Salesforce List Views vs. Reports: Which Is Best to Use?

One of the most frequently asked questions by new Salesforce users is this: What is the difference between reports and list views? – it’s an interesting question as the answer is both “not much” and “a lot”. At the core of it, they’re both lists of records in Salesforce, but the functionality, usability, and intended purpose are all different. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss the differences between the standard functionality of List Views and Reports. While there are any number of tools you can purchase or add on to Salesforce to enhance the functionality of both, we’re going to stick with the basics for this discussion.

What Are List Views in Salesforce?

A List View is a list of records that lives under the tab for that particular Object. You can create multiple List Views for that object, use filters, and control sharing settings for individual list views. You can also control the columns that are visible, and in some cases, use inline editing to modify records directly from the list.

1. Object Tab (Leads)
2. List View toggle (change this to see other List Views)
3. List View Controls (create or modify list views)
4. List View Filters (change the filters for this list view)

What Are Reports?

Reports in Salesforce are also a collection of records. They live under the “Reports” tab in Salesforce and can be created for nearly all objects or a combination of objects. Reports can be grouped into Folders, and have their own sharing settings, filters, and configurations as well.

1. Reports Tab
2. Report Filters

What’s the Difference? 

These two screenshots look basically the same, so what’s the difference? The difference is really what you plan on doing with this data and who is the user of this data. What are they going to do with this data? 

List Views are better for working with smaller batches of data or hands-on work. They’re great for end users who are doing day-to-day work with your records. Here are some examples:

• Calling a list of Leads to invite them to a webinar or tradeshow.
• Calling a list of Contacts to ask customer service questions.
• A Sales rep updating their own Opportunities.
• A Customer Support rep updating their open Cases.

Reports are great for working with larger volumes of data, doing data analysis, and creating charts and dashboards. You can also add formulas and grouping directly to a report without needing to create custom fields or modify any individual records. Here are some examples:

• Viewing your Lead-to-Contact Conversion Rate.
• Calculating Closed Won Rate on Opportunities.
• View Lead Creation Trending over time.
• Organize Cases by Type and Severity.
• Analyzing average days to Close.
• Exporting data to CSV for further analysis.

A Sales Use Case

In this example, let’s talk about a Sales Team with a Manager and Sales Users 1, 2, and 3. Every week, Sales Users are expected to update their own Opportunities with the latest Close Date, Amount, and Next Steps. The Manager needs to analyze all the Opportunities and keep an eye on what the team is actively working on.

Between a List View and a Report, a List View would be more ideal for Sales uers. A single List View with a filter of “My Opportunities” and “Closed = FALSE” would give all three Sales Users exactly what they need so they can quickly make their updates for accurate forecasting.

For the Manager, a Report would be better as it can be grouped by Opportunity Owner. They can also set up an Email Subscription with it, where they can receive this report via email that is scheduled weekly (ideally a short time before a weekly check-in). The other benefit of a Report for the manager is that we can sum up numeric fields (in this example, Amount) to see the grand total for each grouping.

Additional Features of List Views

While it may seem like List Views have significantly fewer features, there are still some useful things you can do with them. List Views have a few different options for how you look at the same list of data. Those options are Kanban View, Split View, and Intelligence View.

Kanban View: Rather than a data list, this is a drag-and-drop interface. Less data is visible, but it’s great for quickly moving records between stages.

Split View: A side-by-side view of the list with the ability to click on an individual record. 

Intelligence View: A new feature that helps users prioritize records within a single list view.

Additional Features of Reports

Reports in Salesforce have a lot of features – too many to mention in just this one section, but I’ll point out some of my favorite features here.

Email Subscriptions: Subscribe to any report in Salesforce to receive that report on a scheduled basis.

Cross-Object Filters: Create a report of records that have (or don’t have) relationships with other objects. For example, Opportunities without Contact Roles.

Report Charts: Add a quick chart to any Report for a more visual understanding of the data.

List Views vs. Reports: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Decision Tree: How to Decide if You Need a List View or a Report

Conclusion

Now that you’ve learned about the difference between List Views and Reports, I hope that you can go forward and help your users better. Knowing these differences will make you able to determine what the best function is for your team, and how to provide them with the results they need.

If you know of any other features that are different between List Views and Reports, please share them in the comments below!