Report on Time Entries

    This article will walk you through how to create a report containing projects with project tasks and the time entries for them. 

     

    This article contains instructions on how to build the report in the Salesforce Lightning environment. If you are new to reporting in Salesforce Lightning and would like to learn more, please visit Salesforce Help: Build a Report in Lightning Experience.

     

    Reports are created within the Reports tab.



    Helpful hint: Before creating a new report, it is always best practice to search within all reports first to see if the report you need already exists. Simply select All Reports in the menu on the left and enter your keyword in the search box on top of the list.

     

     

    If the report you need does not exist, then click on New Report to create a new report.


     

    Select the Report Type

    The report type you choose determines which records and fields appear in your report.

     

    Enter "time" in the search box and click on Project Time Tracking to select it. Then click on Continue.

     

     

    Build the Report

    You will now see the Salesforce Report builder on screen. Let's familiarize ourselves with the different areas/options we see.

     

    Fields (click to expand if the pane is closed) contains all the fields you can include in your report. You can scroll through the list to look for the field you need or you can also enter the field name in the search box on top of the list.

     

     

     

    Outline contains the fields that appear as columns on the report. You may also choose to group rows within this area.

     

    To add a field to the report, simply drag the field from the list of fields on the left to the area under Columns. Alternatively, you may also type in the field name in the search box under Columns and click on it to add.

     

    Helpful hint: Below is a list of fields you may want to include in the report:

    • Project Name - the name of the project
    • Task Name - the name of the task the time is logged against
    • Time Entry Name - the time entry name
    • Created By: Full Name - the user who entered the time entry
    • Work Date - the date the time entry is for
    • Efforts - the time entered
    • Work Description - work description

     

     

    You will notice that as you add fields to the report, it displays the field as a column in the Preview pane.

     

     

    To re-order the columns on the report, simply drag and drop the fields according to your desired order under Columns. Alternatively, you may also drag and drop the column headings within the Preview pane.

     

     

    You may also choose to group rows together to make it easier to read the report. For example, you may want the time entries that belong to same project to be grouped together. You can specify groupings by adding a group under the Groups section.

     

    To group time entries that belong to the same project together, drag the Project Name field under Group Rows. You will notice that the tasks that belong to the same project now appear together in the preview pane.

     

     

    If you would like to further group time entries together so that they are grouped by both project and project task, then drag the Task Name field below the Project Name under Group Rows. This will group the tasks by Project Name first and then by the Project Task.

     

     

    If preferred, you may further group time entries by who created them.

     

    Once you've added all the fields you need on the report and have grouped them accordingly, you can then adjust and define Filters.

     

    Filters allow you to pare down your report so that it only shows the data that you want. To view and specify Filters, click on the Filters Tab.

     

    For more information on using Filters within Salesforce Reports, visit Salesforce Help: Filter Your Report

     

     

    By default, the report only contains projects where you are the project owner. To include all projects on the report, click on "My projects" under Show Me and change it to "All Projects". Then click on Apply.

     

     

    Next, you would need to specify the date range of projects that need to be included in the report (for example, you may want the report to only include projects that are starting on a specific date range). Click on the existing range. A window will open where you can then select the Date and Range you wish to use and click on Apply.

     

    In this example, we are using the date the Project is created as the date criteria and then choosing "All Time" which means that we are including all projects created regardless when it was created.

     

     

     

    If preferred, you may further pare down the data included in the report by adding more filters. For example, if you would like the report to only contain the time entries made by a specific user, you can include the Time Entry Owner: Full Name as a filter (see example below):

     

     

    Helpful hint: The preview pane only shows you a limited number of records and may not necessarily contain all of the data. To see all data on the report, you would need to run the report by clicking on Run.

     

    Save and Run the Report

    Once you are finished configuring the report, you can then save and run the report by clicking on Save & Run at the top right corner.

     

     

    Enter a report name, a description (optional)  and choose a report folder to save it in. Then click on Save.

     

    Helpful hint: Reports saved in Private reports are only accessible to you while reports saved in Public Folders are accessible to all users who have access to reports.

     

     

    The report will now be saved and will also run. 

     

    If you need to go back to the report builder to make further adjustments, click on Edit at the top right corner. Remember to click on save again to save any changes you make to the report.

     


    Tags

    Reports

    « Previous ArticleNext Article »