5 Advanced Salesforce Reporting Features

Salesforce.com is one of the topmost CRM platforms in the world. Most of the features have got updates every year and new services are being introduced. Advanced reporting is one of the strong tools of Salesforce for adding value to your business. The simple drag and drop interface makes it highly effective due to it's easy to use.

Let’s discuss the five most advanced Reporting features of Salesforce.

Custom Summary formulas

Custom Summary Formulas is available in Salesforce Classic and Lightning, Group, Professional Performance, Unlimited, Developer Editions, Enhanced Folder Sharing and Legacy Folder Sharing. You can basically use this on reports and to calculate complex data for your summary levels. You can add this to a field in your report and drag into the report to create a formula. However, you access most of the functions while creating a normal field.

There are certain do’s and don’ts which you should follow while implementing this tool:

• You cannot filter data by summary formula columns.
• You cannot group report data by summary formula columns.
• You cannot reorder summary formula columns.
• You should report group report data first before adding a summary formula column.
• You cannot refer one summary formula with the other one.
• Summary formula contains 3900 characters.

Custom Report Types

You can keep your data safe with the use of salesforce custom setting. You just need to report on it by using custom reports which are already built. You can share the access with your colleagues and use the data to create dashboards and actionable metrics.

Custom Report types are available in Salesforce Classic and Lightning, Group, Professional Performance, Unlimited, Developer Editions, Enhanced Folder Sharing and Legacy Folder Sharing. You can create five main custom report types:

1.  Accounts with or without Contacts
2.  Accounts with or without Opportunities
3.  Accounts with or without Cases
4.  Opportunities with or without Contacts
5.  Users with or without Activities

You just have to follow few basic steps to take the full advantage of this feature:

• You need user permission to create and customize reports and manage custom report types for Legacy Folder sharing.
• You need user permission to create and customize reports and manage custom report types for Enhanced Folder sharing.
• You can choose from all objects even if you don’t have the permission to view.
• You cannot change the primary object, once you save a report type.
• If you remove an object from the report type, all the references related to the object got deleted too.

Exception Reports

It is rightly said that the exception reports are an admin’s and a sales manager’s best friend. An exception report will notify you if there are any mistakes on the project and who exactly did it. It helps you to trust your data by using cross filters to show you the missing data. You can build many exceptions, however; there are two main exceptions which your org can find two kinds of data like Missing Data and Contradictory Data. By using this powerful tool you can get better data, improve the sales and marketing behavior and reward the right Salesforce behavior.

Historical Trend Reporting

You can use historical trend reporting to highlight changes between five snapshot days, such as five business days or weeks. You can make it visible on dashboards and in charts. Historical trend reporting is activated for organizations created in 14 or thereafter. If your organization is older than that, you can activate this feature in the setup menu.

There are few tips which you must follow while using this unique advanced features:

• You can select up to five date snapshots by using four historical filters.
• You should not use this for months, only days and weeks are recommended.
• If you have a small organization with few records, month- to -month reporting will work.
• You can use Metadata API to create and customize historical trend reporting.
• You cannot see a specific field’s historical trending if the access is taken out from you.
• If the field permissions for the parent field changes, the historical field’s permission changes accordingly.

Analytical Snapshots

You can use analytical snapshots to build historical reports. It is available in Salesforce Classic and Lightning, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited and Developer editions. Users with access can save a summary report and can schedule when to run the report to update the custom objects field. You can also create and store snapshots of data which you want to monitor. You just need to follow three easy steps when using this very clever feature of advanced Salesforce reporting:

Firstly, you have to create a source report which will contain the data you want to historically trend. You can also create the report by selecting which kind of report you want to use. Secondly, you will have to create a custom object which means as you set the snapshot to run; it will load all data into a new record. You will have to create custom fields for each report which you prefer for reporting. Lastly, you are all set to create the snapshot which will include naming the snapshots, selection of the source report and creation of an automation activity which saves the data from your source report.

Now, you can see the exclusivity of Advanced Salesforce Reporting feature and use as per your project’s requirements. These small tips are good to go guide for newcomers as well as professionals willing to implement this technique.