Are You Wondering How To Create A Report In Salesforce? Here’s A Helpful Guide On Just That

Main image courtesy of The Dev & Test Guys. 

“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.” - Carly Fiorina

The first thing you should be aware of when trying to create a report in salesforce is to know what salesforce is. Salesforce is not just a company, but it is a cloud-based software that is designed to help businesses find more prospects, close more deals, and wow their customers with amazing service. 

Salesforce can also help teams work better together. It also provides customer relationship management (CRM) software with applications that focus on sales, customer service, marketing automation, analytics, as well as application development.

You will also want to know what a report in salesforce is. A report in salesforce is a list of records that meet the criteria you define. In Salesforce specifically it is displayed as rows and columns and it can either be filtered, grouped, or displayed in a graphical chart. There is also a dashboard in Salesforce, this dashboard is a visual display of the key metrics and trends for the records in your organization. 

There are a few steps to follow to create a report in Salesforce. They are as follows:

1. In the Reports tab, click on New Report
2. Then select the type of report, and click on Create
3. Take time to customize your report, then save or run it

Overall, this is not a super difficult process to create the report. However, there are other aspects of reports to be aware of when creating a report.

Some features and concepts to be aware of before building your first report in Salesforce include:

• Report Builder - a visual drag-and-drop tool used to create reports and edit existing ones - where you choose the report type, report format, and the fields
• Fields - one or more of these describe each report result - think of your report as a table, each row is a result and each column is a field - when creating a report, choose only the fields you need so the report runs quickly
• Filters - limits the data your report returns - can be used to focus your report on specific data, or ensures your report runs quickly - add these under the report builder
• Report Types - determines what fields are available in your report - first thing you do when creating a report is select the report type
• Report Format - identifies how your report results are laid out

It is important to note that there are different types of reports offered in Salesforce.

The Salesforce Services

There are multiple Salesforce services, in which each offers different functions. These services are:

• Software as a Service (SAAS) - you can directly obtain the built-in software and make use of it 
• Platform as a Service (PAAS) - provides you with the framework and platform to build your websites and apps
• Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) - this plays a crucial role in Salesforce development, however it is not widely used

Types of Salesforce Clouds

There are multiple types of cloud services offered in Salesforce. Each one serves a different purpose.

Now let’s go into a little more detail about each of these 6 cloud services offered in Salesforce.

1. Sales Cloud - one of the most essential and popular products of Salesforce - is a CRM platform which allows you to manage your business’s sales, marketing, and customer support aspects - it also provides you with the status of the lead that will be beneficial to sales executives 
2. Marketing Cloud - this cloud is crucial when running a business - lets you run campaigns, manage emails, messages, social media, content management, data analytics, and more - allows you to manage these with aid from a tracking system
3. Analytics Cloud - allows users to create a visually appealing dashboard of their data - doing this allows you to get an in-depth understanding and analyze trends, the business, and more
4. IoT Cloud - used when you need to handle the Internet of Things (IoT) data - can take large volumes of data generated by multiple devices 
5. Salesforce App Cloud - used to develop custom apps that will run within Salesforce
6. Salesforce Service Cloud - Salesforce can help you serve your customers - this is a platform for the support team - provides features that can be used such as tracking and social media plug-in

Now let’s take a deeper dive into why you should use salesforce, what you can do with the reports, and what aspects you can analyze. If you would like to learn more about Salesforce in even more detail view this Ultimate Guide.  

Why You Should Use Salesforce

You may be wondering why should I use Salesforce as opposed to another analytics tool. Well, here is why you should use Salesforce instead. 

Using Salesforce services allows you to use cloud technology that way you can better connect with any partners, customers, and potential customers. When you use the CRM as a business it allows you to track customer activity, market to customers, and lots of other services. 

What Can You Do With A Report In Salesforce?

These reports in Salesforce allow you access to any of your data in Salesforce, as well as be able to examine this data in any combination, display it in easy-to-understand formats, and share the results with others. 

When making a report in Salesforce, keep these helpful tips in mind:

• If a report is well designed it runs faster
• Before making your report, consider writing down all that your report needs to answer - this way the report will return all the data you need
• The reports can be shared via folders - anyone with access to the folder also has access to the report - make sure you save the report in an appropriate folder

What Can You Analyze In Reports?

If you want to analyze your data, you can use Salesforce since it is a powerful analytics tool. Salesforce is also a powerful reporting tool that works together with the analytics side to help you understand and act on your data and distributes insights into business users. 

You can really analyze whatever data you include into your reports. Since it is a powerful analytics and reporting tool, it gives you lots of valuable insights into your data. 

Types of Analytics Paths

In Salesforce there are two types of analytics paths you can follow which are—the analytics tab or the analytics studio. 

Conclusion

Overall, it is not a super difficult task to create a report in Salesforce. There are also certain benefits to using Salesforce as opposed to another analytics tool because there are certain aspects that make it unique. In any case, it is a good idea to do some necessary research into the different analytics tools when deciding which one to use for your business. If you are looking to grow your business and would like to learn about some different analytics strategies visit UXAX.