In Salesforce, reports are a great way to look at our data (like opportunities, accounts, contacts, Leads) based on specific criteria. Salesforce help us to manage analyze data using filters, groupings, and fields to answer key business questions.
Flow is generally contacts with accounts- leads- opportunities and we must build reports according to flow.
Types of Reports:
1. Tabular Reports:
Tabular Report is the most basic type of report in Salesforce. Think of it like a simple spreadsheet and just a list of data without any groupings. It’s perfect when we just need a quick list, like all your contacts, accounts, or opportunities.
Key Characteristics:
– Simple Format: No grouping or subtotals, just a straight list of formats.
– Best For: Quick review of data, exporting to Excel, or detailed record reviews.
– Limitation: Not good for complex analysis like finding sum, average or total.
Example:
Opportunity Pipeline Report
You might want a list of all your opportunities currently in the pipeline. Here’s how that report could look:
- Report Type: Tabular Report - Object: Opportunities in Salesforce - Fields Displayed: Opportunity Name, Account Name, Stage, Close Date, Amount
This report gives you a simple view of opportunities, showing key details like deal amounts and expected close dates.
2. Summary Reports:
Summary Reports help us to group data, making it easier to see totals, averages, or counts for specific categories like geo, sales rep. These are great for taking a deeper dive into data, as they provide more flexibility and better way than a tabular report.
Key Features:
– Grouping: Group by one or more fields (like by sales rep or region or country).
– Subtotals: Automatically generated for each group.
– Summaries: You can calculate totals, averages, counts, and many more.
Example:
Closed Opportunities by Sales Rep
We want to understand which sales reps are closing the most deals then summary report can help with that. it might include:
- Report Type: Summary Type - Object: Opportunities in salesforce - Grouping: Group by "Opportunity Owner" (Sales rep) - Fields Displayed: Opportunity Name, Close Date, Stage, Amount - Summaries: Subtotal by Opportunity Owner (total amount closed by each sales rep) and Grand Total (total amount closed across the team).
This report helps us to quickly identify your top performers by showing how much each rep has closed how many deals either monthly or quarterly.
3. Matrix Reports:
Matrix Reports take things by allowing group data both by rows and columns, giving a two-dimensional data view. These are ideal when we want to compare related totals across different categories of data.
Key Features:
– Row and Column Grouping: Group data by two fields, like sales stage and product.
– Summaries: Get subtotals and grand totals for both row and column groupings.
– Best For: Comparing performance across multiple dimensions.
Example:
Opportunity Pipeline by Stage and Product
If we want to see how opportunities behave at different stages in the sales process are distributed across different product lines. A matrix report can give you this view:
- Report Type: Matrix Type - Object: Opportunities (with Products) - Row Grouping: Opportunity Stage (Prospecting, Demo, Proposal, Closed Won, Closed Lost) - Column Grouping: Product (Product 1, Product 2, Product 3) - Fields Displayed: Opportunity Name, Stage, Amount or Revenue - Summaries: Subtotals for both Stage and Product.
With this we can quickly see how many deals are in each stage for each product line and can plan campaigns accordingly.
4. Joined Reports:
Joined Reports are great when we need to pull data from different report types and combine them into a single view. It’s like having multiple mini-reports side by side, which is great for comparing data from different objects.
Key Features:
– Multiple Report Blocks: You can combine up to five different report blocks.
– Block-Specific Filters and Groupings: Customize each block with its own filters and groupings.
– Common Fields: You can link blocks using a common field (like Account/account id or Campaign Name/campaign id).
Example:
Sales Performance: Opportunities vs. Accounts
we could create a joined report to compare opportunities and accounts in a single view. For example:
- Report Type: Joined Report - Objects: Opportunities and Accounts - Blocks: Block 1: Opportunities (grouped by Opportunity Owner or Sales Rep) Block 2: Accounts (grouped by Account Owner or Account manager) - Fields Displayed: Block 1: Opportunity Name, Amount, Stage, Close Date Block 2: Account Name, Industry, Annual Revenue
This report helps us see how many opportunities each sales rep has closed and compare it with the accounts they manage, giving us insights into their overall performance.
In Summary:
Salesforce reports are powerful tools that help us quickly understand and visualize our data. we can also set up subscriptions to receive reports by email on a weekly or monthly basis and use dashboards to make data-driven decisions.