How to create Reports in Salesforce

There’s lots of information and data in your org, but you need to visualize trends, progress, and the relationships between different types of data of your projects. Salesforce has built-in functionality that allows you to build reports and create charts to visualize the data you’ve consolidated.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to create your own reports in Salesforce.

How to Create Salesforce Reports

Step 1: create your report type

Click on the tab “Reports” in either the tabs at the top of your org header or in the search for the “Reports” item in the App Launcher.

On the right top corner below the tab header, you’ll see two types of New Reports, depending on which Salesforce interface you prefer to use, Lightning or Classic. When creating a new report, you’ll have the option to select different report types.

Salesforce has standard types of reports available. Depending on the objects in your org and what your org admin has created, you may be able to see additional report types related to your objects. You can create a report with up to four linearly related objects.

Step 2: build out your report

Once you’ve selected your report type, you are now able to build out your report. On the left sidebar under “Outline,” you can choose how you’d like to group your data by rows and columns (if available), and select what data to display by searching for fields in the “Columns” section.

You can also see all available fields by clicking on the sideways “Fields” to the left of the sidebar, and drag and drop them into the appropriate sections. After choosing your columns, you can drag and drop your fields in the sidebar to reorder your columns.

If you want to group by one of the selected columns, you can drag and drop it under “Group Rows” or “Group Columns.”

Tip: You can see all of the changes made to your report immediately by toggling on the “Update Preview Automatically” in the top right corner of the preview screen. If you choose to turn off this toggle, you can click “Refresh” on the left side of the preview screen once you’d like to preview the changes you’ve made to the report.

Step 3: set your filters

Now with all of your data, you can set filters in the same sidebar under the “Filters” tab. You can filter by fields, time frame, and record type (All types of records, your records, or your team’s records). You can also add cross filters to filter across objects.

If you have multiple additional filters, you can add a filter logic to make sure your data is filtered in a particular order. After you have run your report, you and your users can adjust the filters by clicking on the filter icon on the report.

Step 4: control how you display your data

At the bottom of the preview screen you’ll have a few toggles that control how you display your data in your report. This can also be controlled once you’ve run and saved your report.

But oh, no! You can’t see all of your data in the report in the main section. No worries, Salesforce only shows a limited number of records.

Once you run your report, you’ll be able to see all of your data. To run your report, go to the right hand corner of the app, click “Save & Run.”

You will have the option to name your report and move it to a particular folder in your org. Click “Save.”

Congratulations! You’ve created a report!

Step 5: future edits

You can also make changes to your report later down the road by clicking the “Edit” button in the top right corner of the report.

Tip: If you need to run a quick report without needing to save the changes you’ve made to the report, you can just click “Run” instead of “Save & Run.” You can also save the report without running it by clicking “Save.”

Step 6: how to visualize your data

With so much data in your report, it can be useful to create a visual representation of the data you’ve gathered. To create a chart, you need at least one group by rows in your report. In the top right corner, click “Add Chart.” (This can also be done before you save your report in the editing screen.)

The default chart style that will appear is the horizontal bar chart. You can change the chart properties, such as type and axes, by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner of the chart. Once you’ve created your chart and saved your report, you can toggle it on or off on the report by clicking the pie chart icon.

Additional Report Building Capabilities to Consider

There are many more powerful report builder features that you can use to create the best report possible. This includes bucketing columns, creating summary formulas, conditional formatting, and specifying how you would like to summarize columns (Sum, Average, Minimum, Maximum).

We encourage you to check out the resources in our “Useful Links” section to learn more about using these features and practice building reports.

Using Reports in Your Org

Reports are a great tool to understand how your business processes are running by gathering the necessary information from the objects in your org and creating a visual representation.

You can have reports appear on record pages to give the user a quick glance of the status of the record as it relates to other objects. For example, a user can look at an Account record with a report chart showing all of their opportunities’ statuses.

If you have reports that provide a general overview for your users, you can use the reports on a Dashboard that would provide a one-stop view for users to visualize the necessary processes.

Using Reports Within Cloud Coach

Cloud Coach provides additional report types on Cloud Coach objects, such as Projects, Tasks, Tickets, Expense, and more.

You can track the progress of your projects through reports, in addition to our very own Status Report on the Summary page. You can surface reports on Lightning record pages and on the homepage of the app.

Useful links

Hands on learning experience for Lightning Reports

Hands on learning experience for Classic Reports

Bucketing Columns

Reporting with Formulas

Learn more about Joined Reports

AUTHOR

Cloud Coach

Cloud Coach specializes in enterprise-class project, PSA & PPM software built for businesses that want to make strategic investments in their success.

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