Reporting pt. 10: Custom Reports

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Reporting pt. 10: Custom Reports

In previous posts for this reporting series, we learned about Report Types and Formats. But what if you need additional information on a report that isn’t provided by the standard reports? That’s where custom reports in Salesforce come in handy! Today, we’ll be learning how to create them.

 

Create a Custom Report

Note: To follow along with the steps below, use or create a Playground from Salesforce Trailhead or a Developer Edition org.

  1. In Salesforce, click on the Setup gear icon in the top right corner to open the Setup menu
  2. In the Quick Find search box, search for “Report Types” and select to open it
  3. A guidance page for Custom Report Types displays to visually explain how objects in custom report types are related and displayed
    • Note: As noted on the guidance page, custom report types are built from master-detail and lookup relationships between objects.
  4. Click continue to move past the guidance page.
  5. Click New Custom Report Types.
  6. Select the Primary Object for the report.
  7. Provide a Report Type Label – this is what will display to users when they’re selecting a Report. For example, in the screenshot below, the Report Type Label is Contacts & Accounts.
  8. Tab through the Report Type Name field for the field to auto-populate.
  9. Optionally, provide a report Description – this field will be visible to users when selecting a report.
  10. Select where a report should go by selecting an option from the Store in Category picklist.
  11. Keep the Deployment Status of the report as In Development until the report is fully created. Salesforce Custom Report Type
  12. Click Next.
  13. On the next screen, there are two options to define which records that are related to the primary object are returned in the report:
    • The first option returns records where there is at least one B record per A record. In the below example, at least one Offer record would need to be related to the Property record for a Property record to display on the report. If there are Property records without any related Offers, the respective Property records will not display on the report. Salesforce Custom Report Type Each
    • The second option returns records where there is the possibility for a B record to be related to the A record, but it’s not required for the A record to show on the report. In the below example, no Offers records are required to be related to the Property for the Property to display on the report. A Property record will show on the report whether an Offer is related to it or not. Salesforce Custom Report Type May or May Not
  14. Notice how the Venn diagram changes with each selection to illustrate how the A and B records are related. Since we only want Property records with related Offer records to show on our report, we’ll select the first option.
  15. Click Save.

Note that we only added one child object to our custom report. However, custom reports are capable of including up to three child objects.

 

Select the Fields for the Report

  1. Now we can select the fields from each object that we want to be available on our custom report.
  2. Click Edit Layout.
  3. Review the Legend and the View fields to see the fields that are currently selected on our report for each object.
  4. To have fields included in a report by default so users don’t have to manually add them to each report of this type, double-click the field and select Checked By Default.
  5. Click OK.
  6. When we’ve updated the report fields to our satisfaction, click Save on the layout page.
  7. Now that we’re ready to release this report to users, we’ll click Edit on the report type details section, and update the Deployment Status to Deployed.
  8. Click Save.

 

Now, when users search for the report by name or search by selecting the ‘Other Reports’ category, they’ll be able to see the new report.

When users click on the report name, they will also be able to see the report Description and other related details.

 

To conclude, custom reports are very easy to make. However, always make sure to check the existing reports so you don’t accidentally create duplicates.

Also, make sure to categorize reports correctly and add thorough descriptions to help users quickly locate and understand the purpose of each custom report.

 

Additional Resources:

Cover Photo by Yoann Siloine on Unsplash

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