How to Create Reports in Salesforce

Recently, a salesforce sales manager asked me to create a report to monitor customer accounts. The manager wanted to review the number of accounts whose account rating is Hot. For that, I created a simple tabular report in Salesforce.

Here, I will explain reports and their types. Then, I will show you how to create reports in Salesforce with a step-by-step explanation.

Table of Contents

Reports in Salesforce

Salesforce Reports are well-structured and organized documents that allow us to access Salesforce records. Using reports, we can inspect our Salesforce records in various combinations and display them in easy and understandable formats.

Reports in Salesforce organize and display data from the Salesforce database in a meaningful and customizable format. It allows users to analyze data in various ways and provide insights into sales performance, trends, needs, and other organizational activities.

In Salesforce, there are 2 types of reports and mainly 4 types of report formats available:

Types of reports in Salesforce

Standard Report Type in Salesforce: A standard Report Type is a predefined template that determines which objects and fields can be used in a report. For example, Accounts, Contacts & Accounts, Accounts with Partners, Opportunities, and Opportunities with Products. These types are available to create reports based on Salesforce’s data relationships.
Custom Report Type in Salesforce: A custom report type in Salesforce allows you to specify which objects and fields you want to report on and how they are linked together. For example, you cannot create a report on the Contact object only in the standard report type. You need to go with the custom report type.

Types of Report Formats in Salesforce:

Tabular Reports: The tabular report in Salesforce is the simplest of reports and is suited to just showing lines of data and nothing else. It is similar to an Excel spreadsheet. We cannot create charts or dashboards using tabular reports in Salesforce.
Summary Reports: A summary report in Salesforce allows you to group your data in row format and display subtotals for each group. For example, if you want to calculate and display the total of any “amount” field per year, you can create a summary report with the “amount” field grouped together, which will give you the total for that field.
Matrix Report: The matrix report in Salesforce represents the data group of row and column in both ways, which allows the user to analyze the report in a two-dimensional format because it is a combination of row and column fields. This provides a unique perspective on displaying the data.
Joined Report: The joined reports in Salesforce allow you to combine multiple reports into a single report view. This way, you can compare data from different report types side by side. To join the different report types in Salesforce, there is a concept of “block”. Here, each block represents a specific report type.

Lightning Report Builder in Salesforce

The lightning report builder in Salesforce allows you to create and customize reports using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Create Reports in Salesforce

In the following steps, I will explain how we can create a report in Salesforce.

1. Navigate to the Report Tab.

If you already created a Report tab while creating an App, then you click on the Report tab.

Click on App Launcher -> Search “Reports” -> Click on Reports. Then click the New Report button to create a report.

Then you can see the left sidebar, and under the Category, click on option All. Then select or search for the Object that you want to create a report or you can search that object.

Here, I have selected the Account object. Then click on the Start Report button.

2. Remove Default Filters in Salesforce Report

Now, no records are displayed because of default filters. To see the records, you need to remove these default filters.

To remove the default filters, click on the Filter option. Then you will see Show Me. Click on it, then click on the created date and select the date range. There is also the All Time option. After removing the default filter, you will see all records.

Now, to create a report according to your requirements, you need to

Add, Remove, and rearrange columns of your report.
Filter data of your report.
Group report based on rows and columns.

3. Add Columns in the Salesforce Report

To add the new columns in the Salesforce report, follow the below steps.

Click on “Outline” -> Go to the “Columns” section -> Search for the field you want to add to the report. You will see that the field you selected has been added as the last column in the report.

4. Rearrange Columns in the Salesforce Report

Click on “Outline” -> In the Columns section -> Hold and drag the column you want to rearrange -> Drop the column to the desired position.

Click the dropdown arrow on the column you want to rearrange. Then click on the “Move Left” or “Move Right” option as required.

5. Remove Columns in the Salesforce Report

Click on “Outline,” go to the “Columns” section, find the column you want to delete, and click on the “X.”

Go to the column you want to remove, click on the “Column” dropdown, and Select the “Remove Column” option.

how to create tabular reports in salesforce

6. Run a Report in Salesforce

To execute the report, you need to run it in Salesforce. Below are the steps to run the report in Salesforce.

Click on Run to run the report in Salesforce.

It will run the Report and show you the Total Record 4.

This is how we can create a tabular report in Salesforce according to your requirements and run the report.

7. Save a Report in Salesforce

Once done, click the “Save” button to save your report.

It will open the pop-up. In the “Report Name” field, fill in the unique name, add information about the report in the “Description” field, and choose the appropriate folder in the “Select Folder” field.

Once again, click on the “Save” button.

8. Create a New Folder in the Salesforce Report

We can create different folders to store reports in Salesforce reports. I explained how to create a new folder in the following steps.

Click on App Launcher -> Search “Reports” -> Click on Reports. Then click the New Folder button to create a report.

Enter the Folder Label according to your requirements. The Folder Unique Name will automatically populate. Then click the Save button.

This is how we can create folders to store reports in Salesforce reports.

Conclusion

I hope you have an idea about reports in Salesforce; this is a basic introduction to Salesforce reports. In that, we have seen lightning report builder and types of reports, and then we have seen how to create reports in Salesforce, remove default filter, and create a folder in Salesforce report with step-by-step explanation.