Create custom report types in Salesforce

INTRODUCTION

As we have already learned about the Report Types, Custom report types, and their features in our previous blog, let's take a quick look at custom report types. The first step in creating a report in Salesforce is to choose a report type and Salesforce has a lot of pre-defined Report Types.

You can not change Salesforce's predefined Report Types. When standard report types are not able to fulfil custom requirements, custom report types are developed to meet the end user goal. Salesforce administrator or a user with the permission to "Manage Custom Report Types" build Custom Reports. Let's see how we can create  our own custom report type…

MAKE YOUR OWN REPORT TYPES 

Select the primary object that your new report would serve, then give it a name and a brief summary. Mark it as "in development" before you are ready to let users to build reports with it. 

Follow below mentioned steps to create custom report type.

STEP 1. DEFINE custom REPORT Type

1. Go to Setup, using the setting in the top right corner.
2. Enter Report Types in the Quick Find box in Setup, then choose Report Types. 
3. Click on New Custom Report Type. 
   
   
   
   
4. For your custom report type, choose the Primary Object.
   
5. Fill out the Report Type Label and Report Type Name fields. 
6. Give your custom report type a description. 
7. Give users a clear understanding of can data is available for reports by including a meaningful summary. As an illustration: Display Account which is connected with at least one contact. 
8. Choose the category where you want the custom report type to be saved. Select a Status for Deployment.
    a. During design, testing, and editing, select In Development.
    b. When you're ready to give all users access to the report type, choose Deployed.
   
9. Click Next.
   
   
   
   

Step 2. Define Report Records Set

1. Under the Primary object, Click on "Click to relate another object" Link.
   
   
   
   
2. Choose a child object to work with. Only objects that are related to each other are shown. 
3. Choose one of the following conditions for each child object: 
     a.  Each "A" record must have at least one related "B" record. 
     b.  "A" records may or may not have related "B" records. 
4. Click Save. 
   

STEP 3. design the field layout

1. In the Fields Available for Reports section, click Edit Layout.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Drag and drop fields from the right-hand box to a segment on the left. 
3. Click Add fields related via lookup. From here, you can add fields to the object selected in the View dropdown list through the lookup relationship it has with other objects. 
4. Arrange fields on pages that you want users to see. When users create reports using this report type, fields that have not been dragged into a section are inaccessible. 
5. To decide the fields are included on the layout added to the report by default and added to the layout through a lookup relationship, click Preview Layout and use the legend. 
   
   
   
   
   
6. Select one or more fields and press Edit Properties to rename or set which fields are selected by default for users. 
    a. Next to one or more fields, select the Checked by Default checkbox.
    b. In the Display As field next to the field you want to rename, change the  text. 
    c. The Right mark icon appears on the field layout of the custom report type when fields are selected by default.    
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Click Edit next to an existing section to rename it, or create a new section by clicking Create New Section. 

Thus, we have made a new custom report type here. You can now generate a new report with this report type. We've also looked at how to change the layout of a section, as well as how to render a field default and rename it. 

conclusion

Custom Report Types are an incredibly simple way to produce complex, interactive reports that go beyond and beyond traditional Salesforce reports. A report type can be thought of as a blueprint or structure that instructs Salesforce on which objects/relationships to investigate and fields to collect. 

If you have any questions you can reach out to our Salesforce Consulting team here.