What do Salesforce and The Rolling Stones have in common?

Crosses.

There are 2 “crosses” that are currently blowing my mind. Salesforce Report Cross Filters and The Rolling Stones 2020 release of “Criss Cross” — and both are amazing!

First things first. Hello — The Rolling Stones! They released a new song called “Criss Cross” in 2020 that is so good. So. Good. I can’t believe they’ve been sitting on it for 47 years. Recorded in 1972, but never released until recently. Wow!

That little tidbit of info is just a bonus. The real reason why you’re here is to learn about a Salesforce Report feature called Cross Filters. What a hidden little gem this is!

When you create a report, you can add filters to narrow down the data being pulled from the object, eg Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, etc. But sometimes you need to filter based on a field that is on a different object. This is where Cross Filters come in handy.

In this example, I want to run a report for Accounts, but I need to filter the data so only Accounts that have a specific Case Record Type will show up.

I started by creating a report with “Accounts” Report Type. Once the report is up, I navigated to the “Filters” section found in the left margin. The section under Filters will only access fields from the Report Type that was selected — in this case, only Accounts fields can be used from this section.

In order to get the Case Record Type field that is located on the Case object, I need to use a Cross Filter. Click on the drop down arrow located directly under Filters and select Add Cross Filter.

Now you’ll see a separate section to add filters that can reference a second object. In the Cross Filters pop up box, you can define the second object — eg Accounts with Cases — then click apply.

Once your Cross Filter is added, a separate section will appear below the original Filters section. This is where you can select a field to filter by from the second object. In my example, I’m defining that the Case Record Type field equals “Support Request” — a value from the field’s picklist set. Once you’re done, click on Apply.

The Cross Filter should now show up like this.

If you need to add more filters from the Case object, just click on “Add Cases Filter” to repeat the process.

It’s a simple feature to add in reports and very useful!

Now, let’s get to back to Rockin’ and Rollin’ with the Stones!!

Aloha, A Hui Hou! (Bye, until we meet again!)

Lizette