cloudanswers

CloudAnswers

for-everyone

For Everyone


Reporting on your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data can give you real-time data-driven insights into your business such as:

- Who are your best-fit customers?
- Where do your best-fit leads come from?
- How different types of prospects move through your marketing and sales process.
- The effectiveness of your customer support.
- And anything else you are tracking in Salesforce.

Reporting is perhaps the most powerful benefit of CRM, giving a clear picture of what's going on in the company. 

When creating a report in Salesforce, the first step is to choose the report type - this is the foundation of the report and determines what information will be available to generate the report. [Salesforce](http://www.salesforce.com) has basic report types that may meet most business needs right out of the box. However, this article discusses custom report types and why they are helpful. 

## What are Report Types?

Salesforce report types act as the template(s) while defining:

- Objects: what Objects the report can view (e.g., Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, etc.) 
- Object Relationships: Add up to four objects related to the primary object.
- Fields that are available for the report.
- Fields checked by default: Which fields will automatically show on your new report?
- Field display names: There are a few situations where you might want to change a field label.

Salesforce has many pre-defined Report Types, which is fantastic but may not always offer you exactly what you need. You can't change Salesforce's preset Report Types, however, you  can build a Custom Report Type that allows you to specify what you want to view in terms of objects and fields and modify it whenever changes are required.

## When are Custom Report Types Useful?

Custom report types are often the solution if you go to create a report and run into one of the following issues:

- The objects you want don’t have a standard report type.
- The fields you want aren’t available in a standard report type.
- You want to rename any of the fields that are in a report without renaming them everywhere in Salesforce. 

If you want to create any of these, just go to Setup > Custom Report Types in Salesforce and try it out. 

## Multi-Level Object Relationships

One of the benefits of custom report types is that you can define up to four levels of related objects. So if you’ve ever wanted a report that has more levels than the standard reports - such as Accounts with Opportunities with Contacts with Tasks - then a custom report type may be for you. 

## Objects without Child Records

With custom report types you can also report on Objects that may not have a related object. For example, Opportunities with or without Activities - so you can see all Opportunities and their related activities, but still, see Opportunities that have no activity.

## Adding Fields via Lookup

Another common issue when creating reports is that you want more information from something related to the records you’re reporting on. Maybe you want more information related to the owner of a record, or you’re reporting on something like a Case and you want more details for the related records like a Product or Account. With a custom report type, it’s easy to add all kinds of details from a related object: As you can see, you now have access to all of the fields for anything related to the object you are working on, so now you can add any of those fields to the report type and they’ll be usable in reports. You can even traverse up several lookup fields (see how Account Owner has another link in the above picture). 

## Modifying Field Names or Default Fields

Sometimes when creating reports people get confused by the Salesforce field formatting. Or sometimes you just want a shorter name in the report. On the Edit Layout screen you can click on a field and then click Edit Properties and change how it will display on the report or whether or not it will be on the report by default. Small changes like this can make it much easier for users to create their own reports. 

## Takeaways

There are many possibilities in creating custom report types. If you’ve mastered the basic reports, custom report types can allow you to create reports that will amaze your co-workers and generate reports that you used to do in Excel or another tool.

Next time you get stuck creating a report, see if a custom report type fixes your issue or unlocks any extra information you can get. 

_If you need help sharing the reports that you create with all these custom report types, try out our app,_ [_Report Sender_](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=salesforce_custom_report_types)_. [Report Sender](/report-sender/) lets you send these reports in a variety of formats, to any email address, and on a schedule you specify._

Interested in more topics that are connected to Salesforce reports, check other blog posts:

- [Run Salesforce Reports in Apex](/blog/run-salesforce-reports-in-apex/)
- [7 Popular Reporting Apps for Salesforce](/blog/7-popular-reporting-apps-for-salesforce/)
- [Salesforce Reporting Tips and Best Practices](/blog/salesforce-reporting-tips-and-best-practices/)
- [How to Make Your Salesforce Reports Run Faster](/blog/salesforce-reports-run-faster/)


Reporting on your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data can give you real-time data-driven insights into your business

salesforce-custom-report-types-what-are-they-when-are-they-useful

Salesforce custom report types - what are they, when are they useful


[**Salesforce**](http://www.salesforce.com) is a customizable multipurpose CRM platform that millions of users use to handle complicated company operations, improve sales, customer care, marketing, etc. 

On the other hand, **Microsoft Excel** is an application that is so familiar and convenient for many users across the globe. In business, accessing data through a cloud service user interface is often preferable to dealing directly with the spreadsheet given the ability to collaborate with other people, report on the data, and solve many other business problems. But for certain operations, or for certain people that don’t have access, spreadsheets are still the tool of choice. That’s why data exporting becomes necessary. 

Salesforce’s documentation and the partner network is extensive, so you have a bunch of options on extracting data. Trying to figure out what you need every time someone asks you to “export the data” can be daunting. To understand the many options for exporting data from Salesforce, you need to know about some of the most common export methods. In this post, we present to you how you can work through it.

## **Salesforce Data Export**

### **_Typical use case: backing up data_**

Data export by Salesforce is the extraction of system data. This extraction system typically serves one of a few objectives: 

- Data backup 
- Integration with other systems
- Excel-based data analytics

Data Export is accessed from your Salesforce setup menu and typically you back up all of the tables in the org. You can schedule this to automatically generate the files on a weekly or monthly basis, or just request the files when needed (but not more often than weekly). The data is packaged as a series of CSV files up to 150 MB each and then packaged in a 512 MB .zip file (or multiple). You have to be a Salesforce admin to schedule or download data exports. You also have to check your email and make sure to download the files to a secure backup location when you get notified that the file(s) are ready. 

Export data and files are ready for download 48 hours after completion. After this, when files have been deleted from the ‘Setup’ area, they cannot be recovered or re-downloaded.

If you want an automated way to do backups that don’t require a manual download or have more advanced features like easy ways to restore data, then there are a number of paid options on the AppExchange.

## **Salesforce Report Export**

### **_Typical use case: report manipulation or sharing_**

If you have a report in Salesforce you want to bring it into Excel so you can do some more data manipulation or share it with another person that doesn’t have access to the report in Salesforce then you can use the built-in Salesforce data export.

- Click Report or Dashboard Actions menu | Export next to the report you want to export.
- Select an export view.
- If you export as Details, choose **Excel Format .xlsx**, **Excel Format .xls** or **Comma Delimited .csv** as the format. 
- For.xls and.csv, choose the language and local encoding option.
- Click Export. After, choose a location where you want to save the file when asked in a browser window.

Additionally, if you want to send this report to yourself via email, you can use the Subscribe button on the report to subscribe to email notifications. This will send you a report on a daily, weekly, monthly, or condition-based basis with the report details. 

A couple of limits to keep in mind: 

- Each user can only subscribe to 5 reports
- The report can only be sent to the subscribing user

## [**Report Sender**](https://cloudanswers.com/report-sender/)

### **_Typical use case: Sending reports to multiple people or non-Salesforce users_**

_Full disclosure: We built this app, and there is a paid version available (but there’s also a 100% free version)._  

You successfully made a report and maybe exported it? Great! What next? You want to share or send the report to clients or team members. Exporting data from Salesforce to Excel and CSV files is helpful because you can quickly transfer data with coworkers. But, you are likely to face several restrictions using Salesforce. They include:

- Report has to be manually exported or forwarded from your email
- Many non-Salesforce users within and outside your company may wish to access Salesforce reports, but only Salesforce users may access and send reports.
- Reports continue to be delivered without data (zero records)
- A limited amount of reports may be planned (Only 5 per user, 200 per org)
- No personalized email templates available

While these concerns may seem unavoidable, they cannot stop you from utilizing exported data. With [CloudAnswers’ Report sender](https://cloudanswers.com/report-sender/), you reach everyone when you want and as often as you wish. This is a completely native Salesforce app, so your reports never leave Salesforce until the email is sent to the recipients you choose.  It’s straightforward, time-saving, and an alternative to building something from scratch. Furthermore, the app provides a friendly interface that every user can access. 

### **How Report Sender works**

First, [install Report Sender from the AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=how_to_get_sf_data_into_csv_or_excel_files)

- Start with the icon on the upper left of your Salesforce dashboard, which is the App Launcher. This opens a window with all your available applications. 
- Click the Report Sender icon for CloudAnswers, and you’re ready to work on your reports.
- Click the New Schedule option to create a new report schedule. 
- Choose the report, fill out the email template, choose your schedule and report format, then click save. 
- Click Send Now if you want to test it or wait for the schedule to send it automatically. 

## **Conclusion** 

Salesforce undoubtedly dominates the CRM market because it is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of businesses. However, it is important to understand how to export your data to solve problems that are unique to your business. To save time, stress, and resources, the report sender helps you stay in control of your reports. If you need any help finding the solution that is right for you, please let us know. 

Salesforce is a customizable multipurpose CRM platform that millions of users use to handle complicated company operations, improve sales, customer care, marketing, etc.

how-to-get-salesforce-data-into-csv-or-excel-files

How to get Salesforce data into CSV or Excel files


Since Salesforce came into the scene, it has helped businesses measure their growth and other key metrics. Shared reporting has also helped to create a sense of unity amongst team members. If you’re not in on it yet, this article will show you reporting basics that could help your team.

## **What is a Report?**

We know that information helps a business to thrive. That’s why presenting information in an accessible format is vital. When data is presented in an easy and clear format, the essential details become hard to miss. Presenting a data set with ease is precisely what a report does.

A Salesforce report is a document that contains organized data from Salesforce. Salesforce has several options for formatting tabular data within the report. Salesforce reports can also include charts or graphs that summarize the report data.

There are many reporting tools out there, Salesforce even has multiple options like Einstein Analytics and Tableau. For this article, we’ll be mostly talking about the capabilities of Salesforce’s built-in reporting tool.

## **What are the standard reports in Salesforce?**

When presenting data in the form of a Salesforce report, you want to be sure that you’re using the best format for your business. There are four types of Salesforce reports, and each performs distinct functions and is more suited for different forms. Before you decide which works best for you, determine what you’re trying to communicate through your reports. These four enable you to pull, send, and review data. Below, we discuss the types of reports in Salesforce in detail.

### **Tabular**

The tabular format is the simplest and basic form of salesforce reporting. This will be the default format when creating a report in Lightning Experience. It is essentially a display of records in a tabular form. These are most effective when you want to export the data. However, don’t consider them for data manipulation like calculations or groups of data.

### **Summary**

Summary reports are most suitable for grouping rows of data. That means you can group data according to any field and proceed to calculations: totals, maximums, minimums, averages, or custom formulas. If you want to specify the accounts that bring more revenue, what services and products clients purchase more, the summary reports are the best option.

**Matrix**

This report type is very much like the summary option. However, while a summary report is done according to rows, matrix reports function according to rows and columns. It is better to use them for more complex data since you can use them to determine several totals. They are effective for large data or huge amounts of complex information.

### **Joined**

Joined reports are best for comparison. They help create separate reports and then compare individual datum. Although they are not common, they are most effective for learning the differences between accounts.

## **How to use reports in Salesforce**

Effective report management includes careful attention to details, data quality, security, and more. So to use reports in Salesforce, make sure you’re providing answers to questions and offer solutions. How?

![](/uploads/hpw-to-use-reports-in-salesforce.png)

## **How to create Salesforce reports**

1. Login to Salesforce

   ![](/uploads/login.png)

2\. Select the reports tab. If you don’t see it, use the app launcher to search for it.

![](/uploads/report-tab.png)

3\. Click New Report

![](/uploads/new-report.png)

4\. Choose the Report Type. This is a critical step because the report type determines the objects and fields that will be available in your report. If you don’t see the right option, look into creating a [Custom Report Type](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=sf.reports_defining_report_types.htm&type=5).

![](/uploads/report-type.png)

5\. Click on Continue to go to the report builder.

Now you will be in edit mode, with a preview. The edit mode allows you to add and remove fields, elements, group rows, and columns. You can also filter report data and show or hide a chart or tailor the report according to your needs.

6\. To add new columns, click on the “Add column” feature. Search and select field status - either scroll or type in the desired field. You can also expand or contrast the Fields pane. Then drag-and-drop or double-click a field.

![](/uploads/add-column.png)

7\. For record grouping, choose the element “Add group” and select the field to group by. Or from the preview window, find the rows you want to group and select “Group Rows”. You now have a Summary report.

![](/uploads/add-group.png)

8\. After you’ve grouped by rows or columns you can choose any numeric fields to be able to aggregate them. Just click the drop-down next to a field and click Summarize then choose Sum/Average/Max/Min.

9\. To be sure that you’re viewing the desired data by updating your filters: Click on filters. Change the default filters if needed. Often you’ll want to change the date filter and the “Show Me” filter. Add any additional filters needed.

![](/uploads/filters.png)

10\. Save and name your report.

![](/uploads/save.png)

11\. Folders determine who can see the report, so put it in the correct folder. Private reports are only visible to the user that saved them. Public reports are visible to anyone that can run reports. Keep in mind that reports always respect user permissions so people cannot see data in a report that they can’t see normally.

## **Sharing Salesforce reports**

Now that you have a fancy new report, how do you make it available to the people that need it? Well, that depends a lot on how the report will be used, so here are some of your options:

- **Setup the report to be sent on a schedule**: One of the best ways to make sure a report is used is to automatically send it to the right people. If you just want to send it to yourself, click the Subscribe button and choose your schedule. If you want to send it to other people you’ll have to do it manually or use an AppExchange app like the [CloudAnswers Report Sender](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=salesforce_reports_can_help_your_business). Our app lets you schedule the report to be delivered to any email address on a schedule you choose.
- **Send people a link to the report**: The easiest way to share, just to email someone a link to the report and they can open it as long as they have a login to Salesforce, access to the report folder, and access to the objects and fields that are used in the report.
- **Put it on a dashboard**: Dashboards are a great way to gather multiple report charts into one organized view. Put several reports together into a dashboard that people can explore and drill into the reports.

## **What Now?**

- Need help with reporting? Contact Us
- Want to check out Report Sender? [See it on the AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=salesforce_reports_can_help_your_business)

Want to learn more about reporting? [Check out Trailhead](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/modules/lex_implementation_reports_dashboards)

Check also: [Salesforce reporting tips and best practices](https://cloudanswers.com/blog/salesforce-reporting-tips-and-best-practices/)


A Salesforce report is a document that contains organized data from Salesforce. Salesforce has several options for formatting tabular data within the report. Reports can include charts, graphs that summarize the report data.

salesforce-reports-can-help-your-business

Salesforce reports can help your business


There are many systems on the market that help businesses manage customer relationships seamlessly. They are known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools. And one of the best-known and most recommended methods used by more than 150,000 companies worldwide is Salesforce.

Salesforce is **cloud-based CRM software**, with standalone applications for sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, partner management, and industry-specific solutions. Customers can extend Salesforce through their configuration and development tools, **AppExchange apps**, and a large community of consultants. It helps organizations function efficiently and profitably by reducing the cost of managing hardware infrastructure.

As Salesforce consultants and AppExchange partners, we may be a little biased, but here are some of the reasons why we work with Salesforce and recommend that you do too.

## **One platform for all business needs**

Given the extent of the Salesforce platform, businesses can move a large portion of their infrastructure to Salesforce. Salesforce’s architecture ensures that the platform is continuously updated and the customer’s data is secured, without having to staff a large portion of a traditional IT team.

Salesforce offers a **360º view** of the customer, and there are a wide variety of ways to connect it to other systems and databases. When set up correctly, every staff member can have precisely the customer information needed to do their job and build effective and long-lasting customer relationships.

## **Extremely customizable**

One of the most significant advantages, and something that can overwhelm customers, is the amount you can customize the platform. Salesforce decided early on that they could never build solutions for every business, so they have developed an extensive feature set for solving any business challenge through clicks, code, and partner apps.

With just a few clicks, you can build workflows, design unique pages for team members, create reports and dashboards, and automate business processes.

With their extensive [developer tools](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/), you can completely customize the application - build tailor-made user interfaces for employees to streamline workflows, automate complicated business processes, integrate with almost any kind of application, and whatever else you can dream up.

If you don’t want to do it yourself, check out the [AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/) for thousands of options that vary from open-source to fully managed subscription apps. You can even check out [the apps that we’ve published](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxSearchKeywordResults?keywords=cloudanswers&searchType=simpleSearch).

## **Integrate with external platforms**

Salesforce can integrate various external apps with [their suite of APIs](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=sf.integrate_what_is_api.htm&type=5) (application programming interfaces) plus an extensive network of partners that provide integration tools and pre-built connectors. The AppExchange is a great place to start - just search for the app you want to integrate and see if there are pre-built integrations.

## **Powerful reporting tools**

With both the standard **Lightning Reports** and **Dashboards** and the optional **Einstein Analytics**, Salesforce offers several reporting tools. The analytics and reporting can be real-time, and you can customize based on the needs and company goals. If Salesforce is not covering your reporting needs, don’t worry. There are many reporting partners and free dashboard packs on [the AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000000pvspEAA).

## **Collaborate easily**

**Salesforce Chatter** is a built-in communication tool. It allows employees to collaborate at work to network, share files, solve problems, share ideas, and exchange status updates. Since it’s built-in to the system, people can collaborate directly on records that they’re working on, another way to make sure all the information is in one place. With Chatter, you can follow up on projects, inform people about events, project status, and all in a private and secure environment.

Salesforce also recently spent a large sum acquiring **Slack**, one of the more prevalent business chat platforms. We are excited to see how they incorporate the technology.

## **Marketing made easier**

Marketers handle various responsibilities every day, like creating and editing tasks, tracking prospects, following on offers, managing customer relationships, and supporting customers. As a result of all the repetitive tasks, they lose focus on core tasks like campaign building and optimizing, lead qualification, lead nurturing, sending follow-up, etc. By integrating marketing automation with Salesforce, marketers can easily manage the tasks mentioned above, and they get time to concentrate on their goals and objectives.

## **Great for non-profits**

Salesforce for non-profits has many inviting aspects. One of them is the price: for qualified organizations, it is for free for up to 10 users and significantly discounted for more users or add-on products. And no matter how big or small an organization is, Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack is the perfect tool for any non-profit institution. It can be customized and configured to help track campaigns, accounts, donor contacts, opportunities, and more.

Salesforce is also a big proponent for non-profits. They operate an organization called the [Salesforce Foundation](https://www.salesforce.com/company/philanthropy/salesforce-foundation/) that focuses on education, workforce development, and community projects. They also started the 1% pledge to donate 1% of equity, time, product, and profit to non-profit projects and encourage other businesses to do the same.

## **Security is a priority**

One of the most valuable assets that each company has is **data,** in many cases sensitive customer data. No matter what software or tool an organization chooses, one question should always come up: is it secure? With the industry’s best security tools, extensive options to customize your system settings, and the comprehensive security requirements for AppExchange apps, the answer with Salesforce is a resounding YES. Data security is and always has been one of the priorities for Salesforce.

## **Mobile CRM**

Salesforce was one of the first companies that brought mobile CRM to the market. So no matter where you are, you can use the full potential of Salesforce on your phone.

The list goes on and on. Since Salesforce began over 22 years ago, it has helped many businesses better manage their customers and grow.If you’d like to hear additional reasons as to why Salesforce might be the right CRM provider for you, or about any of the services CloudAnswers provides, reach out to us at [help@cloudanswers.com](mailto:help@cloudanswers.com)

Read also [7 Popular Reporting Apps for Salesforce](https://cloudanswers.com/7-popular-reporting-apps-for-salesforce/) and [Why business owners should know AppExchange?](https://cloudanswers.com/why-business-owners-should-know-appexchange/)


Salesforce for business is cloud-based CRM software, with standalone applications for sales, customer service, and marketing.

top-reasons-why-you-should-use-salesforce-for-your-business

Top reasons Why you should use Salesforce for your business?

for-developers

For Developers


In this article, we are going to look into the following key areas

- How to describe Salesforce reports in Apex
- How to change report filter values through Apex
- How to run reports to get data in Apex

Let's look into each of these topics one by one.

## **Describe Salesforce Reports in Apex**

**`ReportManager`** class is available in the `Reports` namespace in Apex. This class has a method named **`describeReport`** which is used to retrieve the report, report type and extended metadata for a tabular, summary, or matrix report. This method takes the Salesforce Id of the report as an input parameter and returns an instance of **`ReportDescribeResult`\*\***.\*\*

// grab a valid report id from your Salesforce org
String reportId = '00O000000000000000';
Reports.ReportDescribeResult rptDescribe = Reports.ReportManager.describeReport(reportId);

Once you have an instance of `ReportDescribeResult`, you can use the methods of this class to get report metadata. The following code snippet calls a method to retrieve an instance of `ReportMetadata`.

// get report metadata
Reports.ReportMetadata rptMetadata = rptDescribe.getReportMetadata();

You can use the report metadata to do several things:

- Find out what fields and values you can filter on in the report type.
- Build custom chart visualizations/components by using the metadata information on fields, groupings, detailed data, and summaries.
- Change filters in the report metadata when you run a report.

## **Get Report Filters And Change Filter Values in Apex**

We can use the "get" methods in the `ReportMetadata` class to access metadata values. We can use the `getReportFilters` method to get a list of each custom filter in the report along with the field name, filter operator, and filter value.

// get report filters
List\<Reports.ReportFilter\> rptFilters = rptMetadata.getReportFilters();

Now, we can iterate through the list of filters and change the value for any filter. The code snippet given below does that. For example, my report has a filter with column name = TYPE and I'm going to change the filter value to _Prospect_.

// change the report filter value
for(Reports.ReportFilter rptFilter : rptFilters) {
    if(rptFilter.getColumn() == 'TYPE') {
        rptFilter.setValue('Prospect');
    }
}

Please note that `getReportFilters` method returns only the CUSTOM filters added to the report. If you want to access the standard filters on the report, you can use `getStandardFilters` method or for accessing standard date filter, you can use `getStandardDateFilter` method.

One key thing to note here is that there is no way to access the Role Hierarchy standard filter. Let's try to understand this with help of an example. Create a report by selecting Opportunities with Quotes and Quote Line Items. Open the Filters panel in Lightning Report Builder, and select some role for Show Me filter as presented below.

![](/uploads/Screen-Shot-2020-10-25-at-7.29.15-pm.png)

Now, when we describe the report, iterate over custom filters, standard filters and standard date filters, we don't see the role hierarchy filter in the results.

## **Get Report Data in Apex**

We have looked into how to describe **Salesforce reports in Apex** and then change get filters and change their values. Now let’s look into how to run Salesforce reports in Apex to retrieve the report data.

// get report data
Reports.ReportResults results = Reports.ReportManager.runReport(reportId, rptMetadata);

Once we have report data, we can utilize it to build chart visualizations, rendering in custom lightning components, and many more as per the use cases.

Are you trying to export and send Salesforce Report data to Non-Salesforce users? Check out the [Report Sender tool](https://cloudanswers.com/report-sender/) and download [it on Appexchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=run_salesforce_reports_in_apex) which is built to take care of that and many other things.


How to describe Salesforce reports in Apex? How to change report filter values through Apex? How to run reports to get data in Apex? Meet the answers in our article

run-salesforce-reports-in-apex

Run Salesforce Reports in Apex


Whether checking your business’s progress or presenting results to the executive board or business partners, precise reporting is critical to your Salesforce success.

![](/uploads/salesforce-logo-png.png)

The profit of your entire Salesforce investment depends a lot on the business insights that you get. These insights get your team to generate more quality leads, close more deals, and serve customers with seamless customer service. It means that the power of creating and maintaining meaningful and accurate reports and dashboards can't be exaggerated.

Proper reports have always been a regular source of confusion among sales and marketing reps for as long as the customer relationship management software has been in practice. Many teams who use the software to track their sales opportunities and activities have ranted about the numerous difficulties in producing reports from their Salesforce sales and marketing data.

In short, the challenges of Salesforce reporting within Salesforce are as follow:

- It requires manual work, that can be repetitive and time-consuming
- You can’t join external data with SFDC (SalesForce Dot Com) data in a single SFDC report
- For the average user finding the right Salesforce data is difficult
- Salesforce allows to send 200 reports a month (Enterprise Edition), 50 a month (Professional Edition)
- Each person can subscribe to up to 5 reports and 5 dashboards
- Report subscriptions are still sent when there is no data.
- Only users can subscribe to reports, making it difficult to share with external stakeholders.
- Limited visualization options
- Problematic cross-object reporting
- Users without the new theme are unable to create, edit, or run joined reports.
- Difficulties in accessing historical data - a range of data must be planned upfront (before actually they are needed) and they are hard to change once they’ve been set
- Filtering is restricted in some dashboards that contain multiple components based on the different report type

More about Salesforce limitations [here.](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=faq_reports_common_limits.htm&type=5)These limitations in reporting within Salesforce have created an opportunity for external reporting and dashboarding tools to step in.  As a result, most Salesforce customers choose to extend their reporting capabilities beyond what Salesforce can deliver.

Let us quickly introduce you to a few of the most popular reporting apps that you can find on the [AppExchange](http://www.appexchange.com)

![](/uploads/tablaue-logo.png)

**Tableau** is a good choice as a third-party analytics tool when your reporting requirements exceed the capabilities that are native to Salesforce.

It offers multiple business benefits:

- Easy to use
- Full information availability. Tableau has built-in integration with Salesforce, allowing Tableau reports and dashboards to be embedded within the Salesforce. It can pull in data from the requested sources. It is not limited to only the data that is stored in Salesforce. Connect to almost any database.
- Many types of charts can be created including Sankey, Doughnut, Maps, etc
- Data blending and data extraction. Salesforce reporting is not able to combine data across Salesforce modules. For instance, it cannot display marketing engagements and pipeline growth on the same chart. Tableau does this type of data blending natively.
- Dashboards can be viewed on multiple devices: tablets, mobiles and laptops
- No data limits.

**Price:** starting from $70/month

[Tableau on AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000009wsiDEAQ)

![](/uploads/klipfolio-logo-black-red.png)

**Klipfolio** is a real-time data analytics tool for basic to intermediate data visualization / dashboards. It enables users to connect any data source, create data visualization, and share it. It is best used for live display of data from various sources in a consistent interface, but can also be used to a lesser extent for exploratory, self-service business intelligence.

Key benefits:

- White label solution
- Easy to add data from different remote sources like Dropbox to easily incorporate offline data such as targets in Excel files or call center data exported in CSV files
- Possibility to set dynamic variables
- Simple and user-friendly data visualization
- A lot of features and already built-in integrations with numerous data sources
- The hover effect showing the details of a particular data point is extremely helpful and enables the user to take a closer look at specifics if they choose.
- Multiple data source formats, you can make data sources in JSON, Summarized View, and Detailed View.
- Shared/permalink dashboards are perfect for allowing private access without requiring login
- Dashboards can be shared in a variety of formats: PDF, JPG, CSV
- Unlimited users
- Dashboards created in Klipfolio are automatically resized based on the device used

**Price**: starting from $29

[Klipfolio on AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3000000B3e6EEAR)

![](/uploads/report-sender-articel.jpg)

**Report Sender** **-** an application that allows you to schedule and sent reports to any email address, in an Excel-friendly format. There are no restrictions on objects or fields, and all Salesforce sharing rules and field-level security for users are obeyed.

How the Report Sender can help you in daily reporting duties:

- You can easily schedule and customize reports
- You can send reports to all email addresses including non-Salesforce users
- Reports can be sent as CSV or Excel file
- Unlimited number of reports
- Easy email body customization
- Multiple schedule options
- You can send just one-time email
- Premium users can skip sending blank reports

Report Sender helps you in your daily business. It can for example, automatically send leads to co-marketing partners from Salesforce campaigns and lead reports. Or send the sales pipeline to the executive team. It keeps all interested parties up to date with business performance indicators, not just those with access to Salesforce.com

Full disclosure: We built this app

**Price:** free and premium

[Report Sender on AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=7_popular_reporting_apps&utm_content=report_sender)

![](/uploads/conga-composer.png)

**Conga** is built for sales and marketing professionals who need to generate and send a presentation, proposal, report or contract. Conga allows users to combine data and merge data from external databases. Users can collaborate by setting up document templates and workflows and can access and sign documents remotely. The platform provides the tools to easily negotiate with key stakeholders and sign contracts on the go.  Conga also allows multiple people to work on a contract together, and redline the document.

Conga composer benefits:

- Salesforce template integration.
- Complex pages pulling multiple objects
- Template based for reusability
- Multistep processes that saves time
- Flexible design
- Works well with other software like [Adobe Sign](https://www.trustradius.com/products/adobe-sign/reviews), DocuSign and Financial Force.
- Flexible on how documents are configured
- Deals with complex merges of data into a document.
- Professional support
- Consistency in data
- Merging Salesforce data into easy to use format
- Supports many different output formats; PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, etc
- PDFs are completely customizable to meet branding
- Automatically store details in the contact's activity history so that you can see who has received what documents.

Price: starting at $20

[Conga Composer on AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016b7FEAQ)

![](/uploads/Report-builder.png)

**Report Builder by Cloud4J** is an app that enables users to download and schedule existing Salesforce reports and dashboards in a variety of formats. It includes charts, conditional formatting, and can query more than 2,000 records, including formula fields. There is no installation necessary, and it works with existing Salesforce reports.

Let's have a look at important features:

- Robust solution for sending reports and dashboards
- Multiple schedules can be set on a single report or dashboard
- Schedules can be set for one or more users, for Salesforce users and non-Salesforce users, at any scheduled time
- Sends generated documents (like Conga)
- Sends reports, dashboards, and/or documents in a single email
- PDF and HTML options for scheduling reports

**Price:** $0-150/month. Free version cannot send reports.

[Report Builder page](https://www.cloud4j.com/report-builder.html)

![](/uploads/smartsheet-logo.png)

**The Smartsheet** platform offers tools for

Every successful business already uses spreadsheets, Smartsheet turns those familiar rows and columns of cells into an app. A result is a special tool that can handle workflow automation, content collaboration, forms management, project management, activity logging, scheduling, real-time data tracking. This cloud-based app certainly makes spreadsheets smarter, and for certain kinds of work, it might be preferable to a more traditional project management platform

Smartsheets key features:

- Easy to use
- Multiple drop-down menus that allow to quickly and simply create a checklist of tasks for a project, assign team members to each task, and set deadlines.
- Unlimited possibilities for adding custom fields to the task
- Automatic reminders
- Gantt charts
- Customizable templates
- Milestone tracking
- Idea management
- Portfolio management
- Time & expense tracking
- User-friendly interface

**Price:** starting at $14

[Smartsheet on AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003JSACEA4)

![](/uploads/insightsquared-vector-logo.png)

**InsightSquared** helps revenue operations professionals make better decisions by equipping them with actionable, real-time intelligence on sales and marketing KPIs. InsightSquared Tiles is an analytics platform that provides sales with the insights they need to drive performance and close deals. According to the vendor, the comprehensive set of reports provide sales leaders with ready access to all the analysis they need to assess their progress, diagnose performance gaps, and formulate action and coaching plans.

Top features:

- Easy to set up, user-friendly interface
- Powerful, intuitive pre-built dashboards to analyze sales team performance
- Graphical view of the reports
- Customizable dashboard
- Data source connectors
- Drag and drop
- Graphical flexibility and customization, and the ability to pivot
- The Slate report tool allows building SQL reports based on SFDC data
- Automated reports

**Price:** starting at $1 USD

[InsightSquared on AppExchange](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000005uuY8EAI)

Improving your Salesforce reporting can help you make more informed decisions about your sales and marketing strategies, your internal operations, and your customer service. The metrics can help you identify weaknesses. But, proper reports can help you find what’s working and resonating with your customers. So improve your reporting results with one of the plenty of plug-ins.

Still stuck? Send us a chat message and we'd be happy to talk about your reporting needs.


Since always proper reports have been a regular source of confusion among sales and marketing reps for as long as the customer relationship management software has been in praxis. Many teams who use the software to track their sales opportunities and activities have ranted about the numerous difficulties in producing reports from their Salesforce sales and marketing data. Let us introduce you the most popular Salesforce reporting apps.

7-popular-reporting-apps-for-salesforce

7 Popular Reporting Apps for Salesforce

Within the [Salesforce platform](https://www.salesforce.com/), there are many measurement tools that allow the decision-makers to take a wide-angle view of their team’s performance and simultaneously grasp the important details that may go unnoticed.

**Salesforce reports** allow a business to understand its current revenue pulse, make decisions for the future, and set goals for advancement. The information provided by reports and dashboards is very important in today’s environment, where it’s critical to be proactive, rather than reactive. And business leaders have questions that reports can answer. But if your Salesforce reports are not configured in a manner that responds to your inquiries – how will you be able to make decisions?A good report should contain all the information necessary to support decision-making. Furthermore, it should lead directors and top management to ask the right questions and initiate a series of actions. That will increase the ability of the organization to achieve it's short- and long-term goals and create sustainable value.

## Good quality information should be:

**RELEVANT** - presented information should be focused and match the defined objectives and the strategy. In other words, does it answer the questions your team is asking?

**INTEGRATED** - reported information should be produced for a range of internal and external purposes. It should be used in your presentations and in meetings.  It should be based on data that is updated regularly through normal business processes.

**IN PERSPECTIVE** - all the information should be presented in relevant time frames and appropriately filtered for the audience.

**TIMELY** - recurring reports should be received always on time. It is crucial that monthly board reports that contain performance information are ready and available when they are needed. Even better if all reports are available on demand and the most important ones are scheduled for automatic delivery.

**CONCRETE** - it should contain needed information. For example, monthly board reports should contain performance information relating to key operational issues, the critical success factors (CSFs), and key performance indicators (KPIs).

**RELIABLE** - People need to trust the data in the report. This requires good data governance and accurate report building. And checking your reports.

**COMPARABLE** - some of the reports like the ones for the board, are performance reports and they cover financial and non-financial aspects of performance. For financial performance, comparing actual data with forecast (budget/plan/rolling forecast), or in some cases, past data (last month/year), is very essential.

**CLEAR** - reports should always be written clearly and simply. Everyday language should be used and jargon or acronyms should be avoided. Avoid adding too much information to a report as people may miss the point.

## **Reporting Rules Worth Following**

#### ![](/uploads/speech-and-audience-1-150x150.png)1\. Know your audience

Every report has a purpose and a specific audience. Identify what questions the report will answer. Make sure the report does that and no more. It’s important that your report is catered to the needs of each receiver.

#### **![](/uploads/data-sheet-150x150.png)2.** **Capture the right data**

Reports and dashboards are only as good as the data behind them. Align metrics with company vision, take your business objectives, set the metrics that measure those objectives and map them to the capabilities of Salesforce CRM. The recommendation is planning reports first and then configure the application by adding custom fields, formulas, and other changes to capture the data you need.

#### **![](/uploads/security-data-150x150.png)3\. Make reports easily accessible**

Once the report is created make sure that all, who should see it and have the interest to see it, have access to it. Choose a clear name and add a helpful description. Or schedule it to get automatically delivered to the right people.

#### ![](/uploads/remote-control-150x150.png)4\. Automate workflow

Automate everything to save time. Salesforce report subscriptions and [Report Sender](https://cloudanswers.com/report-sender/) provide two different ways to schedule and automatically send results to stakeholders and managers. With automation you will have more time to focus on critical projects instead of building the same reports and sending them out over and over.

## **Reports provide visibility**

- If you are running an important initiative, you use reports to present how your project or program is doing.
- If you are facing challenges, risks, issues, then you use reporting to bring this to management’s attention – so you can get the help you need.
- If the team is doing an excellent job, your reports will present this – and get you and the team's attention and appreciation.
- You also need reports to manage team projects better. Reports help you regularly monitor your team’s progress against goals.
- Regulators, auditors, senior management – all of them look for reports to understand progress against goals and targets.

## **Conclusion**

Reports can provide insight at all levels of the company. So why not improve your reports today? Reports and dashboards are designed to be iterative – it is important to keep them current and relevant. To successfully roll out business metrics good communication is key. Make it easy for your users to find, view, and access the dashboards relevant to them. Then see how much your business transforms.

Check also other articles that are related to :

[Run Salesforce reports in Apex](https://cloudanswers.com/run-salesforce-reports-in-apex/)

[7 Popular Reporting Apps for Salesforce](https://cloudanswers.com/7-popular-reporting-apps-for-salesforce/)

[How To Make Your Salesforce Reports Run Faster](https://cloudanswers.com/tips-for-faster-reports/)

### **CloudAnswers provides free apps that help you work faster and more efficient with Salesforce**

### [**Check it now!**](http://www.cloudanswers.com)

image: /uploads/

Reports are needed to understand the data you have in Salesforce or any other CRM. But how the report should be built might be challenging.

salesforce-reporting-tips-and-best-practices

Salesforce - Reporting Tips and Best Practices

for-administrators

For Administrators


In this article, we are going to share some known tips and tricks which can make your **Salesforce reports** run faster. Most reports load in a matter of seconds. In certain cases, it can take longer. On very rare occasions, reports can hit the timeout limits. This can happen due to any of the following reasons:

- Querying too many columns
- Querying objects with too many records
- Using inefficient filters / operators

Now, let's focus on keys areas on which we can work and how we can leverage various options available on Salesforce platform to overcome the above problems.

## Exclude unnecessary data

We should only query data that is relevant to the report we are building. We can take note of the following key points to exclude any unnecessary data from our reports:

1\. Choose a report type that only includes the objects you need.

2\. Remove any unnecessary columns from the report.

3\. Whenever possible, use "My…" or "My Team's…" option rather than "All…". For example, My Accounts.

![Screen Shot 2020-07-20 at 9.09.01 pm.png](/uploads/Screen-Shot-2020-07-20-at-9.09.01-pm.png)

4\. When you are only interested in the summary data, click on the Hide Details button under Advanced Filters to hide detail rows.

![Screen Shot 2020-07-20 at 9.12.55 pm](/uploads/Screen-Shot-2020-07-20-at-9.12.55-pm.png)

## **Use efficient filters / operators**

##### **Narrow your filters**

Use _equal to_ or _not equal to_ instead of _contains_ or _does not contains_ filters. For example, use the Contact Owner equal to John Smith instead of the Contact Owner contains John. This limits the amount of data retrieved and makes the report load faster.

##### **Focus on the right time period**

Queries with fixed time frames run faster than open-ended queries. We should always set a start and end date values to limit the report data. If that’s not possible, then try using relative date values such as - THIS WEEK, LAST MONTH or YESTERDAY. This works well for saved reports. Also, this becomes very handy for activity reports to eliminate future recurring activities.

## **![](/uploads/Screen-Shot-2020-07-20-at-9.14.06-pm.png)**

## **Optimize your Salesforce environment**

##### **Consider the storage size of your objects**

Do you know how many records exist for each object in your report queries? The more records, the bigger the object's storage size and the longer the report takes to run. To determine the size of an object, from **Setup**, enter **Storage Usage** in the **Quick Find** box, then select **Storage Usage** and see each object's Storage value in the **Current Data Storage Usage** section. As storage usage increases, reports that include that object will take longer.

##### **Empty your Recycle Bin**

Data you've deleted still gets queried when you run your report unless you permanently delete it by emptying the Recycle Bin. Make sure to empty the Recycle Bin after pruning your data.

##### **Filter on fields that are optimized for search**

There are some standard fields that are optimized for a search like Id, Name, OwnerId, CreatedDate, SystemModStamp, RecordType. Master-detail and lookup fields are also optimized for search. Unique and External Id fields are also optimized for search. By using optimized fields in the filters, we can save some time during the report runs.

## **Schedule reports and dashboards**

A dashboard refreshes data for everyone who has access to it whenever anyone clicks the Refresh button. If you have a report which takes a long time to run, add it in a dashboard. This way you will have more people seeing fresh data with fewer report runs. Also, encourage your users who have "Schedule Dashboards" permission to have their dashboards refresh on a **scheduled basis daily, weekly, or monthly**, so that users don't always have to wait for data to refresh.

Try the above tips to make your reports more efficient and load faster. If you have any other tricks which worked for you, we would like to hear from you in the comments section.

Looking for more knowledge, check also other articles that are covering Salesforce reporting topics

[Effective data storage in Salesforce for every business size](https://cloudanswers.com/effective-data-storage-in-salesforce-for-every-business-size/)

[Salesforce – Reporting Tips and Best Practices](https://cloudanswers.com/salesforce-reporting-tips-and-best-practices/)

[Creating automated reports in Salesforce](https://cloudanswers.com/creating-automated-reports-in-salesforce/)

[Report Sender](https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EJdlFUAT&utm_source=cloudanswers_website&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=salesforce_reports_run_faster) - app for quick scheduling and sending Salesforce reports

## **Report Sender Plus lets you easily schedule and send reports to any email address.**


Get some some known tips and tricks which can make your Salesforce reports run faster. Most reports load in a matter of seconds.

salesforce-reports-run-faster

How To Make Your Salesforce Reports Run Faster

Salesforce apps, powerful components, development and consulting. Our experienced team helps you to create and modify workflow processes in salesforce.

Salesforce Reports