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How to Create Reports in Salesforce Lightning

Salesforce is the leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform today. When you create reports in Salesforce, you can gain valuable insights about your organization and spot opportunities that you can capitalize on.

Creating a report in Salesforce can give you ideas regarding your top-selling products or services, most effective marketing campaigns, customer satisfaction, identifying your high-value prospects, and more.

You can use the information on these reports to make data-driven decisions, monitor your goals, control costs, predict trends, and figure out how to increase revenue.

Different Types of Reports in Salesforce Lightning

A report created from your Salesforce database is a list of records that are consolidated based on the criteria you set. These reports can help you scale and grow your brand.

A standard report is a predefined report that you can pull from Salesforce but cannot be customized. There is also a Salesforce custom report where you can specify the objects and fields you want to include.

Below are the four Salesforce report types:

  • Tabular report: This is the simplest form of Salesforce report, where the data is presented in rows and columns. It is ideal if you just want to make a list and not include calculations, groupings of data, or subtotals. 
  • Summary report: Somewhat similar to the tabular format, a summary report has more functionality, allowing you to group rows of information, compute totals, and create charts.
  • Matrix report: You can combine data by columns and rows to create a matrix report. 
  • Joined Report: If you want various views of data from different report types, you can create a joined report to compare information such as open opportunities versus closed opportunities.

 An example of Salesforce reports

When you create a report, it will be stored in a folder. You can determine who can view the reports in a particular folder, edit them, or manage them. These folders can be set to public, shared, or hidden.

As the owner of a folder, you can determine who can access the content and assign permissions based on public groups, licenses, and other factors. You can also set it to private or allow the entire organization to have access to the files.

5 Simple Steps on How to Create Reports in Salesforce Lightning

When creating reports in Salesforce, you can build them to answer essential questions that will help your business. At its core, Salesforce is a database of information – but you don’t need to know coding to create reports. The interface is intuitive and includes a translator that allows you to submit queries through a point-and-click interface.

A look at the intuitive Salesforce dashboard for generating reports

Below is a quick guide on how to create Salesforce reports:

1. Create a New Report

Open the Salesforce report builder by locating the Reports tab on the navigation bar and clicking New Report.

2. Select a Salesforce Report Type

The system will then prompt you to choose a report type. There will be a long list of reports to choose from at this stage. You will see items such as Opportunities, Leads, and Campaigns, among others. Input a keyword that relates to the report type you’re looking for to simplify the search process. If you want to look into your Contracts and Orders, you will see specific results for that object.

3. Filter the Information

Your database is packed with data that you can filter to create meaningful reports for different levels or all levels of your organization. You can use filters and filter logic to generate reports that answer specific questions about your business.

Below is an overview of different filters you can use to define the scope of your Salesforce report:

  • Standard: Most of the objects have standard filters by default. Some standard filters applied to most objects are Show Me and Date Field.
  • Field Filter: These filters are for reports, workflow rules, list views, and more. This is useful for tabular, matrix, or summary reports, where you can easily drag them from the Fields pane to create a filter for your report.
  • Filter Logic: You need to add a condition to let the system know how the fields should be evaluated. Some filter logic operators include And, Or, or Not.
  • Cross Filter: You can filter a report using conditions such as With or Without. The system will also allow you to add sub-filters.
  • Row Limit: You can limit the rows a report will return for a tabular report, often used as source for a chart or a dashboard table.

You can play around with the filters and decide what fields you want to report on.

4. Add/Remove Columns and Group the Data

The Salesforce Lightning reporting feature allows you to add or remove columns on your report using a simple drag-and-drop interface.  You can find the information you need in the columns section on the left side of the screen, and then drag the field to the report pane on the right.

There is also an option to group your data to zero in on more specific patterns or trends you want to look into. You just input the information you need on the left, and you will get filtered results.

5. Save Your Report

When done with your Salesforce report, click Save and give the report a unique name. Save the report in an appropriate folder, keeping in mind the access and permissions you want for the file. Finally, run the report to see the results. 

If you want to up your game a notch, Salesforce allows you to create dashboards. These are a combination of reports presented side-by-side using various types of charts, tables, gauges, or metrics. Think of reports as the raw data, and dashboards as the visually appealing layout that everyone in your company will appreciate.

Below is a short video that provides tips to creating reports in Salesforce Lightning quickly, using the platform’s best features:

Create Salesforce Reports and Drive Value for Your Brand and Clients

Rainmaker is a team of Salesforce experts with years of experience using the platform to create value for its clients through various services and projects. We can help you integrate Salesforce with your existing systems in order to generate actionable reports that make the most of your business data – and help you drive efficiencies, productivity, and revenues.

Make most of the data available to you by tapping our expertise. Contact us today.

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