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Writer's pictureMichael Kolodner

Free Like a Beer: Salesforce Reports

Reports (and dashboards) in Salesforce are seriously amazing. If you spend all day every day in the system, like I do, you probably don't think about them that much. They're just one of the platform features that we take for granted. But we shouldn't.

Let's raise a glass for the humble native reporting in Salesforce! 🍻

Freebie with a cloud hovering between his paws.

I spend a lot of time talking about user experience and user interface: how to get data into Salesforce, automations to relate data to each other, run calculations, etc. But I don't think I've written about reports (before today). Pause for a minute to think about how easy it is to get your data back out of the system. Not in the sense of exporting it (though we do that sometimes), but in the sense of getting insights about all those individual records.

How much did we raise in donations last month? Run an opportunities report.

How many people completed the alumni survey last week? Run a surveys report.

Who still hasn't filled out the alumni survey? Run a contacts report with a cross filter.


It's not a given that systems can easily return these kinds of answers.

  • Maybe your database system has built-in reports, but if you want to make a minor change to the column order, you can't do that.

  • In lots of systems you're stuck with the existing canned reports and can't even add more.

  • Or maybe you have to pay the vendor to build you a new report.

  • Or you can generate a report, but you view it by exporting a CSV and viewing in Excel. Or a PDF. So it's disconnected from where you do your work.


Sometimes I'll get a scope of work from a potential client that lists several reports they want to be able to generate about the programs they want to track. I'm never sure how to respond to that part of a proposal, since the ability to report is just a baseline function of using Salesforce as your source of truth. It seems almost trivial to include time for building more than a few model reports, because users are going to be creating their own in no time. But that's hard to convey that to an organization that is still in the "considering Salesforce" phase.


Reports are "free" like a beer, not "free" like a puppy!

When you're considering the cost of Salesforce, factor in that reporting is self-service!


Not Just for "Reporting," Either

Don't forget that reports are also incredibly flexible. They can be a list, or a chart, or a component on a dashboard. You can subscribe to a report so it comes to your email every day. Or subscribe with conditions so you get a notification when something particular has changed in the data.

The bottom of a report subscription page, with the editor for conditions.

A report can be a To Do list, showing records that someone needs to take action on. If the action's simple, perhaps they can even take action directly from the report.

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