Tune Salesforce Dashboards with Dynamic Gauge Charts

Dynamic gauge charts are one of the most awaited functionalities by Salesforce Admins and Consultants when it comes to Salesforce’s native reporting capabilities! The possibility of having the Gauge chart update, based on a field’s changing value, boosts the in-app data visualization to the next level. 

Here, we will be talking about the Gauge Chart component and the difference b/w the standard functionality and the new dynamic version, available with the Winter ’22 release.

Dynamic Gauge Charts will be generally available after the Spring ’22 release.

What is a Salesforce Dashboard?

Salesforce Dashboards are a great way to visualize data from a single or several Reports in an organized way on one page. Chart types, filters, and even colors can all be customized with several customization options. 

In addition to picking and choosing charts based on the data you are displaying, there can be a maximum of 20 widgets (components) per dashboard.

Salesforce Gauge Chart Component

The Gauge chart is best used for comparing where you stand in relation to a specific number to figure out how close you are to your goal. The availability of this component is based on the fact that you have already added at least one grouping to the report that you will be using for the widget.

Gauge Chart Modes

Despite still being in beta, Salesforce Dashboard Builder presents users with two modes for displaying their data in a Gauge chart: Standard & Dynamic.

Standard

The standard Gauge component must be familiar to Salesforce administrators and users who build reports or dashboards. 

By defining segment ranges and selecting colors for each segment, the gauge will automatically display how the measure or record count appears in comparison to the defined ranges.

Dynamic

It is free for all Salesforce instances to use the Dynamic Gauge charts beta functionality, but it must be enabled by an Admin within the Reports and Dashboards User Interface in setup.

Once this setting is enabled, after choosing a Gauge chart for your report, you will be able to select the dynamic option.

The target segments within the Dynamic mode are represented as percentages, as opposed to numbers within the Standard mode.

Target Segments are just the beginning! The real magic is above them! Defining the Goal for the Gauge chart can be done in the Chart Target section - this goal can be stored in a field on any Standard/Custom object.

The "User Running the Dashboard" option becomes available when you're tracking against the reference target on the User object. The dashboard viewer changes depending on which user opens the dashboard, which is particularly handy when it comes to dynamic dashboards.

In this scenario, the target field is actually on the User object and determines how many Campaigns a Marketer intends to run over the course of the year. It is a dream come true to not have to edit the segment ranges over and over again since goals such as this one are subject to change over time!

Upon updating the field value and refreshing the dashboard, the progress towards the new goal will be counted right away! 

The dashboard can once again be saved to display progress toward the running user's Campaign Target stored within the User Object after we have adjusted the percentages and colors to our likings. 

Dynamic Gauge Chart Use Cases

It’s important to highlight the influence that Dynamic mode within Gauge charts can have over multiple (if not all) teams in your org particularly for those who depend so much on Salesforce reporting for tracking their KPIs.

Sales

The Sales team will always have individual, team, and regional goals. For quota-carrying reps, in particular, it is very vital to have access at any point in time to their data and how far they are towards achieving the goal. 

In this example, the Target 1 field is not stored on the User object anymore, but in a custom object and it stores the team goal. By applying a filter based on the name of the Opportunity Owner, the team manager can readily ascertain the individual contributions made by each sales representative towards achieving the team's Q3 objective.

Support

The average response time is one of the most important KPIs for Support teams. Alike to the Marketing & Sales eg. As stated above, as long as the goal is stored in Salesforce and the exact time is calculated on the Case record, the Dynamic Gauge component can be used to track individual and team performance.

Summary

Users will undoubtedly benefit from the addition of Dynamic Gauge charts to Salesforce dashboards since they will be able to obtain more cohesive reporting, as well as reduce the number of reports, components, & time spent interpreting relevant figures. 

The Gauge chart, whether it is static or dynamic, can be used to report on a target regardless of the situation! 

References

• https://www.salesforceben.com/dynamic-gauge-charts-for-salesforce-dashboards/

• https://www.simplysfdc.com/2021/09/salesforce-dashboard-dynamic-gauge.html

• https://www.salesforceblogger.com/2021/11/04/dynamic-gauge-charts-in-lightning-dashboards/

• https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.dashboards_lex_chart_gauge.htm&type=5

• https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_rd_dashboards_dynamic_gauge_charts.htm&release=236&type=5