How To Organize Salesforce Reports and Dashboards: A Guide for Salesforce Admins

Organizing reports and dashboards in Salesforce is crucial for maintaining clarity and efficiency within your organization.?

Here are some practical advice and steps for Salesforce Admins:

Regularly Audit Reports and Dashboards:

Periodically review all reports and dashboards to identify which ones are no longer being used.

Use the "Last Run" date on reports to determine their relevance. If a report hasn't been run in a long time, it might be a candidate for deletion or archiving.

To locate reports or dashboards deemed inactive, create a custom report type with the following:

1. Navigate to Report Types:

• Classic:?Setup |?Create |?Report Types
• Lightning: Setup |?Feature Settings |?Analytics |?Reports & Dashboards |?Report Types

2. Create a report type with Reports as the primary object and Dashboard Components as the child object.?Name it "Reports WITH OR WITHOUT Dashboards."

3.?Create a new report using this new report type.?Include the Last Run?field. Run the?report.

4.?Sort on the Dashboard name (Title) column to separate the reports not attached to dashboards. Observe the last run date of the reports.?If the dashboard's reports do not show a current last run date, you can assume this dashboard has not been refreshed.?Refresh triggers the report's last run.

Note: The report's Last run date is populated if the report was opened or refreshed.

Organize Reports into Proper Folders:

Create folders based on departments, functions, or any other logical grouping relevant to your organization.

Ensure that folder permissions are set appropriately. For instance, sales reports should be accessible to the sales team but might not need to be accessible to the entire organization.

Use Descriptive Names and Descriptions:

Ensure that report and dashboard names are descriptive and reflect their content.

Add descriptions to provide more context about what the report or dashboard contains and its purpose.

Archive Unused Reports:

Instead of immediately deleting unused reports, consider moving them to an "Archive" folder. This way, they can be retrieved if needed in the future. Salesforce Optimizer can help identify reports and dashboards that are rarely used.

After a certain period, if the archived reports remain unused, they can be deleted.

Educate Your Users:

Regularly train your users on best practices for creating and managing reports and dashboards. This will reduce clutter and ensure consistency across the organization.

Consider External Tools:

Third-party tools and apps on the Salesforce AppExchange (like Metazoa) can help identify reports and dashboards by metadata. Research and consider using them if they fit your organization's needs.

Seek Feedback:

Regularly seek feedback from users about the organization of reports and dashboards. Their input can provide valuable insights into areas of improvement.

Document Your Process:

Create documentation or guidelines for managing reports and dashboards. This will ensure consistency and make it easier for new admins or users to understand the process.

Remember, the key is to balance having enough reports to capture necessary data and not overwhelming the system with unnecessary or redundant reports. Regular maintenance and organization will ensure your Salesforce instance is efficient and user-friendly.