3 Steps to Enable New Report Builder in Salesforce Lightning

Updated!

Spring ’18 delivered an amazing new user experience for building and filtering on reports and dashboards in Salesforce. Are you already using Lighting, but still seeing the same old way of doing things? Here’s what you need to do:

1. Enable Lightning Report Builder (Beta)

Search for Reports & Dashboards in the Setup Menu. Enable Lightning Report Builder (Beta)

2. Troubleshoot Permissions

If you enable #1 and it still doesn’t work, you may need to assign your users and yourself permission to be a user of the New Report Builder Lightning Experience. For your Organization’s custom profiles, click on the Profile Name, and search for the permission “Report Builder (Lightning Experience)”. For System Administrators this can be more complex than it seems, since you can’t edit any standard Salesforce profile. You’ll have to assign yourself this permission using a Permission Set. Before you go to all this trouble though – see if you’re seeing the new interface after step #1 – you might not need to go through this hoop.

Quirky update: If you don’t see this permission available in a permission set or profile, you need to enable another back-end Folder Setting based on this Known Issue – you need to Turn on Enhanced Folder Sharing for Reports & Dashboards first. I had to switch back to Classic to find this setting in the Setup Menu. (see screenshot)

3. Enjoy the Love and Adoration of your End Users

Ain’t it sweet? Your users will love the new intuitive way to filter and add/remove columns to the report outline – and so will you!

About Megan Himan

Megan Himan has over fifteen years experience in the nonprofit sector and over ten years working on the Salesforce platform. She has a unique combination of deep technical skills paired with an ability to strategically convene groups, coach executives and leadership through transitions, and execute on project deliverables. She is Founder & Principal of BrightStep Partners - solutions with strategy for Salesforce success. In September 2017, she was named a Salesforce MVP.