a summary report.
If you already know what type of report you want to produce, use the search box at the top of the new window to find it. Otherwise, navigate through the available selections until you locate the category you want.
Then, select which filters you want to apply by clicking on the ‘Filters’ option. After that, you must switch to the ‘Outline’ tab. You can specify which fields should appear in your Salesforce report on this tab. Finally, click ‘Save & Run,’ and your report will be generated.
The procedure outlined above is utilized whenever you need to build a Salesforce report. When developing Matrix Reports, you will need to take a few more steps when choosing your filters and outlining.
Tableau analytics and reports- How to integrate Salesforce data
Salesforce reporting capabilities, on their own, can provide some useful information on the progress of your organization. However, if you want to conduct meaningful data analysis, you must integrate your Salesforce data into a full analytics application, such as Tableau. Tableau empowers you to examine your data, generate understandable reports, and much more.
The Salesforce native solution can be quickly deployed, allowing you to begin integrating your data into Tableau right away. This integration, however, might have some things that could be improved.
To summarize
In the data-driven era, the ability to transform raw data into actionable insights is a competitive advantage. Salesforce’s dashboard and reporting capabilities empower businesses to extract meaningful information from their data, facilitating better decision-making across the organization. At Victrix, we understand your objectives, select the right data, and create visually appealing dashboards. You can unlock the full potential of your Salesforce CRM and drive your business toward success with us.
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