Reports in Salesforce

Reports and Dashboards in Salesforce

Reports and Dashboards provide the answers to the questions which are important for an organization/business.

For example,

• How many leads got converted into accounts?
• Which sales team has generated the maximum leads?
• How many employees got a bonus of more than 20% this year?
• Etc.

The answers to these questions are provided in Salesforce using Reports & Dashboards which automatically gives answers to these questions by using the data (records) present in the different objects in the organization.

What Is Salesforce Reports?

Reports in Salesforce are tabular or similar to tabular representation(with the option to display charts)  of the list of records that meet a particular criterion that gives an answer to question(s). This list of records in reports can be filtered or grouped based on any field.

What Is Salesforce Report Type?

Report type determines which set of records and fields will be available in a report. Every report is based on a particular report type. The report type(custom or standard) is selected first when we create a report. Every report type has a primary object and one or more related objects. All these objects must be linked together either directly or indirectly.

Note:

1. A report type cannot include more than 4 objects.
2. Once a report is created, its report type cannot be changed.

Types Of Reports In Salesforce 

1. Standard Report Types

Standard Report Types are automatically included with standard objects and also with custom objects where “Allow Reports” is checked.

Standard Report Types cannot be customized and automatically include standard and custom fields for each object within the report type. Standard report types get created when an object is created, and also when a relationship is created.

Note: 

Standard report types always have inner joins.

2. Custom Report Types 

Custom report types are reporting templates created to streamline the reporting process. Custom Reports are created by an administrator or User with “Manage Custom Report Types” permission. Custom report types are created when standard report types cannot specify which records will be available on reports.

In custom report types we can specify objects which will be available in a particular report. The primary object must have a relationship with other objects present in a report type either directly or indirectly. Custom report types are made when we don’t want inner join or when there is no direct relationship between objects.

Object relationships that are supported by Custom Report Types can:

1. Include all records that have children.

2. Include all records that may or may not have children.

Note:

1. Once a report type is saved then its primary object can’t be changed.
2. If the primary object on a report type is a custom object, and the custom object is deleted, then the report type and any reports created from it will also be automatically deleted.
3. If you remove an object from a report type, all references to that object and its associated objects are automatically removed from reports and dashboards based on that type.

After selecting the report type we switch to the report builder to create a report.

About Report Builder 

The report builder is a visual editor for reports. It lets administrators or users create reports in a very easy way. It contains 3 main components:

1. Fields Pane

Displays the fields that are available from a particular report type.

2. Filters Pane

Filters Pane allows us to set additional filters that limit the records available in a report. Criteria here include view, time frame, and custom filters.

3. Preview Pane

Preview Pane shows how the report will look like. This page allows us to add, reorder, and remove columns, summary fields, formulas, groupings, and blocks. Also, it allows us to change the report format and display a chart based on the report.

Note: The preview pane only shows a limited number of records. Run the report to see all the results.

Format Of Reports  In Salesforce 

1. Tabular Reports

This is the most basic report format. It just displays the row of records in a table with a total. While easy to set up they can’t be used to create groups of data or charts. They are mainly used to generate a simple list or a list with a total.

For example, a company is having customer support representative who resolves customer’s cases. the company wants to see the data of all the solved cases. so, for that, a tabular report can be created.

2. Summary Reports

 It is the most commonly used type of report. It allows the grouping of rows(not columns) of data, viewing subtotal, and creating charts. Whenever we want a number w.r.t to another column then we need a summary report.

For example, out of the total students who are in “JAVA”, who are in “Salesforce Admin”, and like that. The summary report is possible only after making a group.

There is another example, a company’s sales team needs to analyze how many leads are converting from each lead source, in this case, a report is required to be created which will display the data of converted leads of every lead source.

Conditional formatting is available to give the various colors on the subtotal(sum).

3. Matrix Report

It is the most complex report format which summarizes information in a grid format as in this records are grouped by both column(s) and row(s). It can also be used to generate dashboards. Charts can be added to this type of report.

For Example, Sales Managers in a company sell products in different regions and industries. To see which products are performing well, we need to create a Matrix report grouped by both region and industry.

Note: “Stacked Bar” chart can be added to the matrix report but cannot be added to the summary report.

4. Joined Reports: 

These types of reports let us create different views of data from multiple report types. Data in joined reports are organized in blocks. Each block acts as a sub-report with its fields, columns, sorting, and filtering. They are used to group and show data from multiple report types in different views.

When we want to show the data of 2 objects on the same report. These objects may be related or not. In this type of report, we can select multiple report types.

For Example, A company sells both software and hardware products. They need an analysis of their sales in various regions for hardware products as well as software products. So, two reports(“Hardware Sales by Region” and “Software Sales by Region”) are created after that a joined report can be created to display both reports.

Points To Remember:

1. When we save a report only the configurations of the report get saved. The data is always evaluated in real-time (when a report is run). The report can be run manually as well as it can be scheduled to run automatically based on the running user.
2. The data which is displayed in reports is based on the running user’s sharing and security settings. But when we schedule a report we have to select a running user based on whose security and sharing settings the report is generated.
3. Every report is saved in a particular folder. Users who have access to the report folders can run the report.
4. Each user, group, or role can have its level of access to a folder.

Types of Access Level of Folders

1. Viewer

 With this access level, users can see the data in a report but cannot make any changes except cloning it into a new report.

2. Editor

With this access level, users can view and modify the reports it contains. In Edit access, we can’t add the user.

3. Manager

 With this access level, users can do everything Viewers & Editors can do, plus they can also control other users’ access levels to this folder. Also, users with Manager Access levels can rename or delete the report.

Note: By default, a person who creates a folder is the Manager of that folder.

If a folder does not have Manager Access then it is public and users with “View Reports in Public folders” can view it. Depending on their object access these users can run the report. Reports present in public folders can be emailed to Salesforce users.

If a user is not ready to share his/her report then he/she should save it in the “My Personal Custom Reports” folder. Reports can be exported in .xlsx format or.csv format The report displays up to 2000 rows of data. Larger reports can be emailed to Excel.

Access to run the report depends on the folder but the data which is seen on the report depends on the Security of the user (object level, field level, record level).

We can not save the single report in 2 folders but in another folder, a copy is saved not the original.

Note:

A user cannot create a report on an object he/she does not have access.

What Is Scheduled Reports?

1. Scheduling reports in Salesforce are designed for scheduling reports for future runs to get the latest report data without running a report manually.
2. In this process, we have to give a starting date, end date frequency, and time to which the report is to be triggered automatically. We can set up to 200 scheduled reports and joined reports can not be used for scheduling reports.

Benefits Of Scheduling Reports In Salesforce

1. Get the latest report data without having to run the report.
2. Get the data automatically at regular intervals you specify, through scheduling on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
3. Get the report sent to you in HTML format, with a link for easy access to the source report in your org.