How To Create a Dashboard in Salesforce

Since its founding in 1999, Salesforce has rapidly grown into the most popular CRM software in the world, but it doesn’t come naturally to everyone.

If you work at one of the countless large companies or growing businesses new to the platform, it’s important that you learn how to use all of the tools it provides to you to your advantage.

The dashboard is one of the most powerful tools the software offers, simplifying reports and making them easier for you and your team to interpret than ever.

This guide will walk you through each guide of how to create a dashboard in Salesforce. Additionally, we’ll take a look at some of the tools you can use within the interface that can help you in a variety of ways.

Let’s jump in!

How to Create a Dashboard in Salesforce

Getting Set Up

In order for your dashboard to actually display any data, you will first need to load in your reports. Once you have them loaded into the public folder, Salesforce can interpret the data.

Your dashboard is one of the central features of Salesforce, serving as your control panel, providing you with vital metrics, important tasks, and more. It will give you summaries from multiple reports, up to 20 at a time.

Creating a dashboard in Salesforce can seem intimidating, but once you understand how to navigate the interface, it’s a breeze.

Starting Your Dashboard Step-By-Step

To start the process, you’ll just have to follow 5 simple steps:

1. Go to reports, and open up the Dashboards tab to create a new dashboard (or edit an existing one), at this point you will be asked to name it as well.
2. Click on the gear icon, opening the Properties menu
3. Under “View Dashboard As”, select what role your users will view the dashboard as to create filters. This will provide your team members with the info most relevant to them
4. In both the Properties menu and Dashboard builder, click Save.
5. Click + Component to add tables, gauges, charts, and more. We will cover these further below!

From this point, you will be able to edit the dashboard layout and figure out what sort of data visualizations will be of the greatest use to you. You can edit the grid size or the order in which they’re shown, thanks to Salesforce’s dynamic dashboard functionality.

Adding Components to Your Dashboard

Your Salesforce dashboard is where your most important reports will be displayed to you. There are a variety of components you can use to visualize these reports. Depending on the type of data enclosed, you will want to use a different component type.

Knowing what types of components are available can help you make the most of your dashboard. Let’s take a look at each of the types that you have at your disposal, and how to choose the ones that are best for your workflow.

Each of these options can be edited visually (e.g. color, labels) to fit your preferences or needs.

Charts

When you have data that you want to display visually, you should choose a chart. There are a variety of different formats to choose from depending on your needs. Some of the formats available to you are:

• Bar or Line chart: Data groupings shown as horizontal lengths. Best for showing data over time.
• Pie or donut chart: Data groupings shown as single separate values within a circle
• Funnel chart: Shows proportions between multiple groupings in an ordered set. Best to show sales opportunities.
• Scatter chart: Displays data as points across an x and y axis. Great for showing correlation between values.

Gauges

A gauge is best when you want to highlight a particular point, but within the context of a range of values. You can display either a total amount or a percentage. They can also be used to track progress or numeric goals across one measure.

Tables

If you have a larger amount of data to display in a single report with multiple groupings, a table is the best option.

Salesforce’s table functionality runs on Lightning Data Service, enabling you to work with multiple records at a time and parse them across the table. It also supports detailed formatting options such as column formatting, inline editing, custom data types, and more.

Metric

A metric should be used when you want to highlight and display a single key value within a data set. This component will only display the value and its title – for example, the total value of opportunities available in one pipeline or number of cases currently open.

How to Merge with Existing Accounts or Evernote

Another way that Salesforce can help you to seamlessly capture all of the data you need to get the most from your customer relationships is its integration with Evernote.

To get started, your team’s Salesforce admin must first install Evernote for Salesforce. Then, sign into Salesforce on your Evernote account. You can complete your setup and installation automatically from there.

You can also merge multiple existing accounts. To do so, go to the Accounts page and click on the “merge accounts” tab. This will take you through the steps you need to connect them. If you don’t see the tab, you may need to ask your administrator to give you permission.

Conclusion

Salesforce is a powerful tool with many ways to gain control over your CRM, and knowing what it can do for you will help you get the most out of it. Now that you know how to create a dashboard in Salesforce, you can better use the software to deepen your important customer relationships.

If you want to learn more, make sure to keep up with our newsletter, or get in touch today to schedule a free consultation. Nuage Group offers strategic Salesforce staffing and experienced support consultants to take your business’ use of the software to the next level.