We all like company reports and dashboards that show us how everyone is doing.
But clicking into them and changing the criteria to just see your own (or your team’s) data can be cumbersome.
The reverse is also true: who wants to create or wade through a bunch of reports just because you are a big company and have a lot of users and roles?
Salesforce has some great Salesforce dynamic reports and dashboards that help to do away with all the clutter.
The first would be the “My” filter on reports and list views (like My Contacts, or My Open Opportunities) that allow you to create one report that is different for each user viewing it. If you have Salesforce Enterprise Edition or above, you can take this one step further by using Salesforce Dynamic Dashboards.
Dynamic date ranges in Salesforce reports are also quite helpful.
Why create new reports for each month when you can use the criteria of “This Month” or “Last Month”? Static date ranges (like 2/1/2012 to 2/28/2012) become stale after the date passes.
Salesforce Dynamic date ranges change automatically so your reports always cover the correct date range.
Scheduling reports (in Salesforce Professional Edition or above) or dashboards (in Salesforce Enterprise Edition or above) is another way to improve efficiency and may even foster a little friendly competition.
If you have key performance indicators that change on a weekly or monthly basis, schedule some reports or dashboards to be emailed at the start of the following period showing the last period’s statistics.
By implementing the above tips, you should see your Salesforce user adoption rate increase and the staff frustration levels decrease. With proper use of these and other Salesforce best practices, Salesforce can be something that people look forward to using each and every day.
Using Salesforce Dynamic Reports and Dashboards are some Salesforce best practices you will want to adopt. Knowing this allows for better Salesforce support for your users.
Let us know what you think! Leave your questions or comments below.
StarrForce is a Salesforce Partner that helps companies deploy, optimize and support Salesforce.com. If you would like information on the services we offer call us at (888) 391-4493 Ext. 101.