Mastering Salesforce Reports and Dashboards

Mastering Salesforce Reports and Dashboards

by David Carnes
Released June 2023
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781098127848

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Buy on Amazon Buy on ebooks.com
Start your free trial

Book description

Effective, repeatable, and insightful analytics are key to ROI in customer relationship management systems. Many organizations, however, lack the automated reporting tools they need to run their businesses and instead choose to massage the data in Excel. But there's a better way. Salesforce's standard reporting tools provide a rich set of features that, when combined, support a wide variety of analytics needs.

This practical introduction covers all the aspects and features you need to be successful with Salesforce reports and dashboards. Author David Carnes, chairman and chief evangelist for OpFocus, shows executives, end users, and report and dashboard superusers what analytics are possible, which features report writers should ask to be enabled, and which settings and permissions system administrators need to activate.

You'll learn:

  • How to create reports using the four main report formats in Salesforce
  • How to create and use dashboards
  • Methods for storing and finding reports and dashboards
  • How to leverage formulas and trending in Salesforce reporting
  • Special reporting features only available in Salesforce Mobile and on the Analytics tab
  • Ways to embed report charts and dashboards in Lightning page layouts
  • Powerful combinations of reporting features to drive decisions

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Who This Book Is For
    2. Navigating This Book
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. O’Reilly Online Learning
    5. How to Contact Us
    6. Acknowledgments
  2. 1. Introduction to Salesforce Reporting
    1. Reports and Dashboards Overview
      1. Reports Tab
      2. Dashboards Tab
      3. Analytics Tab
      4. Reports
      5. Dashboards
    2. Use Cases for Reporting
      1. Leadership
      2. Sales
      3. Marketing
      4. Services
    3. Reports and Dashboards Versus BI Tools
    4. Conclusion
  3. 2. First Things First
    1. Salesforce Editions
    2. Settings and Permissions
    3. Salesforce Data Model
    4. Reporting Joins
    5. Standard Report Types
    6. Data and Data Access Considerations
    7. Using Multiple Currencies
    8. Add-On Modules Introduce Additional Reporting Features
    9. Conclusion
  4. 3. Reports
    1. What Is a Report?
    2. Overview of the Reports Tab
      1. Reports Tab Categories
      2. Reports Tab Search
      3. Reports Tab Folders
      4. Reports Tab Actions
      5. Reports Tab Menu
    3. Running Reports
      1. Filters
      2. Charts
      3. Column Actions
      4. Drill Down
      5. Search Report Table
      6. Toggles
      7. Save and Save As
      8. Export
      9. Subscriptions
      10. Inline Editing
    4. Favorites
    5. Conclusion
  5. 4. Creating Reports
    1. Create a New Report
    2. Selecting a Report Type
    3. Report Builder
      1. Outline Tab
      2. Show Fields Pane
      3. Filters Tab
      4. Preview Pane
      5. Report Controls
      6. Toggles
    4. Report Formats
      1. Tabular
      2. Summary
      3. Matrix
      4. Joined Reports
    5. Conclusion
  6. 5. Formulas
    1. What Are Formulas and Why Do They Help?
    2. Building Blocks of Formulas
      1. Formula Editor
      2. Field References
      3. Operators
      4. Literal Values
      5. Functions
      6. Comments
    3. Row-Level Formulas
    4. Summary Formulas
    5. Cross-Block Summary Formulas
    6. Custom Formula Fields
      1. The Power of One
    7. Testing Formulas
    8. Conclusion
  7. 6. Dashboards
    1. What Is a Dashboard?
    2. Overview of the Dashboards Tab
    3. Dashboard Tab Categories
    4. Dashboard Actions
    5. Search
    6. Folders
    7. Running a Dashboard
      1. Refresh
      2. Running User
      3. Dynamic Dashboards
      4. Filters
      5. Downloads
      6. Subscriptions
    8. Conclusion
  8. 7. Building Dashboards
    1. Getting Started
    2. Dashboard Editor
    3. Adding a Component
    4. Dashboard Components
      1. Horizontal Bar Chart
      2. Vertical Bar Chart
      3. Stacked Horizontal Bar Chart
      4. Stacked Vertical Bar Chart
      5. Line Chart
      6. Donut Chart
      7. Metric Chart
      8. Gauge Chart (and Dynamic Gauges)
      9. Funnel Chart
      10. Scatter Chart
      11. Lightning Table
    5. Dashboard Component Properties
    6. Widgets Replace Components in Unlimited Edition
      1. Text
      2. Image
    7. Dashboard Properties
      1. Running User
      2. Dashboard Grid Size (12 vs 9)
      3. Dashboard Theme and Palette
    8. Dashboard Optimization
      1. Component Sizing and Placement
      2. Two-Level Sorting
      3. Additional Measures
      4. Dashboard Filters
    9. Conclusion
  9. 8. Report and Dashboard Folders
    1. Organizing Reports and Dashboards
      1. Navigating and Nested Folders
      2. System-Generated Folders
      3. Creating Folders
    2. Folder Access and Permissions
      1. Folder Permissions
      2. Managing Folders
      3. Moving Reports and Dashboards
    3. Conclusion
  10. 9. Analytics Tab
    1. Analytics Tab Overview
      1. Search
      2. Navigation
      3. Create Button
      4. Action Menus
      5. Browse
      6. Favorites
      7. Collections
    2. Enabling the Analytics Tab
    3. Conclusion
  11. 10. Custom Report Types
    1. Permissions Required to Create and Manage Report Types
    2. Creating Custom Report Types
      1. Preview Layout Button
      2. Edit Layout Button
      3. Adding Fields via Related Lookup
    3. Using Custom Report Types
    4. Managing Custom Report Types
    5. Maintaining Custom Report Types
      1. Deleting Custom Report Types
    6. Conclusion
  12. 11. Embedded Analytics
    1. Embedded Report Charts
    2. Embedded Dashboards
    3. Component Visibility
    4. Conclusion
  13. 12. Mobile Analytics
    1. Installing the App
    2. Using the App
    3. Mobile Home
    4. Mobile Search
    5. Reports
    6. Dashboards
    7. Managing the Salesforce Mobile App
      1. Navigation
      2. Analytics Tab
      3. Offline
    8. Conclusion
  14. 13. Trending
    1. Basic Trending
    2. Special Report Types
      1. Opportunity History
      2. Opportunity Trends
      3. Case Lifecycle
    3. Reporting on Field History Tracking
    4. Historical Trending
    5. Reporting Snapshots
      1. Source Report
      2. Custom Snapshot Object
      3. The Snapshot Itself
      4. Time
    6. Conclusion
  15. 14. Final Thoughts
    1. Continue Your Learning Journey
    2. Places to Go for Help
    3. Stay on Top of Releases
    4. The Power of Combining Features
    5. Practice Makes Perfect
    6. Conclusion
  16. Index
  17. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Mastering Salesforce Reports and Dashboards
  • Author(s): David Carnes
  • Release date: June 2023
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781098127848