Effective, repeatable, and insightful analytics are key to ROI in customer relationship management systems. Many organizations, however, lack the automated reporting tools they need to run their businesses and instead choose to massage the data in Excel. But there's a better way. Salesforce's standard reporting tools provide a rich set of features that, when combined, support a wide variety of analytics needs.

This practical introduction covers all the aspects and features you need to be successful with Salesforce reports and dashboards. Author David Carnes, chairman and chief evangelist for OpFocus, shows executives, end users, and report and dashboard superusers what analytics are possible, which features report writers should ask to be enabled, and which settings and permissions system administrators need to activate.

You'll learn:

• How to create reports using the four main report formats in Salesforce


• How to create and use dashboards


• Methods for storing and finding reports and dashboards


• How to leverage formulas and trending in Salesforce reporting


• Special reporting features only available in Salesforce Mobile and on the Analytics tab


• Ways to embed report charts and dashboards in Lightning page layouts


• Powerful combinations of reporting features to drive decisions