Joined Reports in Salesforce

In this Salesforce tutorial, we will discuss the importance of joined reports in Salesforce. Moreover, we will also understand how to create joined reports in Salesforce Classic & Lightning.

We generally create reports in salesforce to get insights from a collection of data. Reports allow us to predict the future by analyzing what is happening today.

Now, what if I want to analyze 2 reports at the same time? So, to solve this issue in Salesforce, we can use the concept of Joined reports. And this tutorial will provide all the information that will help to get started with Joined reports in Salesforce.

Here is the list of topics that we will cover in this tutorial:

• Can you combine reports in Salesforce?
• What are joined reports in Salesforce?
• Benefits of joined reports in Salesforce
• When to use joined reports in Salesforce
• Joined reports in Salesforce Limitations
• How to create joined reports in Salesforce Lightning
• How to create joined reports in Salesforce Classic
• Discuss joined report salesforce example
• How to create joined report with common fields

Can you combine reports in Salesforce?

In Salesforce, we can combine data from different report types using the concept of joined reports. We can utilize data from different reports, including standard and custom reports, to form one joined report.

However, in Salesforce, we can combine a maximum of 5 different types of reports. But, note that we can only join reports when they have some common field in between.

What are joined reports in Salesforce?

A joined report in Salesforce consists of blocks and the role of a block is to display data from a standard or a custom report. However, in a Salesforce joined report, we can have a maximum of 5 blocks. And each block can hold only a single standard or custom report type.

So, with a joined report in Salesforce, we can combine a maximum of 5 report types. But, please note that we can join reports in Salesforce only when there is some common field between them.

A block in a joined report can hold up to 2000 records which means a joined report can hold a maximum of 10,000 records.

Salesforce allows us to group data in a joined report across blocks using common fields. And it also allows filtering the joined report by applying the filters on a block. However, these filters on a block will be independent of one another.

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When to use Joined Reports in Salesforce

Whenever we are working on huge enterprise-level data, it is not always mandatory that we will get insights from only one report. A business need may require analyzing multiple reports at once.

To answer this question, Salesforce comes with the feature of creating Joined Reports. For example, you want to analyze accounts with open cases in Salesforce. So, in Salesforce, we can create a Joined Report using Accounts and Cases as both the objects have some common fields.

Additionally, Salesforce allows to create a joined report using a standard report type, custom report type, or using both.

So, whenever you require to combine multiple reports and what insights from more than one report, we can prefer creating a joined report in salesforce.

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Benefits of Joined Reports in Salesforce

Now that we understood what are joined reports and when to use joined reports in Salesforce, let us move to the next phase, and discuss the benefits of using the joined reports in Salesforce.

Here are some useful benefits of joined reports in Salesforce

• Joined reports are very helpful for quickly summarizing enormous volumes of data kept across objects.
• Using joined reports, we can summarize more than 2 reports. It allows combining a maximum of 5 reports.
• With the help of joined reports, we can not only combine multiple data but also apply custom formulas on different sorts of fields.
• Moreover, the Salesforce Joined report allows the filtering of the data of various blocks.
• Additionally, we can also group data of multiple blocks using the common fields in the joined report.

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Joined reports in salesforce limitations

Till now, we have seen how Joined Reports are useful in salesforce. Moreover, we can generally implement all the things in joined reports that we can implement in standard reports. However, there are some limitations of using the joined reports.

So, in this section, we will discuss the limitations of joined reports in Salesforce.

• We cannot add bucketed fields to Salesforce Joined Reports.
• We cannot add cross filters to a joined report in Salesforce.
• Using drag-and-drop filters on joined reports from the Fields pane onto the Filter pane is not allowed.
• We cannot apply conditional highlighting on joined reports in Salesforce.
• We cannot alter the hierarchy of the following reports.
  • Accounts Reports
  • Activity Reports
  • Lead Reports
  • Opportunity Reports.
• In salesforce, creating reporting snapshots based on joined reports are not possible.
• Additionally, we cannot subscribe or schedule to joined reports in the Salesforce Classic edition.

Other than this there are certain report types that we cannot utilize while creating a report type.

So, in this section, we have covered some of the major limitations of using Salesforce Joined Reports.

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Joined Report Salesforce Examples

Now that we have understood what is a joined report in salesforce, let us move to the next step.

In this Salesforce section, we will discuss how to create a joined report in Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic.

Joined Reports in Salesforce Lightning

In this section, we will illustrate how to create a joined report in Salesforce Lightning. However, for the example illustration, we are going to create the Joined report for Accounts details with open cases.

So, here we will use 2 report types

1. Accounts
2. Cases

Here are a set of steps that we can follow for this task in Salesforce Lightning:

Step-1: First, open the Home Steup page in Salesforce Lightning by clicking on the gear icon (⚙️) and then click on the Setup option. This will open the Home Setup page in Salesforce Lightning.

Step-2: Next, click on the App Launcher icon and click on the View All option. After this, search for Report and click on the Reports option.

Step-3: Once we click on the Reports option, it will open the Reports page in Salesforce Lightning. And from this page, we need to click on the New Report button.

Step-4: Next, from the list of report types, we will select the Accounts report and click on the Start Report button. And this will open the report in the Report Builder.

Step-5: Next, we need to transform this Standard report into a Joined Report. And for this, in the Report Builder, click on the Report option from the top left corner and select Joined Report and click “Apply“.

Step-6: Next, to add another report type, we need to click on the Add Block button and choose the other report type that we want. In our example, we will choose the Case report.

Step-7: After this, we will customize the joined report by applying the following filters:

1. Move to the filter section, for Account block 1, and modify the Show Me option to All Accounts.
2. Next, for the same Account block 1, modify the Created Date to All Time. In the last, click Apply for both filters.
3. Next, move to Cases Block 1 under filters, under Add Filters, search and select Closed filter. Moreover, set the value of the Closed filter to False.

Step-8: If we want to remove any column from the report, we just need to click on the drop-down arrow (⬇️) button given with the column name. And just click on Remove Column.

In the above example, we have removed the Last Activity column from Accounts block 1.

Note: Here we can also group the common fields in joined reports by selecting the common column under the Group Across Blocks option.

Step-9: At last, click on the Save & Run button, provide the Report Name, select the required folder, and click on Save.

So, with the above steps, we have successfully created a joined report in the Salesforce Lightning edition. And now, we can get useful insights from this joined report.

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Joined reports in salesforce classic

In the previous section, we have seen how to create a joined report in Salesforce Lightning. Now, in this section, we will talk about the second edition i.e. Salesforce Classic.

However, for this example, we will create a joined report for Accounts with all the closed cases. So, again, we are going to use the following two report types.

1. Accounts
2. Cases

Here are steps that you can follow to create a joined report in Salesforce Classic.

Step-1: Once we switch to the Salesforce Classic experience, we will land on the Home page.

Step-2: From the Home page, click on the plus icon (➕), and then from the list of tabs, click on the Reports tab. This will open the Reports & Dashboards page.

Step-3: On the next page, click on the New Report button and select the required report type and click on the Create button. In our case, we selected the Accounts report type.

Step-4: Next, to switch from the standard report to joined report, click on the Tabular Format option. And then from the list, select Joined option.

Step-5: After this, to add another report, click on the Add Report Type button, select another report type and click on Create. In our case, we selected the Cases report for Joined Report.

Note: The Cases report type will be under the Customer Support Reports section.

Step-6: Now, after adding another report block, there will be 2 blocks in our joined report. In our example, the first block is Account block 1, and the second is Cases block 2.

Step-7: Next, to apply any filter, we need to Filters section and add filters accordingly. Here is the set of filters that we have applied to our joined report.

• First, for Account block 1, we will set the value for the Show tab to All Accounts.
• Second, for the same block, we will set the value for the Range tab to All time.
• Third, for Cases block 2, we will set the Range value to All time.
• In the last, we will add another filter for the Closed column and set its value to True.

Bonus: We can remove unwanted columns from the different blocks by clicking on the drop down arrow (⬇️) given next to the column name. And then click on the Remove Column option.

Step-8: After this, we will save the joined report by clicking on the Save button. And then specify the name of the Joined Report. However, we can also provide the optional description for the joined report.

• Now, we can either click on the Save button to just save the report and then run the report using the Run Report button.
• Other than this, we can directly run the report by clicking on the Save and Run Report button. This option will save the joined report and then run the report.

With the end of this section, we have successfully created a joined report named Accounts with closed cases in Salesforce Classic.

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Salesforce Joined Report Common Fields

In Salesforce, as we discussed earlier, we can join a maximum of 5 report types. This is because we can add only 5 blocks in a joined report in Salesforce.

However, it is important to understand that when we create a joined report with multiple report types. The multiple report types must consist of some common fields.

Moreover, if a field is present in all report types in the joined report that field is known as a common field. And the major role of a common field is to group data based on the common fields.

Also, once we group data in our joined report, we can derive charts using the grouped data. For example, in our previous examples related to Accounts with open and closed cases, the Account Name, Account Site, Type, and more are the common fields.

And we can easily use these common fields to group the data of our joined report. So, let us see how to use common fields to group data in Salesforce Lightning & Salesforce Classic.

Using common fields to group data in Salesforce Lightning

To group the data in Salesforce Lightning, we just need to move to the Outline section. And under this, we have a section of Group Across Blocks. Here we just need to select the common fields using which we want to group the data.

Using common fields to group data in Salesforce Classic

In Salesforce Classic, all the common fields come under the Common Fields section. And to group any column in the joined report, we just need to Drag and Drop the common column from the list of columns to the section in the Joined report.

An illustration related to this task is given below where we are grouping the joined report using the Account Name common field.

You may also like to read the following Salesforce tutorials.

• How to Create a Case in Salesforce
• How to Close a Case in Salesforce
• How to Delete a Case in Salesforce
• Restrict Reports Access in Salesforce

Conclusion

So, in this Salesforce tutorial, we have discussed what joined reports are in Salesforce. Moreover, we have also covered how to create joined reports in Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic.

Additionally, we have discussed this set of topics

• Can you combine reports in Salesforce?
• What are joined reports in Salesforce?
• Benefits of joined reports in Salesforce
• When to use joined reports in Salesforce
• Joined reports in Salesforce Limitations
• How to create joined reports in Salesforce Lightning
• How to create joined reports in Salesforce Classic
• Discuss joined report salesforce example
• How to create joined report with common fields