This article will help you to work through the Lightning Experience Reports and Dashboards superbadge. I am not intending to give out the answers, just a little bit of a nudge here and there where I know it can get frustrating.

This superbadge covers:

• Report folders and sub-folders
• Management of custom report types
• Cross-filtering
• Sorting and grouping
• Bucket fields
• Custom Summary Formulae
• Filter logic
• Report charts
• Dashboard building
• Chart Types
• Conditional Formatting

Mostly, I found, it gives you a really nice walk around the new UI and helps you get to know it better. And it is SOOOO much better than building reports in Classic. And even better than the old old Classic “Jump to Step” UI….

Get Your Org Ready

• Spin up a new Trailhead Playground and label it the name of the Superbadge; you’ll need to refer to it later
• Read the instructions carefully – you will need to add a picklist value to a field on the Opportunity object before you start
• You should also reset your password as it will help you with the installation of the unmanaged package
• Follow each instruction to the letter (and watch your naming conventions)

Report Folders

• As you create each report folder, make sure you are looking at your All Folders list. I accidentally created my folders as subfolders within the Executive Reports folder.

• I got caught out by terminology; “Manage” reports isn’t the same as “control access to” reports. It’s your job to understand the different levels of report folder sharing – however, the choice of words here is cheeky. I thought they were being cleverer than they actually were. Lesson learned: don’t overthink!

Report Cleanup

The clues are in the names; don’t forget you’ve been told to “archive” the reports to be removed – not delete them!

Something I learnt….

That’s all…

Sales Reports

Did you know there is an easier way to name your reports? Just click on the pencil on the report title and add it there. In addition, doing it this way gives it a roughly matching API name, whereas doing it through the traditional Properties menu does not.

The instructions are really vague – as they are meant to be. So let’s get investigating!

Tip: all of these reports need to be filed away in your Sales reports folder.

Accounts without SolarBot Opportunities

• After years of building roll-up summary fields and extra report types, I was thrilled to find that there is another way to build this report showing Accounts without SolarBot Opportunities – using a standard report type.
• Hint: you want a nice clear list of de-duped Accounts

SolarBot High-Case Candidates

• It’s a standard report type again that you need
• This challenge check is primarily based on grouping and sorting.
• It wants accounts with the highest number of cases to be shown first
• I find it easier to sort from the first column in the report – I learnt that from previous superbadges

SolarBot Warranty Call Sheet

• This one confused me due to wording; it actually gives you the filter criteria if you can stop arguing with yourself for long enough! Again – this one is based on a standard report type.
• The Warranty Status also isn’t a picklist, as the wording would suggest

Support Reports

Top Case Drivers by SolarBot Ownership

• You’ll be building a bucket field based on a field that captures the SolarBots owned
• Don’t forget to remove your totals. Row count is OK.

SolarBot Status Averages

• This has been the only time so far that I have used the custom report type built earlier – an enjoyable report to build
• Be careful – it’s testing your knowledge of the aggregate functions so ensure you pick the right fields to aggregate
• Switch your totals off

R&D Reports

Temperature to KWh Research

• Again, you’ll be creating a bucket field
• You can change the order of columns while the record detail is being shown, but not when it is hidden
• When it says it should show only the averages for each temperature level, it means it ;0)

Executive Report

Pretty straightforward; you’re doing a simple Custom Summary Formula with a fabulous new UI (OMG I was so impressed). It will contain an IF statement – just watch where you’re summarising it and your formula field label. Any problems, tweet me @gemziebeth

Report Adjustments

Accounts without SolarBot Opportunities

Easy – doesn’t need any explanation

SolarBot Warranty Call Sheet

• Tests your knowledge of filter logic – I found just following the steps in the order they are written in should be OK here

Top Case Drivers by SolarBot Ownership

• Typical client stuff – add a couple of fields but then add a chart
• Think of what they’re saying – relative proportion. This should help you decide what type of chart to use and the order to position the groupings in

SolarBot Status Averages

I liked this one – it looked awesome on the graph and even better on the Lightning Record page. Don’t do what I did and forget to assign your new Lightning record page as the App default.

Temperature to kWh Research

• A new grouping here – look for a field to group by
• The graph descriptions of what goes on the X and Y axes will tell you what type of chart
• Pay attention to the wording – no proportions here
• I had a few errors with this one – the only clue I can give is that your axes can contain more than one grouping

Create the SolarBot Dashboard – and make it Accessible

• Your revenue report shows all stages….you can change that for a dashboard component without changing the report
• The clues for which graphs to use are hidden in the descriptions of what ranges to apply etc
• Each component is based on a report you had to build, not one that was already there to begin with
• The overall theme will hurt your eyes when you change the colours
• Don’t forget that Opportunity Overview needs to be a different colour theme from the rest of the dashboard

And Boom! There you go – another one in the bag!