9 steps to get started with reporting
Published: February 13, 2009
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The items in this article cover the basics for getting started analyzing data and using reports in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Each section has links to relevant videos, articles, or Help topics.
On This Page
1. Learn by watching
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Take a complete tour of using Advanced Find to find information, exporting data to Microsoft Office Excel to analyze it, using default reports, and creating your own reports by using the Report Wizard. Video: Reporting with CRM Online (15 minutes) Though this video uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, all the concepts and steps are the same for Microsoft Dynamics CRM (On-Premise Edition).
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Tour just the Report Wizard, following a Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP as he creates a contact activity report. Video: Report Wizard. (6 minutes) This video also includes how to export a report for further customization, and how to set up security roles to give required permissions for creating reports.
2. Know your options
There are three ways to analyze data stored in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Each is easy to use, and gets you the data you need in minutes. The following list shows when to use each approach:
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Export data to Microsoft Office Excel.
Use this approach when you need Excel features to summarize or aggregate data, or want to use a PivotTable to view your data in different perspectives. This approach is quick, easy, and flexible. If you come up with a spreadsheet that you'll need again, you can add it to Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a report. Each time you open it, the data can dynamically update. -
Use a default report, or a report someone else created.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes many default reports, and may include custom reports set up specifically for your organization. Many of these reports offer filtering, grouping, and sorting options to help you collect and display just the information you need. -
Create your own report.
If the security role assigned to your account has permission, creating your own report using the Report Wizard is an easy way to get just the information you need. The wizard makes it easy to summarize and display data from two types of records at once.This approach offers some advantages over exporting data to Excel:
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It can create tables and charts that let you click an item to go right to a specific record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
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You don't need to know how to use Excel. The wizard guides you through selecting what you want in the report and displaying the data in an easy-to-use format.
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Data can be grouped by time intervals or by any field, and summarized by sum, average, maximum, minimum, or percentage.
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You can select to show just records with the most or least of one criteria, such as the top 10 accounts by revenue, or the 5 products with the fewest associated orders.
Advanced users can also create their own reports that are more complex than possible with the Report Wizard. This is typically done by an experienced report designer, because it requires setting up a report development environment and knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. For more information, see the article Personalizaciones de informes.
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3. You can only see the data you have permission to see
By default, all the reports in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are visible to all users, but each person who runs a report only sees data that they have permission to view.
For example, a salesperson might have permission to see his own opportunities, but not opportunities that belong to other salespeople, whereas a sales manager might have permission to view the opportunities of all salespeople who report to her. So when the salesperson runs the Sales Pipeline report, he will see his own opportunities, but when a sales manager runs the same report, she will see opportunities for all her direct reports.
4. If you need a report, ask for it
If you don't have permission to create reports, consider asking your manager or system customizer if a specific report you need can be added. Sometimes people hesitate to ask for what they need because they think it will take a lot of resources to do the work, but creating reports in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is easy enough that you shouldn't hold back.
Some of the types of reports that can be added are:
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Reports created by using the Report Wizard.
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A copy of an existing report, with different default filter criteria.
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Snapshots of Microsoft Dynamics CRM reports taken at a specific date or time.
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Excel spreadsheets that dynamically refresh data.
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Links to Web pages such as a Windows SharePoint Services site.
If you need more complex reports than the Report Wizard can create, you'll need to find someone familiar with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. A good place to start is at Microsoft Dynamics Partner Solutions.
5. Understand what you have permission to do
There are many aspects of running and creating reports that are controlled by the permissions in your security role. This makes it possible for your system administrator or system customizer to set up Microsoft Dynamics CRM to exactly match how your organization likes to do things, but makes it impossible for an article to tell you what you can and can't do.
Here are some of the different things permissions can control:
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Who can create a report with the Report Wizard.
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Who can share a report they create with specific other people or teams, or with everyone in the organization.
By default, only some managers and the system customizer and administrator can create reports, so don't be surprised if you don't have access.
If you're wondering how to figure out which tasks you can do, one way is to follow the steps in Help, a video, or an article to do a task. If a menu item is missing, you don't have permission. For example, if there is no New button in the Reports area, you don't have permission to create your own report. To explore permissions more, you'll need to view your user profile to see the permissions in the security role associated with your Microsoft Dynamics CRM account. For more information, see the following help topic: Report Permissions.
6. Tips for running reports
Run a report from wherever you are. You don't need to go to the Reports area to run most reports. Many reports are meant to be run on specific records, so from wherever you are in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, click the Reports menu to select a report that makes sense for the data that you are viewing.
Click on a hotspot to go to the record. Slide your mouse across the data in a report - you'll see the cursor change when you're over a hotspot. Click to go the record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Click on a chart to see the table used to create the report. Most charts are set up so you can see the underlying data for a section by clicking the section. Or click Show All to see the data for all the chart sections.
Understand how to change filtering criteria. A filter defines which records to include in a report. Most reports have a default filter. Some reports always prompt you to enter criteria before the report displays. For other reports, you must click Edit Filter to change the criteria. For information about how to set filtering criteria, see the help topic Run a Report.
For links to articles about using default reports, see Usar los informes.
7. Tips for using the Report Wizard
If you haven't yet viewed the video, take a look at minutes 3-9 in the Dynamics CRM Online Reporting video.
Here are some tips to help you create your first reports:
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Know what the Report Wizard can and can't do:
Possible
Not Possible
* Display and group data from two record types.
* Display a table of results that you can click to see the original record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
* Display a chart that you can click to see the supporting table.
* Summarize numeric data by showing average, minimum, maximum, or percent of total.* Display and group data from more than two record types.
* Count the number of records. -
When you create a report, it is added so that only you can see it. This means you have time to experiment and get it right before you share it with other people. So be comfortable exploring the wizard.
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When you first click New, you see a properties page for the report. You must click Report Wizard to start the wizard and actually create a report. Don't worry about naming the report in advance - you can do this at the end.
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When you finish defining what goes in the report, you have to save the report before you can preview it. If it isn't exactly what you need, you can run through the wizard again to make any changes.
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By default, a new report just shows up in the Reports area. If you want it to show up on the forms or lists for specific record types, you must explicitly set this in the Categorization section of the report properties page, rather than in the Report Wizard.
8. If you come up with a good report, share it
Any new report you create with the Report Wizard is added as viewable only by you. There are two options for how you can make it available to others. Which option you choose depends on whether the report is useful only to certain people or is of general use, and whether you have permission to do the action.
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To share the report with specific users or teams, on the Actions menu, click Sharing.
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To make the report viewable by everyone in the organization, on the Administration tab, set Viewable By to Organization.
9. Features you may not know about ...
Know the possibilities, so you can get just what you need from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These will probably require action by a manager or system customizer, but most are quick tasks to complete:
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Schedule reports. You can schedule a report to run at a specific time so that you have a snapshot at a specific moment in time. This is handy for reports summarizing the end of a fiscal period, such as a week or a quarter.
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Save a copy of a report with a different default filter. This is useful if the same report is used differently by people in two different groups. Rather than have both sets of users enter complex filter criteria each time the report runs, by copying and renaming the report and changing the filter criteria, each group has a custom-made report to use.
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Create your own categories for reports. The report categories can be customized at your organization, and then reports can be resorted into the new categories. You might want to have one category of reports for each department. Then you could see your department's reports in the Reports area by selecting a view for the category. For more information, see the help topic System Settings Dialog Box - Reporting Tab.
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Create reports based on processes. You can use reports to track how people are doing at using predefined processes in your organization. For example, if you have a workflow related to lead qualification stages, you could see how long each lead is sitting at each stage. For more information, see this Microsoft Dynamics CRM team blog entry Report on Processes Not Just Data.
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