Dynamic Reports, Part 1: The Challenge, The Solution….

Let’s face it, if you are reading this blog, then you are a Salesforce geek, at least to some extent.  While I’ve got responsibility at work for a wide range of sales operations functions (sales compensation, sales process, budgeting, etc.), I will admit I still geek out on Salesforce.  I love the platform, and I often challenge myself to come up with creative solutions to business problems.

To quote some TV commercial, the concept presented here, – Dynamic Reports – is my “A-ha!” moment!   Once this idea came to me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days.

Dynamic Reports, Part 2: The High Level Concepts

For those of you who are quick studies, I’ll lay out the general concepts here in bullet form, and we’ll dive into the details in subsequent posts.

Dynamic Reports (DR) is a Salesforce.com custom object, designed specifically to allow users to quickly launch commonly used reports, passing variables like User Name or Account Name to the reports.

Dynamic Reports, Part 3: Fields and Records

OK, here’s where we really get into the details.

FIELDS

The Fields in your Dynamic Reports (DR) object are basically three different types:

• Variables that will be passed to reports,
• Variables that are used to filter List Views,
• Hyperlinks to reports.

Dynamic Reports, Part 4: The Reports

Chances are, you’ve already created most of the reports that you’ll use as the baseline for your Dynamic Reports – in fact, you’ve probably created several versions of them for different users or teams.

You can use clone of these reports to make your first Dynamic Report.

As you build your reports, put all the other fixed variables in your report filters, except the one(s) you’re going to pass from the Dynamic Report List View.  For example, if you want a sales pipeline report for the next 12 months for your sales reps, put the close Date, Opportunity Stage and other criteria in your report.

Dynamic Reports Part 5: List Views & Security

Alright, we’re down to the home stretch, and it’s probably the easiest part!

List Views

Remember, List Views are the User Interface for Dynamic Reports.  You should direct your users to the Dynamic Reports tab (which you’ll have to set up BTW), and grant them access to the List Views that are pertinent to their job or role.

There’s really three parts to setting up the list views, that should be simple for any Salesforce admin.