Aplusify| Nonprofit Success Pack|Making Salesforce reports work for you

NPSP Reports: Making Salesforce reports work for you

Your organization is unique in many ways. You will have to setup NPSP/Salesforce to work for your organization’s business process, data structure and needs. It’s your unique Salesforce ecosystem. As with any template, you will need to modify the Salesforce reports and dashboards so that it gives you what you are looking for.

The easy modifications include changing dates and filters you need to segment data. The tricky part comes when you have custom objects and reports that are a little more complicated than what’s provided in NPSP.

What’s a Custom Object?

Standard objects, such as accounts, contacts, or opportunities are included with Salesforce by default. Custom objects are based on standard objects and extend their functionality.

Sometimes organizations need to collect and manage data that go beyond what Standard Objects can do. Some examples…

Inventory of in-kind donations such as books and food pantry items
Grant Management to include grantees and grantors
Volunteer Management

After custom objects have been properly implemented, you can create reports that extract the details you need. The way you structure your fields will impact how your report provides and filters data for you.

Having trouble with a report for a custom object? You’re not alone. Here are a few tips our Salesforce-certified developers recommend:

Check field formats.
- Date is a date input and not a text field
- You allow for States to be the full spelling of the State and Abbreviations
Try to standardize your data points
Resources for help
- Trailhead offers general training and support
- Reach out to the Salesforce community on Trailblazer to get help from peers
- Third-party consultants like Aplusify can work with you to understand your data needs and structure to ensure your custom objects, reports and dashboards are giving you what you need. Aplusify works with many custom objects that work specifically for nonprofits and associations. Let us bring our experience to work for you.