Salesforce CRM – The Definitive Admin Handbook Third Edition (2015)

Chapter 5. Data Analytics with Reports and Dashboards

In the previous chapter, we looked at how, through the use of various sharing rules, we can control the access to records in Salesforce CRM. Various mechanisms that help manage the quality and integrity of data were also described, along with an overview of the facilities to import and export data using import tools.

In this chapter, we will continue to look at the subject of data but will do so from the viewpoint of reporting, where we will describe the analytics building blocks within Salesforce CRM.

These analytics tools allow you and your users to customize and manage the reporting and visual representation of data. For example, the sales team can produce reports that show the sales pipeline, the marketing team can report on the progress of campaigns, and you can create reports that display the number of active users in your Salesforce organization.

The features available to report data are described in detail and include details of how to create, customize, and export purpose-built report data.

Reports can also be used to improve the quality of data. You can, for example, create a report that lists all accounts with missing annual-revenue fields.

We will also look in detail at how these analytic elements can be used to provide sophisticated dashboard charting and graphics.

Salesforce CRM analytics consist of the basic mechanisms of reports, dashboards, and folders:

· Reports: These are the key building blocks for analytics in Salesforce CRM, where a resulting set of records is displayed in rows and columns to match the specified criteria. Report results can be further filtered and grouped and can also be displayed as graphical summaries.

· Dashboards: These are visual components generated from data in reports. These components can include these five types: charts, gauges, tables, metrics, and Visualforce pages.

· Folders: These are used to store the reports and dashboards and can either be set to read-only or read/write. To configure which of your users have access to a folder, you can set it to be either accessible by all users, hidden from all users, or accessible only by certain users. When restricting to certain users, the options exist to restrict by Public Groups, Roles, and Roles and Subordinates.

Reports

Within Salesforce CRM, reports are accessed from the Reports tab (as shown in the next screenshot). There are a large variety of predefined reports that are automatically provided when your organization is first set up by Salesforce. These predefined reports are known as standard reports and are located in pre-prepared report folders known as standard report folders. For example, standard reports provide information about accounts and contacts; details about opportunities, forecasts, products, and sales pipelines; information about your organization's leads; details about forecast reports for customizable forecasting, and so on.

In this section on reports, we will outline the available standard reports and describe some of the key reports for system administrators in particular.

The predefined reports are suitable for existing objects and fields. They would not be suitable for reporting on any new objects that you have created. For this, we will look at how to extend the existing reports and how to create completely new types of reports, which are known as custom report types in Salesforce CRM.

When building reports from either standard or custom report types, Salesforce provides a full-featured drag and drop editor to simplify the setup and layout of reports.

We will first look at how to use report folders, which can help organize and control access to reports by your users within Salesforce CRM. When we click on the Reports tab, the Reports and Dashboards home page presents the following features:

· 1: This represents the New Report and New Dashboard buttons.

· 2: This represents the Folders search box, which allows users to search for specific report and dashboard folders.

· 3: This represents the New Report Folder and New Dashboard Folder selections.

· 4: This represents the report search box, which allows users to search for specific reports and dashboards.

· 5: This represents Reports and Dashboards Folders pane with different icons to show whether the folder is a report or dashboard.

· 6: This represents the main Reports and Dashboards list view section. This allows the filtering of Recent Reports tabs, displays appropriate reports, and allows the creation of new reports.

These features can be identified by their respective number, as shown in the following screenshot:

The Report and Dashboard Folders section

The Report and Dashboard Folders section allows you and your users to select the reports and dashboards that are stored in that specific folder.

In Salesforce CRM, you cannot save reports to the standard report folders. You can save reports only to the My Personal Custom Reports folder, the Unfiled Public Reports folder, or any custom report folder for which you have the appropriate read/write access.

Note

Standard reports cannot be deleted or removed, but the folder and the standard report type, described later in this chapter, can be hidden.

Creating New Report and Dashboard Folders

Using the create folder icon and associated options allows you to create new reports and dashboard folders for custom reports and dashboards, as shown in the following screenshot:

The option to create new folders is not available to all users.

Note

The user permission required to access the Create New Folder option is Manage Public Reports.

It is good practice to create new folders that help manage the structure of reports of your organization.

Note

You cannot mix standard and custom reports in the same folder.

Keep Favorite Report Folders In View

The reports and dashboards folder pane might contain many report and dashboard folders, which means your users have to scroll up and down the list to find the required folder. To help users keep their favorite folders at the top of the list, they can pin report and dashboard folders to the top of the folder list. This can be done by users by clicking to the right of the folder name and selecting the Pin to top option, as shown in the following screenshot:

Unlike many IT systems, creating reports in Salesforce CRM is very simple; users can create reports themselves. As it is so easy for users to create reports without careful control and an organized approach to report creation, it is easy for the number of reports to rapidly increase and become difficult to manage. You should, for example, create report folders that only certain users have access to. This could be restricted to certain departments or geographic regions. For example, reports could be restricted to Global Marketingor the North American Sales Team.

To create new report folders, click on the Create New Folder link where the New Report Folder page is presented, as shown in the following screenshot:

Here, you provide the name of the report folder and decide whether the public folder access is set to be read-only or read/write. Optionally, you can move reports from the Unfiled Public Reports folder. You must specify the accessibility to users—you can select either accessible by all users, hidden from all users, or accessible by certain users. These options are in Public Groups, Roles, and Roles and Subordinates.

Note

Only users with the Manage Public Reports user permission are able to delete reports from the report folders. This is true even if the user has read/write access and has created the report themselves.

Enhanced sharing for reports and dashboards

The enhanced sharing for reports and dashboards setting lets users share reports and dashboards with other users, roles, or public user groups.

Note

Salesforce instances that were created after the Summer '13 release have analytics folder sharing activated by default. If your Salesforce org was created before the Summer '13 release, you must activate enhanced sharing for reports and dashboards to make folder sharing available to your users.

When enhanced sharing for reports and dashboards is activated, Salesforce converts the existing public report folder access levels, described previously, whereupon access to folders is then derived from the combination of folder access and user permissions.

Note

The enhanced access levels grant all users access as a Viewer (by default) to the report and dashboard folders that are shared with them.

To activate enhanced sharing for reports and dashboards, navigate to Setup | Customize | Reports & Dashboards | Folder Sharing. Select the Enable access levels for sharing report and dashboard folders checkbox and then click Save.

Users are then enabled to share the reports and dashboards folders by clicking to the right of the folder in the folders pane and selecting the Share option, as shown in the following screenshot:

When users click on the Share option, they are presented with a new screen that allows them to set the sharing access for other users where the options are Viewer, Editor, or Manager, as shown in the following screenshot:

The Viewer access setting

The Viewer access setting allows users to view, refresh, and run reports and dashboards.

The Editor access setting

The Editor access setting provides the same access as Viewer, plus the ability to edit, move, save, and delete reports and dashboards.

The Manager access setting

The Manager access setting provides the same access as Editor, plus the ability to share and rename the folder.

Creating reports

The basic steps to create new reports are as follows:

1. From the Reports tab, click on the New Report... button.

2. Select the report type for the report and click on the Create button.

3. Customize your report, and then save or run it.

Note

Best practices for reports:

· Establish a report naming convention. For example, A01 NA April Sales, B02 INT April Sales, and so on—this can make it easier to refer to reports using the coding scheme (there is an upper limit of 40 characters).

· Use the Description field to describe exactly what the report is intended for (there is an upper limit of 255 characters).

· Consider creating reports that are only needed for dashboards in separate report folders, called something like Dashboard Reports Sales for example.

· Have regular "Spring Cleans" where you delete unwanted reports. You can also create temporary reports that are hidden from all users and save these reports there while you figure out whether they are required.

Selecting the appropriate report type is one of the most important steps in creating a report. Report types set the rules for which records can be shown in reports. They allow predefined sets of records and fields to be available within a report based on the relationship between a primary object and any related objects.

In the Salesforce CRM application, there are standard report types, and you, as the system administrator, can set up custom report types.

Note

Terminology check

Custom Report Type is different from Custom Report in Salesforce CRM. When users create a new report using the New Report button on the Reports home page, this is sometimes known as a custom report. Custom Report Type is a report template that only system administrators can create. It provides a custom set of associated objects and fields to produce predefined report templates from which any user's custom report can be created.

Standard report types

Salesforce provides a large range of predefined standard report types along with standard report folders accessible from the Reports tab, as shown in the following table:

From the Create New Report screen, the creation of standard reports in Salesforce CRM begins with the selection of an appropriate report type, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note

By default, the standard report folders are set to read-only and are accessible by all users.

Administrative reports

Some of the most useful standard reports for system administrators are the administrator reports, which can be found in the Administrative Reports folder and can be used to analyze your Salesforce users' documents, reports, and login locations. For example, you can run reports on the active Salesforce users and see who has been logging in. The following administrative reports are available:

Note

Creating a custom report to list your organization's reports

You can create a custom report that lists the reports within your organization and the last time each report was used. Choose Administrative Reports and then select Reports as the report type.

Hiding standard report types

There is a large number of standard report types provided by Salesforce and presented on the Create New Report page. Some of the report types might not be of any value in your organization and only serve to clutter up the list of useful report types. You can hide unwanted standard report types from users by enabling the Select Report Types to Hide checkbox to reveal a check mark or X against each of the report types. The green check mark next to a report type means it is visible and clicking on the check mark to change it to X means it is hidden, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note

Hidden report types do not show up when using the search box on the Create New Report page, and if you hide all the report types in a folder, the folder becomes hidden too.

Custom report types

In addition to the standard report types, you can also create custom report types. Custom report types extend the types of reports from which all users in your organization can create or update custom reports.

Creating custom report types

Custom report types are set up using the following steps:

1. Define a custom report type by name, description, primary object, development status, and the category of report to store it.

2. Choose the related objects for the custom report type.

3. Specify the layout for the resulting standard and custom fields that a report can display when created using the custom report type.

4. Create a report from the Custom Report Type template to verify that all of the objects and field definitions are correct.

Once you have created a custom report type, you can update or delete it as required later on.

Note

When a Custom Report Type template is deleted, any reports that have been created from it are also deleted. Furthermore, any dashboard components that have been created from a report that was created from a deleted Custom Report Type template will show an error message whenever viewed.

Defining custom report types

To navigate to the Custom Report Types page, navigate to Setup | Create | Report Types. Now, click on New Custom Report Type.

Step 1 – Define the Custom Report Type

From the Primary Object drop-down list, select the primary object from which you want to build your custom report type.

The primary object you choose determines the views available to users who are creating or running reports from your custom report type. For example, if you select accounts as the primary object for your custom report type, then users can view their report results by All Accounts or My Accounts from the report builder's Show drop-down list.

If you select opportunities, then when users create reports based on that report type, they can view their report results by My opportunities, My team's opportunities, or All opportunities, as shown next:

When a Custom Report Type template is saved, the primary object associated with it cannot be changed. So, if you want to change the primary object later, you have to define a new custom report type.

Now, enter the Report Type Label and the Report Type Name fields, and enter a description for the custom report type. The description will be visible to users who create reports and is used to help explain the purpose of the Custom Report Type template.

Note

The Report Type Label field can be up to 50 characters long and the description can be up to 255 characters.

Select the category in which you want to store the custom report type. Then, select a development status. Here, you can select In Development while you are first creating the custom report type to hide it from users while you are defining it. This will hide the Custom Report Type template and prevent users from creating and running reports from the report type. Choose Deployed when you are finished defining it and want to let users create and run reports using that Custom Report Type template.

Now, click on Next and then choose the object relationships that a report can display when run from a custom report type.

Step 2 – Define Report Records Set

After the initial definition of the Custom Report Type template, the object relationships for it can be selected. These object relationships determine the objects and fields available for display on reports. Using diagrams, they help you understand the object relationships formed within Custom Report Type, which will display the data fields whenever reports are created from the Custom Report Type template.

In this Custom Report Type example called Events with or without Sessions, we have object relationships for a custom primary object, Event, which has relationships with Sessions and Speakers.

To add an object that is associated with another object to the report type, click on the rectangle section, which is (Click to relate another object). Then, select the object from the picklist.

The objects available for you to choose from are based on the primary object's relationships with other objects.

For example, our custom object, which is Event, is set as the primary object for the Custom Report Type template—so only standard and custom objects associated with Events can be chosen, such as Sessions. This also applies to additional objects added to the Custom Report Type template. In our example, with Events selected as the primary object and Sessions selected as the secondary object, only the objects associated with Sessions can be selected as the third object in the Custom Report Type template, which is our custom object, Speakers.

Note

Although up to four object levels can be set up for Custom Report Type templates, some of the object combinations might not be able to reach that limit. For example, if you add contacts as the primary object, opportunities as the secondary object, and activities as the third object, then you cannot add any additional objects because activities do not have any child-object relationships.

Within the diagram, there is the option of setting the first relationship to the primary object with either "A" records may or may not have related "B" records or Each "A" record must have at least one related "B" record.

The following paragraph describes the effects of selecting may or may not options.

All subsequent objects automatically include the may-or-may-not association on the custom report type. For example, if accounts are the primary objects and opportunities are the secondary objects, and you choose that accounts may or may not have opportunities, then any third and fourth level objects included in the Custom Report Type template default to may-or-may-not associations.

Blank fields get displayed on report results for object B when object A does not have object B. For example, if a user runs a report on accounts with or without opportunities, then opportunity fields are displayed as blank for accounts without opportunities.

Edit layout

After clicking on Save, the Custom Report Type definition and the object relationships are set, as shown in the following screenshot:

Now the layout can be edited to specify which standard and custom fields a report can display when created or run from the template.

Clicking on Preview Layout shows you which fields will be displayed on the Select Columns page of a report based on this report type.

To start configuring the layout, click on Edit Layout and select fields from the right-hand side box and drag them to a section on the left-hand side, as shown in the following screenshot:

You can view a specific object's fields by selecting an object from the View drop-down list and arrange fields within sections as they should appear to users.

Fields not dragged onto a section will not be visible to users when they create reports using this report type.

Note

You can add up to 1000 fields to each Custom Report Type template.

To rename or set which fields are selected for users by default, select one or more fields and click on Edit Properties, as shown in the following screenshot:

Click on the Checked by Default checkbox next to the field you want selected by default.

Change the text in the Display As field next to the field you want to rename. To rename the sections, click on Edit next to an existing section or create a new section by clicking on Create New Section. Now, click on Save.

Running reports

The Reports tab presents the report's home page on which users can search for reports and select or create a folder for reports.

The list of folders (represented by the folder icon) displays all the report folders that the user has permission to access. Within this section, you can view, edit, and manage all of your organization's public report folders. By clicking on the Reorder Folders option, you can change the order in which folders appear in the subtab.

The section on the right-hand side displays the selected report folder and allows users to click on the Actions drop-down, which appears as the first column. Here, the options are Customize, Delete, and Export.

Choosing the Delete option will remove the report for all users and move it to the recycle bin. Here, you are prompted with a warning before the deletion is carried out.

Before doing so, you would need to check whether the report is required, as it will be removed for all users, although you would be able to recover it from the recycle bin for 30 days if necessary.

Note

You cannot delete reports that are being used by dashboards. To delete these reports, you must first delete the calling dashboard component.

Users with appropriate permissions can click on Export to export a report directly to an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file, which is described next.

Printing and exporting reports

To print a report, users can perform the following steps:

1. Click on the Printable View button to open (or save) the report as a printed view, as shown in the following screenshot:

2. Click on the print icon.

To export a report, users with the system permission Export Reports (either within their profile or via a permission set) can perform the following steps:

1. Click on Export Details.

2. Set the appropriate file encoding option for the language. The default option is ISO-8859-1 (General US & Western European, ISO-LATIN-1), as shown in the following screenshot:

3. Set the Export File Format field to either Excel or CSV (comma delimited) format.

4. Click on Export.

In the browser's File Download dialog, users can then choose where to save the file on their local or network disk.

Note

Up to 256 columns and 65,536 rows of data can be exported from a report.

Report considerations

There are various issues to consider when running reports, whether in Salesforce CRM or on any other information system. There are typical limits to the volume of data that can be processed or restrictions to the type of changes that can be made to existing reports. Both the methods of controlling the amount of data that is returned in Salesforce and the effects of changing aspects of existing reports are described next.

Running large reports

If your report returns more than 2,000 records, only the first 2,000 records are displayed. To see a complete view of your report results, click on Export Details.

Note

Reports that take longer than 10 minutes to complete will be canceled by the Salesforce system.

Report timeout warning

The report timeout warning analyzes reports that are invoked from the Run Reports page. The standard timeout for reports is 10 minutes. If the report is identified to be highly complex and is likely to time out, a warning is displayed.

The report timeout warning analyzes reports that are activated manually and ignores reports run via dashboards or scheduled reports.

Note

You can have the timeout period for reports extended from the default 10 minutes by sending a request to Salesforce customer support.

If your organization has extended the limit to, say, 20 minutes, the report timeout warning might be less likely to appear. However, bear in mind that highly complex reports might still time out in the future.

Note

Salesforce recommends that you follow the steps outlined in their online help section, Tips for Improving Report Performance, to simplify the report.

You can disable the report timeout warning by navigating to Setup | Customize | Reports & Dashboards | User Interface settings. Uncheck the Enable Report Timeout Warning checkbox and then click on Save.

Exporting reports to the background

Exporting reports to the background enables you to run reports in the background so that you can continue working in Salesforce without waiting for report results to be displayed. Exporting reports to the background is very useful when creating large reports that would otherwise time out due to the volume of resulting report data.

When the report has finished running and the results are ready for viewing, an e-mail notification is sent by Salesforce. The e-mail contains a link that, when clicked on, enables the viewing of the report information. From this page, you can then download the report results in a CSV format.

Note

The feature to export reports to the background can only be enabled by sending a request to Salesforce customer support.

User verification test

For security purposes, user verification can be set up to require users to be tested before exporting data from the Salesforce CRM application. This text data-entry test prevents automated programs from attempting to access the data from within Salesforce. This feature is available on request from Salesforce customer support.

To pass the test, users must type the two words displayed into a textbox field and submit. Note that the words entered into the textbox field must be separated by a space.

Salesforce uses CAPTCHA technology provided by reCaptcha for the user verification testing.

CAPTCHA is an acronym that stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart. It is a computer data-entry verification that ensures the entry is being carried out by a person. The verification requests the user to complete a small test, which the computer creates first, and then checks the result. Because only humans are able to solve the test, whenever the correct solution is returned, the computer accepts that it is a request by a person and not from an automated computer program.

Mass deleting reports

You can delete reports individually or use the Mass delete reports page to search and select multiple reports to be deleted. This can be used to help declutter the list of reports on the Reports tab and remove multiple reports that are no longer in use.

To mass delete reports, navigate to Setup | Data Management | Mass Delete Records and then click on the Mass Delete Reports link. Specify the criteria that the selected reports to be deleted must match, for example, "Report Name contains activity", and then click on Search. The list of any matching reports will then be presented, where you can then select and click on Delete, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note

You cannot mass delete other users' personal reports, reports within dashboards, or analytic snapshots.

Report builder

The report builder in Salesforce CRM is a visual editor that enables the creation and modification of reports. The report builder interface uses the drag and drop functionality to configure reports, and the interface consists of the following three sections, which are known as panes:

· The Fields pane

· The Filters pane

· The Preview pane

The following screenshot shows you the report builder page, which is presented as a full-screen window in order to maximize the display of the Fields, Filters, and Preview panes:

To exit the report builder editor page, click on the Close button located in the top-left corner of the page, where you will be prompted to save any unsaved changes.

Note

You can also click on the Salesforce.com logo in the top-left corner of the page. However, you will not be prompted to save any changes.

We will now look at each of the panes in detail and will begin by first looking at the Fields pane.

The Fields pane

The Fields pane is shown on the left-hand side of the report builder page and, as the name suggests, lists all the accessible fields in the selected report type. The list of fields is organized by the sections that were set in the page layout of the associated report type. Here, fields can easily be identified using the Quick Find search box at the top of the pane. You can also limit the number of fields shown by using field type filters. In this pane, the fields can be dragged into the Preview pane to add them to the report. Additional calculated fields can be created just for the specific report. These are known as custom summary formulas and buckets.

The Filters pane

To limit the number of rows of data results that are returned when you run a report, you can either limit your report results by clicking on the Hide Details button at the top of the report, or you can add custom filters. To restore the full set of returned data, click on theShow Details button.

For tabular reports (only), you can set the maximum number of records to be displayed by clicking on Add Row Limit in the report builder accessed from the Add button in the Filters pane.

The Filters pane is displayed in the top-right part of the report builder page and is used to configure the view, the time period, and also any custom filters to limit the data that is actually displayed as part of the report.

Within the Filters pane, you click on the Add box to add report filters, as shown here:

Report filters set the criteria for the data in a report according to the following:

The Preview pane

The Preview pane is where the report can be customized. You and your users can add, rearrange, and remove columns, summary fields, formulas, and field groupings. When you enter the report builder for the first time, the Preview pane shows you an initial result to provide a starting point from which the crafting and fine-tuning of the report results can be done. In the Preview pane, you can also set the required report format, which can be either Tabular, Summary, or Matrix.

The preview shows only a limited number of result records. You need to actually run the report in order to see all the results.

You can drag and drop report columns to change the order in which they are displayed. By clicking on the data-column header, you can sort your report using these columns. Sorting can also be performed by clicking on the column menu and then choosing either the Sort Ascending or Sort Descending option from the drop-down list.

Note

Sort is disabled when Show Details has not been selected.

If a field has been added to the preview pane and is not required, it can be removed by grabbing its column header and dragging it back to the Fields pane. You can also click on the column menu and choose Remove Column or click on Remove All Columns to clear the Preview pane from all the fields.

While Show Details is disabled, you can only add summary fields.

Tip

Setting the Date Range option to All Time

When first creating a report involving dates, the date range might not initially be set appropriately, so there will be no obvious results returned. By setting the date range to All Time, you will most likely see some data returned, which can be useful as a quick check to see whether the report is working as intended.

Report formats

These four report formats are available in Salesforce CRM: Tabular, Summary, Matrix, and Joined. The features and benefits of each format are outlined next.

The Tabular report format

Tabular reports are the easiest and quickest way to report data. They can be linked to a spreadsheet, where they comprise a set of records listed in rows and fields (ordered in columns). Tabular reports are most suited for creating lists of records or a list with a single grand total, as they cannot be used to group data.

Note

Tabular reports cannot be used in dashboards unless the number of rows that are returned is limited.

The Summary report format

Summary reports are similar to tabular reports, except that they allow the grouping of rows of data. They can be used for reports to show subtotals based on the value of a field. Summary reports with no groupings are simply displayed as tabular reports.

Note

Summary reports can be used as the source report for dashboard components.

The Matrix report format

Matrix reports are similar to summary reports, but they also allow the grouping and summarization of data by both rows and columns and can be used to compare related totals.

Matrix reports are useful for summarizing large amounts of data to compare values in several different fields or to analyze data by date or by product, person, region, and so on.

Note

Matrix reports can be used as the source report for dashboard components.

The Joined report format

Joined reports are reports that can store and group multiple reports together and allow you to build a single report that contains data from multiple report types.

A joined report can have up to five report blocks that can be added from either standard or custom report types, but can only be included if they share a common object relationship. For example, if you have a joined report that contains the Opportunities report type, you can then add the Contacts report type as both Opportunity and Contact objects have a relationship with the Accounts object.

For joined reports with multiple report types, any field that is shared by all report types is known as a common field. Common fields appear in the Common Fields area in the Fields pane and can be used to group together the separate report blocks.

Note

Joined reports can be used as the source report for dashboard components if the joined report includes a report chart by configuring the dashboard component with the Use chart as defined in the source report setting.

These features are not available in joined reports: Bucket fields, Cross filters, and The Rows to Display filters.

Groupings

Groupings can be added to summary, matrix, and joined reports to group together sections of report data. For example, you might want to group accounts by the number of employees that the account has.

To add a summary field, follow the steps as shown:

1. Drag a field from within the Fields pane.

2. Drag the field into the grouping section of the Preview pane.

3. Wait for the loading dialog to complete.

4. See what the field is showing in the grouping section.

This will produce a report showing the grouped sections, as shown in the following screenshot:

Summary reports can have up to three grouping levels.

Matrix reports can have two rows and two column groupings. You cannot use the same field for both the row and column groupings.

Joined reports can have up to three grouping levels.

Summary fields

A summary field is the SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, or MAX for a number or a currency field. Summary fields are displayed at all grouping levels, including the grand total level for reports that have been created using the summary and matrix report formats.

To add a summary field, click on a column drop-down menu section (shown in the following screenshot) for a field in the report and choose Summarize this Field. You can also use this method to add a grouping by choosing Group by this Field, as shown here:

Clicking on the Summarize this Field button gives you the following options:

This will produce a report result, as shown in the following screenshot:

Conditional highlighting

Conditional highlighting is a very powerful way to show whether the values in reports are within acceptable limits at a glance. By setting up conditional highlighting, you can specify different colors for different ranges of values in your reports. It is relatively easy to set up, and it offers great visual benefits, yet it is a feature that seems to be underused by users within Salesforce CRM.

To enable conditional highlighting, your report must contain at least one summary field or custom summary formula.

To set up conditional highlighting, click on Show and then click on Conditional Highlighting, as shown from within the Preview pane on the report builder page:

You then have the option to set colors according to whether the value falls below a low breakpoint threshold, above a high breakpoint threshold, or a value that sits between these range of values. The following table helps clarify the thresholds and the colors that will be seen, given the settings shown in the following screenshot:

The settings are shown in the following screenshot:

When running the report, the result appears as shown in the following screenshot:

Custom summary formulas

Custom summary formulas allow you to calculate values based on the numeric fields available in the report type. This means that you do not have to create custom formula fields for calculated results if they are only relevant in reports.

Formulas must be 3,900 characters or less. Up to five formulas can be created per report. Fields available for custom summary formulas are Number, Percent, and Currency. To add a new formula to a summary or matrix report, navigate to the Fields pane, where at the top, you will see the formulas folder icon. By double-clicking on the Add Formula option, you can define it and then click on OK. After you have defined a new formula on the report, it automatically gets added to the preview pane as a column for summary reports and as a summary field for matrix reports.

The following screenshot shows you the formula called Avg Expected Revenue, the top-left section of the Fields pane, and how it automatically appears in the preview pane as a column (on the far right) for the example summary report.

To define a formula field, follow these steps:

1. Click on Add Formula in the Fields pane.

2. Enter a column name for the formula. This will be displayed within the report.

3. Optionally, enter a description.

4. Select the data type from the Format picklist.

5. Select the number of decimal places from the Decimal Places picklist.

6. Set the option denoting where this formula is to be displayed.

7. The formula calculation will be displayed in the report at the level that is selected.

8. Build the formula by selecting one of the fields listed in the Summary Fields picklist, and then select the summary type:

9. Click on Operators to add operators to the formula. Select the function category, choose the function you want to use in your formula, and click on Insert.

10. Click on Check Syntax to check whether the formula contains any errors and then click on OK.

Tip

Hiding details when building new reports

Often when building new reports, you will not necessarily know just how many records are actually going to be returned. This can be the reason for the report in the first place. You might also be experimenting with the report format to see what data is being returned. In these cases, you should set the Hide Details option to prevent the detailed data being returned and show just the "skeleton" of the report—this shows you the number of rows that will be returned. Limiting rows on a tabular report allows you to use it as a source report for the dashboard table and chart components. However, if you change the report format, the Row Limit setting is automatically removed.

Bucket fields

Bucket fields allow you to categorize values based on fields available in the report type. This means that you do not have to create custom formula fields for categories or the segmentation of values if they are only relevant in reports. For example, sales managers can bucket or group opportunities by size based on amount, support managers can age cases based on days opened, and sales reps can group accounts into strategic accounts.

Note

Fields available as bucket fields are Number, Percent, Currency, Picklist, and text fields.

Changing the report format

Sometimes, it is necessary to change the report format for the existing reports. The effects of changing the report format are as follows:

Dashboards

Dashboards are visual information snapshots that are generated from the data in associated reports and are presented as graphical elements. These graphical elements are known as dashboard components, of which there are these five types: charts, gauges, tables, metrics, and Visualforce pages.

Dashboards can have up to 20 components, and you can control users' access to dashboards by storing them in folders with appropriate permissions, where folders can be public, hidden, or restricted to groups or roles.

Dashboards can be further configured to run with the concept of a running user, which means that the named user's security settings determine what data is to be displayed. Here, all dashboard viewers see data according to the security settings of the user who has been set as the running user irrespective of the dashboard viewer's own personal security settings.

A more flexible and dynamic approach, however, allows you to set the running user to be the logged-in user so that each user is presented with the dashboard according to their own data access level. This is known as dynamic dashboards.

Dashboard component types

In Salesforce CRM, the following dashboard component types are available:

· Horizontal Bar Chart

· Vertical Bar Chart

· Line Chart

· Pie Chart

· Donut Chart

· Funnel Chart

· Scatter Chart

· Gauge

· Metric

· Table

The logos to access these dashboard component types are shown in the following dashboard:

Chart

Chart component types can be used to show data graphically, where this variety of chart types can be selected: horizontal and vertical bar charts, line charts, pie, donut, funnel, and scatter charts.

Gauge

Gauge component types can be used to show a single value that is to be shown as a part of a range of custom set values. Here, the ranges that can be set can represent, say, low, medium, and high values, and the value from the report is plotted accordingly.

Metric

Metric component types can be used to show a single value to be displayed.

Table

Table component types can be used to show a set of report data in a column form.

Visualforce page

In addition to the standard types, Visualforce page component types can be used to create a custom component type and present information in a way that is not available in the standard dashboard component types.

Creating dashboards

Before creating dashboards, you need to have pre-prepared source reports containing the data you wish to display.

Note

These source reports must be stored in folders that your intended dashboard viewers have access to, or they will not be able to view the information.

To create a dashboard, click on the Reports tab. This then presents the common reports and dashboards' main page with the Reports & Dashboards heading. On this page, click on the New Dashboard... button, as shown in the following screenshot:

Dynamic dashboards

A dynamic dashboard runs using the security settings of the user viewing the dashboard. Each user sees the dashboard according to his or her own access level. This approach helps you share one common set of dashboard components to users with different levels of access. A single dynamic dashboard can display a standard set of metrics across all levels of your organization.

Note

Salesforce CRM limits permit organizations to have up to five dynamic dashboards for Enterprise Edition and up to ten for Unlimited Edition.

Setting up dynamic dashboards

Before setting up dynamic dashboards, you should create folders that are accessible to all dashboard viewers, in which you can store dynamic dashboards and corresponding component source reports.

To create dynamic dashboards, follow the steps given here:

1. From the Dashboards tab, create a new dashboard by following the steps discussed earlier in this chapter.

2. Click on the drop-down arrow button to the right of the View dashboard as field option.

3. Select the Run as logged-in user option

4. Optionally, check the Let authorized users change running user checkbox to enable those with permission to change the running user on the dashboard view page.

5. Click on OK.

6. Finally, click on Save on the main dashboard.

Customizing dashboards

The Salesforce dashboard builder is a drag-and-drop interface that creates and modifies dashboards. To customize an existing dashboard, display it and then click on Edit. The dashboard builder main page presents options to set the properties for the dashboard and also change how the dashboard is viewed by selecting the appropriate running user option.

Clicking on Dashboard Properties allows you to set the title, a unique name, and the dashboard folder.

Setting the running user

To view or set the running user for the dashboard, choose from the View dashboard as: option located on the top-right section of the page.

You can add a description to the dashboard by clicking on the Click to enter a dashboard description text at the top of the dashboard.

Note

Changes are lost if you close or navigate away from the dashboard builder without saving it first.

Column-level controls

Within the main dashboard's editing page, you are able to add the specific dashboard components:

· Click on + to add a new column. Dashboards can have up to three columns.

· Click on x on a column to delete it. Before removing a column, move the dashboard components to another column if you want them to remain visible.

Note

Dashboards must have at least two columns.

· To set the width of the column, you can select either Narrow, Medium, or Wide in the column width drop-down list, as shown next:

Note

If the component is a pie or donut chart with Show Values or Show Percentages enabled and Legend Position set to Right, the dashboard column width must be Wide for the values and percentages to be shown on the dashboard.

Component-level controls

You can add components by dragging a component type onto a column and then dropping a data source (which is a source report) or a Visualforce page onto it.

You can also drop the data source first and then drop a component type onto it. To change the type or source after you have created it, you can drop a different one onto the component. Each component must have a type and a data source.

Note

Each folder can display up to 200 data sources. However, if there are more than 200, you can use the Quick Find option or set filters to reduce the displayed list.

The following screenshot shows you the drag and drop feature using a report from the Data Sources tab:

To drag and drop a line chart from the Components tab, you simply select, hold, and drag the icon onto the source, as shown here:

The following is the result:

Again, using the drag and drop feature, it is possible to rearrange components. Start by grabbing components by the header bar and then dragging them to the right-side location on the dashboard.

As shown in the preceding screenshot, you can edit or delete the dashboard component and also edit the header, title, and footer.

Here, you can also delete the data source associated with the dashboard component.

Note

Dashboard metric components that are positioned above and below each other in a dashboard column are presented together as a single component.

Setting dashboard properties

To set dashboard properties, follow these steps:

1. Edit a dashboard and click on Dashboard Properties.

2. Enter a title for the dashboard.

3. Select a folder to store the dashboard.

4. Under Component Settings, select the title color and size, text color, and background fade. If you don't want a gradient, choose the same color for both Starting Color and Ending Color.

5. Click on Save.

Deleting dashboards

Deleting a dashboard also deletes the components within it, although the custom reports used by the components are not deleted. Deleted dashboards are moved to the recycle bin.

To delete a dashboard, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Dashboards tab.

2. Click on Go To Dashboards List.

3. Choose the folder where the dashboard is stored.

4. Click on Del next to the name of the dashboard.

Printing dashboards

Dashboards can be printed using the web browser's print option. Set the paper orientation to print in a landscape format so that it is wide enough for all three columns of dashboard components.

Note

Some dashboards might not print as expected due to browser issues. Here, you can try resizing the dashboard columns and removing the browser-imposed headers and footers. Also, setting the paper orientation to print in landscape format can help ensure that the printed output is wide enough for all three columns that contain the dashboard components.

Summary

In this chapter, we looked at data analytics, where it was shown how data can be reported and presented within Salesforce CRM. We looked at setting up reports, dashboards, and how to use the report builder. We covered the use of building reports from standard and custom report types and looked at the mechanisms to share, hide, and mass delete reports.

In the next chapter, we will look at the methods to automate business tasks and activities to align them with business rules. The mechanisms that are available to help manage business processes will also be covered in detail, where we will look at the way approvals can be configured.