Growth & Insight · Module 06
Reports
A Live Number Instead of a Stale Spreadsheet
A report is a summary of your data — like "how many deals did we close this month?" How to build one inside SmartLite itself, always up to date, with no spreadsheet exports and no waiting on a data analyst.
About & Business Case #
Why self-service reporting matters #
"I want to see 'Closed Won this Quarter, by rep' live, before Monday's standup meeting — not a spreadsheet somebody exported on Friday afternoon that's already out of date by the time we look at it."
Every time someone exports data to a spreadsheet, the numbers start going stale, and mistakes can creep in. Leadership needs numbers that reflect what's true right now — filtered exactly the way the business needs to see them.
What this means for you
You get an always-current answer inside the CRM itself. No data exports, no stale numbers, and no waiting on a separate data/BI team.
Implementation #
Anatomy of a report #
Building a report just means making four decisions: which object (record type) to report on, which fields to show, which filters to apply, and how to group the results. Here's what that looks like behind the scenes, saved as a simple record of your choices — this is just for reference, you build it through the point-and-click Report Builder, not by writing this yourself:
{
"name": "Q1 Opportunities",
"objectApiName": "opportunity",
"selectedFields": ["name", "amount", "stage", "close_date"],
"filters": [{ "field": "stage", "operator": "EQUALS", "value": "Closed Won" }],
"groupByField": "stage",
"sortField": "amount",
"sortDirection": "DESC"
}Same rules, everywhere
Running a report uses the exact same visibility rules as record lists. A report can never show a viewer a record they wouldn't otherwise be allowed to see.
A "filter operator" is just the comparison you use, like "equals" or "greater than." Here are the ones you can use: EQUALS | NOT_EQUALS | CONTAINS | STARTS_WITH | GREATER_THAN | LESS_THAN | IS_BLANK | IS_NOT_BLANK. You can export any report straight to a CSV file (a plain spreadsheet format) whenever you want.
1 Build "Closed Won This Quarter, by Rep" #
stage = "Closed Won" and close_date within this quarter.2 Build "Activities This Month, by Type" #
Tasks, calls, meetings and visits aren't an object like Opportunity, but you can still report on them: pick Activities at the bottom of the object list.
Created Date = This Month. Add Status = Open if you only want work still to do, or Overdue = Yes for what's late.Who sees which activities
Admins see every activity in the organization. Everyone else sees the activities assigned to them or created by them, the same as their calendar.
Who can see a report: Private, Public and shared folders #
Every report and every dashboard lives in one of three places, shown in the folder list on the left of the Reports and Dashboards pages and in the "Who can see it" column:
- Private: only you (and admins). New reports start here.
- Public: everyone with Analytics Access. New dashboards start here.
- A shared folder: whoever you share the folder with. Share it with a user, a role or Everyone, as View (open and run) or Edit (also add, change, move and delete what's in it). Sharing with a role also reaches the roles above it, so a sales manager sees what the Sales Rep role was given.
Sharing shows the report, not more data
Someone you share a report with still sees only the records and fields they're allowed to see. On a shared dashboard, a widget whose report they can't open shows an access message instead of the data.
Who manages what
Only a folder's creator and admins can share, rename or delete it, and only an empty folder can be deleted. Only a report's creator or an admin can make it Private.
How to Use #
Day-to-day: anyone needing a number #
Day-to-day: sales operations #
What to try next
Continue to the Dashboard & Home trail to surface a report's numbers on the page everyone sees at login.