Are you looking for a way to create easy reports and dashboards in Salesforce?
Did you already try to create a specific report type but got stuck because it wasn’t functional enough? Explore how Plecto’s Report and Dashboard features can be an easy and effective way of following your Salesforce data in real-time.
What reports are available on dashboards in Salesforce?
Salesforce offers two different versions of reports. They have their Custom Reports types and their Standard Report types.
In Salesforce you are able to create your own Custom Reports if you have the correct Salesforce Edition, Plan and User Permission. Both Salesforce Classic and the Lightning Experience Edition will be able to provide you with a report and dashboard feature. However, there are several editions and plans to choose from and you will need to investigate which of the above would be the best match for your company’s CRM needs.
In order to do the best investigation, Salesforce provides a lot of tutorial videos on YouTube and help articles on their own Trailblazer community. Take a look at their different YouTube channels where you find tutorials, demos and how to’s.
If you want to skip the investigation part of knowing which plan, edition and permission to choose, in order to get the Salesforce Dashboard and Custom Report feature, you should know that you are able to access Plecto’s Custom Report feature by simply choosing the Large plan.
Not only are you able to import Salesforce data on Custom Data Types, Events, Tasks, Opportunities and Leads, you are actually able to import over 60+ different integrations and mix this data into the same report! The different data sources can origin from your dialer, support chat, salary system, webshop page and so forth.
This unique option that Plecto provides allows you to custom your own reports on a whole new level. Plecto doesn’t want to restrict you and we therefore allow you to mix different integrations into one single KPI if needed. Every company has unique KPIs and achievements, so why limit yourself on a report?
What is the difference between report and dashboard in Salesforce?
There are different ways to share your data with colleagues and shareholders. You might have been doing this by providing everyone with an excel file filled with numbers. However, if you are reading this, you might have discovered that updating and sending Excel sheets takes a lot of working hours which you could have used elsewhere.
Salesforce offers both reports and dashboards. The difference here is that Dashboards are generated directly from the Report. This means that your dashboards are always depending on a report being created firstly.
Be aware that Salesforce dashboards are only available for certain plans, editions and permissions in Salesforce, you therefore also need to investigate, once again, if dashboards are included in your package.
The dashboards in Salesforce have limited options when it comes to widgets, or as Salesforce calls it, Dashboard Components. Here you are able to choose up to 6 different dashboard components visualizing data coming only from your Salesforce account.
If you want to create dashboards which aren’t tied up to any report and want to incorporate other integrations into one dashboard, you should take a closer look at Plecto. Plecto has up to 13 different dashboard components with a mix of Line Chart, Area Chart, Pie Chart, Column Chart, Speedometer, Number Box, Table, Timeline, Leaderboard, and many more. Plecto allows you to visualize your CRM-, dialer-, chat-, ecommerce-, finance- and developer data all in the same system. Basically, you would be able to import any kind of data and mix it into one dashboard to suit your departments and company the best way possible.
What are some good custom reports and dashboards in salesforce on leads and opportunities?
If you don’t think that the Standard Report type contains the needed information that you are in need of, you are able to create a Custom Report type in Salesforce. The Custom Report Type allows you to filter on Objects, Fields, Time etc. and can be very detailed if you want to look at something specific in your CRM data. It is very individual how a good custom report is built for each company, but here you are able to create and build exactly the report you want with your Salesforce data.
If you are an Enterprise company, there is one huge issue with this setup. The possibility to incorporate the data created in other systems and other departments is not possible to include in this Salesforce’ report section. If you want to look into your company’s data and analytics you will not be able to get a complete overview with this reporting tool.
Instead, you should try to import all your company data into Plecto and create custom reports for all departments and roles. Here everyone can use the data related to their workload and see all data that affects the outcome across departments.
Reports and dashboards can be created in layers, to show the relevant data to the correct people. To give you a few examples, you can create a CEO report that contains data from different locations and offices showcasing how sales, marketing, development and support are going across locations. This data can be boiled down to the most important data which applies to the CEO.
Another report can be for the Manager of the Sales department. Here the manager needs to see the overall performance from the department, but also the individual achievements and progress on each employee. The manager can acknowledge individuals when they are doing good and take action when they see a trend affecting the performance in a negative way.
A final report or dashboard can be with a personal motive. In Plecto you are able to create individual dashboards and reports for the employees. Here the employees can follow their own performance and analyze how their strong and weak sides develop overtime. As all employees are different and have a different set of goals, all dashboards and reports can be customized for this purpose.
How many reports can you have on a salesforce dashboard?
As mentioned before a Salesforce dashboard is created from a Salesforce report. In Plecto, you don’t need to create your report firstly, as reports and dashboards are two different features and modules that can be built separately.
One of the features in Plecto, also includes the possibility to created unlimited dashboards, reports and add unlimited data sources. Plecto believes, that there should be no limit to what you want to visualize, track or add.
In addition to this, an important feature to note is that Plecto updates the data from the added integrations in real-time. This means, that all the reports and dashboards that you have built for you and the team will get updated as soon as the data changes in the respective integration. By having these real-time updates, you will no longer use unnecessary time to update teams, individuals, departments and offices on the analytics because they can at all times look at the dashboard or reports in order to be updated with the newest numbers.
In addition to this timesaving feature, we present you to the Scheduled Report. Not only do you save time when creating and updating the report, but you also save time sending out the report. A lot of the time we will look into different CRM, support and sales systems to be able to see the latest numbers before sending it out to several people.
Let’s say you create for example a Weekly Report. You simply add the people who needs to receive it and schedule it for the correct day and time. When the day arrives, your report will be sent to the chosen people, on the time and date and most importantly, with fresh and updated numbers! Plecto does it all.
Can you make lightning dashboard with joined classic report in salesforce?
Finding out if you can create a Lightening dashboard with a joined Classic report in Salesforce is really hard to find an answer on. With all the different permissions and user access it can be a jungle to navigate in.
When using Plecto, it won’t be as complicated to use dashboards and reports. If you need the Report feature you simply have to go for the Large subscription and here, you have access to all the features inside of Plecto.
When you create formulas and KPIs, these will be stored on the account, ready to be used on different sections of the Plecto platform. From here it is plug and play when creating the different report and dashboards showcasing your company analytics.
You will simply have to choose from the existing KPI-list and attach it to as many report and dashboard components as needed. This means that Plecto’s dashboards and reports aren’t depended on each other and can be created in relation to each other or separately, just as you and your managers needs it.
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How do I display reports in Salesforce dashboard on homepage?
If you need to showcase your dashboards on your Salesforce homepage, you will firstly need to be an Administrator in order to create this. Secondly, the people who would need to have the dashboard on their homepage, will also be required to have at least a read access to the dashboard folder containing the given dashboard.
There are two different paths to add a dashboard to the homepage, depending if you are working In Lightening Experience or Classic.
To use Salesforce as your CRM system is a really good choice. Salesforce has a lot of clever ways to setup your whole CRM universe and to customize the whole setup to your own company’s needs. However, if your goal is to unify data, create more visibility and spread knowledge regarding the analytics, Plecto might be a better choice for you.
Plecto is not only available on the computer. Plecto is meant to be used wherever you are in the world, which is why we built the transportable business dashboard in an app. The Plecto app is available both for iOS and Android and can show both reports and dashboards straight from your phone.
The newest addition to the app is the possibility to show your dashboard components as widgets on your mobile home screen. The dashboard components will still update in real-time and by clicking on one of the components you will be taken straight to the associated dashboard.
But this is not all, the majority of Plecto’s clients is casting their dashboards on all their office screens, making sure that all employees have the possibility to follow the progress at all times. Some chooses to add a dashboard component to their Apple watch and others follow the analytics by tablets. As you can hear there are close to endless possibilities when choosing to visualize your company analytics in Plecto.
A final but major add on to all the above, is the value that you gain when motivating your employees with celebrating triggers, sounds, videos, and emojis. By celebrating the small victories across all the different departments, you will not only create a great atmosphere around the workplace, but you will increase the celebration of each other’s achievements among colleagues and the motivation to do better than they did the day before.
Happy colleagues and employees are not something you can put a price on, as these people are the ones making the wheels go around every, single, day.
Invest in their motivation, invest in your efficiency, invest in Plecto.
