Document Generation for Salesforce Reports and Dashboards

10 min read

Nikita R.

Media-savvy content creator, with a curiosity for all Salesforce experiences.

Updated: Apr 11th, 2024

Using Salesforce dashboards and reports is a no-brainer to share valuable insights from studies. However, you need a way to share your data analysis with colleagues who do not have access to Salesforce. In this instance, you want document generation for Salesforce.

Generating documents from Salesforce reports and dashboards lets you easily view and share visuals of your studies.

Join us in the article to learn about Salesforce document generation tools and how they can create files containing key metrics pulled from reports and dashboards.

How to Create a Report in Salesforce?

Building reports in Salesforce is a skill you don’t want to miss out on learning. To create reports in Salesforce for analyzing data, simply follow the steps below:

1. First, click on the Analytics tab and choose Create > Report. Alternatively, you can start by clicking on the Reports tabs and selecting New Report.

2. Now, choose a report and click Start Report.

3. A Create New Report window will open up. In here, pick a category and search for a specific report by typing its name.

4. Your report will now open, and you will have the chance to edit and preview it. Go ahead and add or delete any fields from the report. Continue to edit your report until you have the correct columns, rows, charts, and data.

Save your Salesforce Report

When you are done configuring your Salesforce report, click on the Save button. With Salesforce, you can name this report and give it a description so you can manage your documents well.

Remember to save your document in the correct location so that colleagues can find it and share it. If you would like to continue viewing the report results in Salesforce, click on the Run button or get it ready for document generation in Salesforce.

Example of Sales Dashboard: Sourced from Reports & Dashboards: Quick Look

Salesforce Reports and Dashboards Through Document Generation in Salesforce

Salesforce has advanced reporting tools to assist with data analysis tasks and presenting studies well.

Seamlessly Editing Salesforce Reports

Here are the features that Salesforce provides for taking reports to the next level:

Click the Add Column dropdown list and select Field to add a new column to your Salesforce report.

If you want to delete a column from your report, click the X button in the Columns list.

If grouping records is what you need to achieve, go to the Add Group dropdown and select a field. Take note that you can join either 2 rows or 2 columns. Use this feature to make rows and totals visible or hidden when interacting with switches in the preview pane.

Suppose you no longer want grouped records. You can easily cancel previous configurations by selecting the group and then clicking the X button. If you have made a mistake in creating groups and need to restart your configuration, go to the Groups list and click the Bin button. This action will clear all the groups in your report. Remember that when you commit these actions, your columns will no longer be visible on your report.

To summarize a column, go to the preview pane and select a column. Now, click on the dropdown icon and choose Summarize. You will be given options to choose how you want to summarize a column.

If you need your report to filter records, click on the filter button. Salesforce gives you a few filters, like Show Me and Date filters. Use the Show Me filter to find results based on groups. Many researchers use the Show Me filter to gather results solely related to opportunities. Meanwhile, the Date filter will return results based on a time period, like the date created or the deal closed date.

If you would like to get rid of a filter, click on the Filter button and then the X button.

To insert a chart in your report, click on Add Chart. Then, edit your chart by clicking on the Gear icon. You have the option to change your chart or customize the color of your existing one.

To make your chart visible or hidden, click on the Pie Chart icon.

If you want to delete your chart from the report, click on the Gear icon and choose Remove Chart.

Tips for working with Salesforce Reports

Salesforce saves you time when creating reports. It gives you the power to filter your report search based on filtering by objects or fields. However, keep in mind that Salesforce filter options do not support fields in lookups or composite fields.

If you are using a computer to create a Salesforce report, use the backspace or the delete button to remove your report type. If you would like to see information about a report type, check out the Recently Used list.

Another benefit of using Salesforce to create reports is that you can view the fields in a report. Simply click the Details tab and then the Fields tab. You will find the records and fields found in your report type.

Although you can work well with reports and dashboards in Salesforce, it’s best to have options for a document generation process. You will need this flexible feature when you find reports need to be reviewed by key stakeholders who do not have access to log into Salesforce.

Titan’s Salesforce Document Generation for Building Reports and Dashboards

Salesforce has reporting capabilities that give you the power to analyze objects with charts, tables, and filters. However, you will not find custom tools for document generation in Salesforce.

We suggest you try out Titan as your point-and-click document generation solution for Salesforce. With Titan Docs and Salesforce report generation tools in your system, you can automate any process using no code.

Building reports in Salesforce and then using Titan to generate documents is completely secure from end to end. We can assure you that your document generation for Salesforce will be compliant with HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO, GDPR, and other leading frameworks.

Titan can support the creation of dynamic documents for every use case. Take a look at some essential features you get from signing up to Titan Docs:

Eradicate manual tasks associated with document management processes.

Build custom contracts, proposals, quotes, and invoices from Salesforce to speed up document creation, editing, and sharing tasks.

Read any field from any object or report in Salesforce and display it in any format.

Add interactive functionality to projects that can write data from your document to any object in Salesforce.

Work with standard or custom objects and any data structure you choose.

Map barcodes and QR codes from your documents to Salesforce. Use this feature to create paperless payments, invoices, order processing, and other transactions.

Store documents in many locations. We integrate with Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, and many more third-party apps.

Generate a Word document from Salesforce and create PDFs pre-filled with dynamic data.

Merge and convert files and documents into any format you choose.

Add electronic and digital signatures to documents to create seamless approval processes.

Creating Sales Reports with Document Generation for Salesforce

We learned how to create reports in Salesforce earlier with a step-by-step guide. To share those reports as PDFs or Word documents quickly with stakeholders, you need Titan to generate documents in Salesforce.

Watch our video for a full demonstration, or follow our simple guide below.

Go to Microsoft Word, create a document, and click on the Insert/Edit table button.
Then select the Grouped Report radio button and choose the report you want.
Configure the options for your columns. You can select the name of your columns and the fields you would like to display.
You may also add extra columns to the report by clicking the Add Col button, filling out your fields, and clicking on Insert to add the report to Word.

Notice your report has now been pulled into your Word document from Salesforce.

Click on the Preview Now button in the FormTitan add-in. You will be able to view the grouped report.

Now, you can integrate this report with Salesforce and generate it as a document.

Simply head over to your Salesforce account and click the FT Generate Document button.

The Titan Document Generation window will open and display the documents available for generation. There are three buttons available on the screen for each document. Click the Generate button to open a window that updates you on the document generation process.

Successful Document Generation with Titan

If you want more content, check out our Boost Sales with Document Generation and Salesforce Document Generation for Invoices articles. They will inform you on how Titan can streamline document management workflows and business operations.

Salesforce Pipeline Report

A pipeline report helps to monitor opportunities in a sales process directly in Salesforce. With a Salesforce pipeline report, managers view the sales process in an understandable way, like with charts. Since Salesforce pipeline reports display every stage an opportunity travels through during a deal, they are important data analysis tools.

If you practice pipeline management in Salesforce, it’s essential to know how to generate these reports as documents. You will need these skills to share information with colleagues who need to see an opportunity’s status.

With Titan, you can generate documents in minutes with a single click of a button. Check out our guide above!

Reports and Dashboards in Salesforce for Forecasting Budgets

The task of forecasting budgets is made a lot simpler by using Salesforce.

For example, Salesforce reports collect data from many sources and present them in a structure and layout that is easy to analyze. Salesforce lets your finance teams create custom reports with data to calculate revenue and expenses.

As we mentioned earlier, for Salesforce report creation, you can use tools to filter data so reports can display specific information based on time periods and projects.

Remember to make use of the best Salesforce dashboards. You can choose charts, graphs, tables, or other visuals to create Salesforce dashboards. These components can interpret metrics in new ways and help stakeholders understand studies to make market-leading business decisions.

Salesforce Document Templates to Simplify Customer & Partner Report Retrieval

Document templates are a quick way to create documents within Salesforce. You can use templates to manage documents seamlessly, especially when you need to retrieve customer or partner data from Salesforce for custom reports.

One way that Salesforce document templates simplify getting customer and partner reports is by providing a consistent format.

A good Salesforce report example for customers and partners is that standardized document templates contain dynamic fields as placeholders. These elements make sure that when reports are generated, they have personal and relevant customer or partner data inserted.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to create reports and dashboards in salesforce?

To create a report in Salesforce, please scroll up to the beginning of our article. We have provided a step-by-step guide.

If you need to create a dashboard in Salesforce, start by selecting Dashboards from the App Launcher. Then follow the steps below:

1. Build a new dashboard by clicking on Create New Dashboard. This step will ask you to supply a name and description.
2. Now, you need to click the Add Component button to select the report you want to add to a dashboard.
3. Pick whether you would like to display data in a chart, table, or metric.
4. Now, arrange your components with Salesforce’s drag-and-drop tools. You can adjust each component’s size, filter options, and even titles.
5. If you are happy with the design of your dashboard, apply your settings by clicking on Save.

How does Titan contribute to building reports and dashboards?

Titan integrates directly into Salesforce, so you can generate Word and PDF documents from reports. Simply, install Titan’s Word add-in to integrate your documents with Salesforce reports.

Then, you can generate documents from Salesforce with a click of the FT Generate Document button and no code.

Not everyone has access to view reports and dashboards directly in Salesforce. So, with Titan’s document generation, you can build documents and share them with stakeholders who need them.

Can Titan Docs be used for creating custom reports and templates in Salesforce?

Yes. Titan Docs lets you build custom templates in multiple formats for any document.

Quotes, invoices, proposals, presentations, contracts, legal agreements, financial document generation, reports, certificates, and fillable PDF forms can be created with Titan Docs.

Streamline Your Salesforce Reports and Dashboards with Titan Docs

Thanks for reading our article on Salesforce reports and dashboards. If you want to create documents from custom reports, we learned that you need a Salesforce document generation app.

For this reason, we explored speeding up processes for creating reports with dashboards using Salesforce document generation tools like Titan Docs.

We suggest getting Titan Docs as your Salesforce CRM document generation software of choice. You can use it to build dynamic documents from Salesforce with our Doc Gen feature. We have a drag-and-drop builder to assist reporting with Titan’s Document Generation tools for Salesforce.

For more information contact us on our social media channels.

We hope to see you soon!

Titan Website

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