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Dashboards
Dashboards help you visually understand changing business conditions so you can make decisions based on the real-time data you’ve gathered with reports. Use dashboards to help users identify trends, sort out quantities, and measure the impact of their activities. Before building, reading, and sharing dashboards, review these dashboard basics.
Required Editions
| Available in: Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience |
| Available in: Essentials, Group (View Only), Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions |
Note Dashboards don’t support localization.
As you prepare to curate your Salesforce data with dashboards, keep these tips in mind:
- Reports provide all the data shown in a dashboard. Dashboards can show data from more than one report.
- When refreshing a dashboard, all the data-providing reports must run. If the reports take a long time to run, then the dashboard does too.
- Dashboards are shared via folders. Whomever has permission to the folder your dashboard is saved in also has access to your dashboard. Ensure that you save your dashboard in an appropriate folder.
Before creating or reading a dashboard, familiarize yourself with these features and concepts.
- Dashboard Editor
- The Dashboard Editor is a visual, drag-and-drop tool, which you use to create
dashboards and edit existing ones. The Dashboard Editor is where you add, edit, and
arrange dashboard widgets.
To launch the Dashboard Editor, click New Dashboard.
- Widgets
- Dashboards are made up of widgets. Each widget contains a chart or metric that shows data from one report. Different widgets can show data from different reports. In Salesforce Classic, widgets are called components.
- Running User (Viewing As)
- In Salesforce, different users have different permissions to access data. A dashboard
only displays data that the dashboard’s running user can access.
For example, say you’re viewing a dashboard describing Leads. Emily is a sales operations manager who sees all Leads, and Marcus is a direct sales specialist who sees only the leads he owns. If Emily is the dashboard’s running user, then the dashboard shows data about all the Leads in Salesforce. If Marcus is the running user, then the dashboard only shows data about Leads that Marcus owns.
- Build a Dashboard
When you’re ready to share Salesforce data with colleagues, build a dashboard. Dashboards let you curate data from reports using charts, tables, and metrics. If your colleagues need more information, they can view your dashboard’s data-supplying reports. - Filter a Dashboard
Dashboard filters make it easy for users to apply different data perspectives to a single dashboard. Filtering rules apply to fields from the dashboard’s source reports. After filters are defined, a user viewing the dashboard can select a filter to visualize the data of most interest. The filtered view is remembered - the next time the user visits the dashboard, the same filtered view is shown. - Control Dashboard Data Visibility
A dashboard displays data from each widget’s source report. You can control which data is visible based on the running user. - Subscribe to or Schedule Dashboards
Set up automatic dashboard refreshes and receive refreshed dashboard results by email on a schedule that you set. If you start your week by reviewing your Sales Overview dashboard, expedite your morning by subscribing to the dashboard. After subscribing, you can have it automatically refreshed and in your email inbox each Monday morning at 8:00 AM. - Link from Dashboard Widgets in Lightning Experience
A sales overview dashboard is a great way for teams to collaborate on opportunities because it provides a complete picture of your pipeline. Dashboard widgets already link to source reports, so you can get more details. Link to other destinations to take action on the data. - Work with Dashboards
Click a dashboard’s name to run it. Dashboard charts are interactive, so hover and click them to get more information. From refreshing dashboard data to sharing dashboard widgets, there are lots of ways to use dashboards to keep yourself and your team informed and collaborating. - Organize Dashboards
Keep your dashboards at your fingertips by embedding them around Salesforce, printing them, or deleting dashboards that you don’t need anymore. - Post Lightning Dashboards to Slack
Share analytics with colleagues across your Slack workspaces and channels. Recipients can view dashboard details, share, subscribe, view a snapshot of the dashboard with the latest data, and quickly open the dashboard in Salesforce. - Why Doesn't My Dashboard Display the Data I Expect?
If you’re not seeing the data that you expect, refresh for the latest data, check that you have the right running user, and verify your dashboard data sources. - Improve Dashboard Performance: Best Practices
If a dashboard is running slowly, it likely because of inefficient source reports or because many people are refreshing it at once. By optimizing source reports and planning dashboard refreshes, a slow dashboard can be sped up. Follow the tips in this guide to speed up sluggish dashboards! - Improve Dashboard Performance
Dashboard refresh times can vary based on available resources. Since Salesforce is built on a multi-tenant structure, dashboard refreshes are processed in a queue. Refreshes tend to complete faster off peak hours, when more resources are available. Other factors like caching can also affect dashboard refresh times.
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