What is a Salesforce report?
You have all of your data in Salesforce, so now you can start reporting on it. A report is a list of records based on your criteria. You can report on any objects and records that you can see in Salesforce. You can filter, group, and sort these records to meet your reporting requirements. You also have the ability to choose only records with connections to other objects. Once you have your object and the records, you are able to customize and specify the fields that are visible on the report.
Create a report in Salesforce
Navigate to the Reports tab in Salesforce.
Depending on the app you are starting from, you may also see the reports tab at the top of your screen, or in the navigation menu. You can also always get to Reports from the waffle in the top left corner by searching Reports.
Once you are in the reports view, click on New Report in the top right corner of the screen.
Before you get started, it can be helpful to start with a stated question or a list of questions that you are trying to answer with your report. As you build your report, you will be able to make sure it is giving you the answers to your questions. Here are a few example questions:
Where is my data? or What do I need a report of? will help you choose a Report Type.
What are the criteria for my data? can also help with Report Type and will help define your filters.
What do I need to know about my data? will help you refine your fields.
Choose a Report Type
Report Types are based on the object you are reporting on. This is a place where your questions will be helpful. For example, if you have questions about classes, you may want to start with Course Offering. Similarly, if you have questions about inventory items, you may want to start with Assets.
You can determine which object you are interested in by clicking into a record that you want to include in your report. You will be able to see the object in the top left corner of every record page or list view.
The standard Report Types available to you will include every object you can see. You will also notice that many objects have with or and relating them to other objects. These report types will only show you the records that are of your specified object that have a relationship with that other object, as indicated in the Report Type.
For example, you can view Accounts and that will show you all of the Accounts that exist. You can also see Accounts with the Courses associated with them, and none that do not have Courses. Similarly, you can see all Assets in the system, or you can see Assets that are associated with an Employee, and none that are not associated with an Employee.
Depending on your permissions and access level, you may see different Report Types available to you.
Customize your Report
Once you have selected your Report Type, you will see the Report Editor screen.
It may appear blank for you initially. This is because Salesforce will default the filters to only show your records, meaning the ones that you created. There may also be a time limit automatically applied to your report which can filter out older records.
Filters
You will start on the Outline tab on the left side. Click on Filters to remove these defaults.
Click on the filters that are there. If you need to see all records, change the Owner to All and change the date filter to All Time. You should be able to see all of the records available to you of the Report Type you chose.
You can now add filters according to your criteria. Click Add filter… on the left side and search for the first field you want to filter on. This can be any field on the object you are reporting on.
Depending on the type of field, you will need to choose your filter criteria. For any filter you will need to select the operator on the field, and the value you are restricting by.
Operators can include:
Equals
Not equal to
Less than
Greater than
Less or equal to
Greater or equal to
Contains
Does not contain
Starts with
Values will be determined by the type of field you are using to filter on.
Here are a few examples of filters:
To remove a filter that isn’t going to work for you, click the trash icon on the right side of the filter.
Fields
In the lower half of the left side panel, you will see Columns. Each report will default to a certain set of fields when you open it. You can remove fields by clicking the X on the right side of that field name, and you can add fields by searching for it at the top of the list.
The order of this list is the order of the fields on your final report. Drag the field titles up and down the list until you have them in the order you need.
Groups
From the Outline tab, you can create groups based on the fields of your object. This is useful when you need to report on a variety of items, but you want to indicate what type of record it is.
For example, you want to report on Course Offerings for a given semester and you want to group them by Instructor. Similarly, you may want to report on Assets and group them by Group Assignment.
Add a group by clicking Add group… and search for the field you want to group by.
Once you have grouped the records by at least one row, you can also group your report columns.
This will create a matrix report at the top of your full report with the grouped information you have indicated.
Continue to add field groupings to the rows and columns by clicking Add group… and searching for the fields you need until you have the information you need.
Sorting
At the top of each column of your report, you can click on the field heading to sort your data. Click again to change the direction of the sort.
Report functions
Across the bottom of your report editor, you can see a few function options to add some basic summary information into your report.
Toggle these settings on and off to add or remove these summary rows.
You can also sort, group, summarize, move, and remove each field by clicking the arrow on the right side of the field name.
The field-specific summarization will be displayed in the summary rows, so if you need that information, be sure to leave those rows toggled on.
Save your Report
In the top right corner of the page, you will see your options for saving.
Once you have your report customized to your needs, you can either run the report without saving or save and run the report. If you think you may need this report again, it is highly recommended that you save it.
If you click Save or Save As or Save & Run, you will see your Save Report screen.
Salesforce will populate a Report Name and Report Unique Name for you, but you can also customize it. Best practice here is to make the name concise enough that you will be able to reference it again easily in the future. A good naming convention is something along the lines of [Unit] [Report Type] [Use Case]. A few examples include Marketing Contact with Email for L&W messaging, Assets with Inventory Event FY2021, ProEd Course Offerings with Course Connections.
The Unique Name is the reference information in the larger Salesforce database, so it will have a few unrelated digits at the end. You do not need to worry about those.
We do recommend that you add a description that has information about how you have filtered, grouped, sorted, and summarized your data. You can also include any personal use case references on your own reports. The description needs to be enough information that you know when to look at this report any what you will find there.
The folder will default to your Private Reports folder. If you want to change the folder, click on Select Folder. You will have certain default folders here. You can see all of the folders beyond these defaults in the All Folders section.
Select the folder that you want to store your new report in and click Save.
If you click Run, you will go directly to your full report. You will have the option to save it from the run report if you have not already done so.
Additional Resources from Salesforce:
Salesforce Help: Build a Report
YouTube Walkthrough: Build a Report
Trailhead: Reports and Dashboards