Creating reports and dashboards
Reports count or total records grouped one way, such as cases by status or pipeline by month, with a chart, a summary table and the records themselves. Dashboards put several reports on one page.
Standard reports
CRMSix comes with ready-made reports for service and sales (for example open cases by support team, open cases by owner, pipeline by month) and two dashboards, Service Overview and Sales Pipeline. Standard reports and dashboards can’t be changed, but Edit a copy on any of them saves your own copy to adapt, including the filters you had applied.
Build a report
- Go to the Reports tab and choose New report.
- Choose the report type: cases, accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, quotes, products, or one of your custom objects (with its custom fields).
- Choose which records it covers. Each type has its own choices, for example all, open or closed cases; open, won or lost opportunities; converted or unqualified leads; active or inactive products.
- Choose how it’s grouped: by a field such as Status, Priority or Owner, by month, or not at all.
- Choose what it measures: the number of records, or (for opportunities) the total amount.
- Choose its columns, their order, and how the records are sorted.
- Add filters the report always applies, for example Priority equals High.
- Choose who can see it: only you or everyone.
- Choose Preview to check the chart, summary and first records, then Save.
A report only ever shows the records and fields the viewer is allowed to see. Two people opening the same report can see different numbers.
Use and export a report
- Open a report from the Reports tab. Viewers can narrow it further with their own filters without changing the saved report.
- Export downloads its records as a CSV file you can open in a spreadsheet.
- Edit changes a report you own (or, with Manage reports, one someone shared with everyone).
Build a dashboard
- Go to the Dashboards tab and choose New dashboard (or Edit a copy of a standard one).
- Give it a name and, if you like, a description.
- Add components. Each shows one report, standard or saved, as a bar chart, column chart, single total or summary table, counting records or adding up amounts, at a third, half or full width.
- Reorder components with the arrows. The editor shows live data as you go.
- Choose Preview to see it exactly as viewers will, then Save.
A dashboard can show saved reports that are shared with everyone or that you own. Like reports, a dashboard shows each viewer only the records they’re allowed to see.
Sharing and permissions
| To… | You need |
|---|---|
| Open reports and dashboards | The View reports permission |
| Build your own (only you see them) | View reports |
| Share with everyone, or change and delete what others shared | The Manage reports permission (Manager and Admin profiles) |
Tips
- Group by month to see trends: cases opened per month, or pipeline by close month.
- Use a single-total component for the one number people should watch, such as open cases or this quarter’s pipeline.
- Build reports in a sandbox and move them with a change set if you want to try them on realistic data first.