Effective, repeatable, and insightful analytics are key to ROI in customer relationship management systems. Many organizations, however, lack the automated reporting tools they need to run their businesses and instead choose to massage the data in Excel. But there's a better way. Salesforce's standard reporting tools provide a rich set of features that, when combined, support a wide variety of analytics needs.

This practical introduction covers all the aspects and features you need to be successful with Salesforce reports and dashboards. Author David Carnes, chairman and chief evangelist for OpFocus, shows executives, end users, and report and dashboard superusers what analytics are possible, which features report writers should ask to be enabled, and which settings and permissions system administrators need to activate.

You'll learn:

• How to create reports using the four main report formats in Salesforce
• How to create and use dashboards
• Methods for storing and finding reports and dashboards
• How to leverage formulas and trending in Salesforce reporting
• Special reporting features only available in Salesforce Mobile and on the Analytics tab
• Ways to embed report charts and dashboards in Lightning page layouts
• Powerful combinations of reporting features to drive decisions

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction to Salesforce Reporting

Chapter 2. First Things First

Chapter 3. Reports

Chapter 4. Creating Reports

Chapter 5. Formulas

Chapter 6. Dashboards

Chapter 7. Building Dashboards

Chapter 8. Report and Dashboard Folders

Chapter 9. Analytics Tab

Chapter 10. Custom Report Types

Chapter 11. Embedded Analytics

Chapter 12. Mobile Analytics

Chapter 13. Trending

Chapter 14. Final Thoughts

About the Author

David Carnes is Chairman and Chief Evangelist for OpFocus, Inc, a RevOps consulting firm working with SaaS companies across the US and Canada. He is a Salesforce MVP, Boston Salesforce Admin Group Leader, and host of Dashboard Dojo, a twice-monthly Salesforce Report and Dashboard study group. David has served as consultant and instructor on the Salesforce platform since 2005, and maintains 10 Salesforce certifications. He regularly speaks at Salesforce events and user group meetings around the world. David finds time to tinker with Reports and Dashboards daily and loves to share what he learns each day.