Rethinking Salesforce Reporting: How I Left a Session Inspired to Build Better Dashboards
Every Salesforce Admin has been there: you build the perfect report or dashboard, and your users still say, "Can I filter this by [insert wildcard request here]?"
We’re expected to deliver flexible, insightful data—but the default dashboard filters in Salesforce can feel like trying to paint a masterpiece with only two colors.
Well, I just attended a session that blew that frustration wide open.
And I left inspired.
Let’s talk about how you can break past Salesforce’s out-of-the-box limitations using tools you already have access to—plus a few hidden gems.
Start with the Metric, Then Add Levers
This concept was a lightbulb moment for me. Don’t start by building five versions of a report. Start with one solid metric—say, Cases Opened by Week—and build flexible ways to explore it.
Think of filters as "levers" you let your users pull:
Timeframe: This week, last 30 days, Q1
Case Type: Returns, Tech Support, Billing
Channel: Email, Phone, Chat
When we start with the metric and build for flexibility, we give users one version of the truth—and options to explore it.
Why Lightning App Pages Are a Game Changer
Salesforce reports and dashboards haven’t changed much in years. But Lightning App Pages? They’re like custom dashboards on steroids.
Here’s the play:
Create a dedicated Lightning App Page tab just for your dashboard
Add your dashboard component and a screen flow to it
Design that screen flow to act as your advanced filter interface
Now, your dashboard becomes interactive. And the filters aren’t limited by the three that dashboards normally allow.
You can let users filter by:
Start and end dates (with validation!)
Picklists (like Case Type)
Checkboxes (like include Closed Cases)
The Secret Sauce: Screen Flows + User Fields
Here's where things get really slick. In your screen flow, instead of just letting users pick filters, you can save their choices.
How?
By using fields on the User record.
Let’s say a user chooses "Last 7 Days" and "Billing Cases." Save those values to custom fields on the User object. Then:
Reference those values in your formula fields
Use those formulas in your report filters
Now, your reports are context-aware. They respond to who is viewing them and what they care about.
💡 Even cooler: this can persist between sessions. Users get a consistent experience every time they log in.
Want to Take It Further? Use the Unofficial Salesforce Components
One standout tool from the session was the Unofficial SF Button Bar component. It lets you build:
Interactive button sets
Clean interfaces to drive filter logic
Conditional visibility (i.e., different buttons show for different users)
Pair this with the Update Screen component and you can get even more control over which report charts show—and when.
And if you're really ready to nerd out...
Consider an HTTP Callout to the Analytics API
This is not for beginners, but if you're comfortable with REST APIs, you can:
Use a PATCH request to "click save" on a report
Refresh dashboards programmatically via the Analytics REST API
Pull data from specific report folders
Trigger real-time report updates when a screen flow runs
In short, this opens the door to fully dynamic, deeply interactive dashboards in Salesforce.
If that sounds overwhelming—don't worry. You can start small. The screen flow + user field pattern already gets you 90% of the way there.
My Key Takeaways
Think creatively about filters. Don’t settle for what dashboards give you—build your own.
Use Lightning App Pages and screen flows together to create powerful, flexible reporting experiences.
Saving filter choices to the user record creates a consistent, personalized view of data.
There’s a whole world of tools like UnofficialSF components and the Analytics API—start exploring them.
Follow Evan Ponter if you’re not already. He’s sharing gold in the Salesforce community.
If you’re working in a Service Cloud org and want to give your agents better insight into the work they’re doing (and how to improve it), this is the kind of design thinking that gets results.
💡 Want to learn more about how Service Cloud can reduce costs and boost efficiency? Get tips and tricks from my blog: https://www.northstarcrmconsulting.com/blog
