How to Create a Cross Object Report

Hey everybody, my name’s Richard and I’m the Education and Training Manager here at VerticalResponse.  I’m going to be contributing posts to our VerticalResponse for AppExchange blog going forward, starting, obviously enough, with today’s post on Cross Object Reporting.

As advanced as Cross Object Reporting might sound, it’s actually a fairly simple concept.  All that’s involved is setting up a custom report type - which I’ll describe how to do later in this post - that can pull data from multiple Salesforce objects (Campaigns, Opportunities, VR Email History, etc.).  By default, Salesforce reporting only pulls data from a single object, so expanding a report’s search across multiple objects can be a great way to dig deeper into your data.

To understand  how custom reporting can be used to take a closer look at your email success, you need to create a Cross Object Report that connects your VR Email History to your Contacts and Opportunities.  This allows you to measure the impact any emails sent out through VerticalResponse has on your opportunities’ purchasing decisions.

Here’s how a Salesforce Administrator can setup this type of Cross Object Report:

1.  Start by going to Setup > App Setup > Create > Report Types.  You may or may not see a “What is a Custom Report Type” page here.  If you do see this page, give it a read and continue on past.

2.  Click New Custom Report Type.

3.  Now you’ll choose your Primary Object.  What is the Primary Object?  Salesforce has written a fairly good description in their help area, so I’ll let them explain:

The primary object you choose determines the views available to users creating or running reports from your custom report type. For example, if you select Accounts as the primary object for your custom report type, then users can view their report results by All Accounts or My Accounts from the View drop-down list on the Select Criteria page of the report wizard or on the Report Options of the report.

Select "Opportunities" as your Primary Object if you want to create the example report I referenced above.

4.  Enter a name and description for this report type.

5.  Choose the category where you’d like to store this cross object report.  The category you choose will determine where this report will appear in the “Select the type of data you wish to report on” drop-down menu in the Salesforce report wizard.  “Other Reports” or “Opportunities” would be a good choice here.

6.  Select whether you want this Custom Report type to be “In Development” or “Deployed.”  If you select the Deployed option, then this custom report type will be immediately available for your users to access from within the report wizard.

7.  Click Next.

8.  Now you’re going to create a relationship between the primary object (Opportunities) and the VR Email History Object.  In option B, use the drop down menu to select “Contact Roles.”  Then, in Option C, select the VR Email History Contact.  You’ll also want to ensure you’ve selected the options requiring “Each A record to have at least one related B record” and “Each B record to have at least one related C record” - this ensures any custom report built from this Cross Object Report will bring back only results that are directly relevant to emails influencing your opportunities.

After you click the Save button, you and users will be able to access this new Report Type through Reports > Create New Custom report. 

Anyone have great success with Cross Object Reports? Share your experiences in the comments!

Richard Huffaker, Education and Training Manager

Comments

[Mike]

To track your sales and business trends you need to have a good reporting tool and salesforce reporting is considered to be one of the best. Here the author has explained beautifully how to create a sales report in salesforce.com. I really appreciate the effort.

[Robin]

I've done the step by step instructions but when it comes to "Option C" my drop down menu does not include the VR Email History contact link. Can you explain why? I'm an admin on SF & we have an account with VR. Thanks.

[John Wall]

I've played with the campaign influence report and also linked the leads and activites tables to find out what types of activites work better than others. I've found it easier to use the Excel Add-in for joining tables, it takes less time to see what the output will look like, when you get it right, then build it in SF to share...