Unlocking a Tricky Dashboard Filter

This project came from a request to add a Division filter to an existing Salesforce dashboard. The stakeholder had built the dashboard themselves but couldn’t get the filter to work—the field was visible on some reports, but not available across the entire dashboard.

After reviewing the setup, I found that several dashboard components were powered by standard report types, which don’t support fields from related objects, like the Division field (in this case, accessible through a lookup).

What I did:

• Identified the six reports that needed to be rebuilt.

• Recreated them using appropriate custom report types, which allowed me to include the Division field.

• Updated the custom report type layouts to expose the Division field as a filterable option.

• Clicked into each dashboard component—there were over a dozen—to make sure every one was rebuilt to match the original (structure, metrics, visuals).

• Saved the updated dashboard with the new filter added.

Reflections:

🌸 This stakeholder was already highly proficient with reporting. I didn’t just want to fix the issue—I wanted to share knowledge that could empower their future buildouts.

🌿 I let them know that custom report types open up more flexibility, especially when filtering by related fields. With that context, they’re better equipped to troubleshoot and enhance future reports and dashboards on their own.