It’s one thing to say, “Our sales are up.” It’s another to show what’s actually happening—who’s selling, what’s moving, and what’s getting stuck. If you’re in sales ops, management, or just trying to get a grip on your numbers, you know that generic dashboards don’t cut it. You need the real story, not just a parade of charts.
If you’re using Microsoft Dynamics and want to generate detailed, useful sales performance reports (not just pretty PDFs that sit in your inbox), here’s how to actually get it done—step by step, with a few honest tips on what works and what to skip.
1. Know What You Need Before You Click Anything
Before you start clicking through menus, get clear on what you actually want to measure. Dynamics is powerful, but it’s easy to drown in data if you don’t have a plan.
Ask yourself: - What questions are you trying to answer? (e.g., Who are my top performers? Which products are lagging?) - What timeframe matters? (Monthly, quarterly, year-to-date?) - Who’s going to use this report? (Execs, sales reps, operations?)
Pro tip: Write these down. Don’t just build a report because you “might need it.” Focus on what drives action.
2. Get to Know Your Data (And Clean It Up)
Garbage in, garbage out. If your Dynamics data isn’t accurate, your fancy report will be useless.
- Spot-check your data: Open up a few records—accounts, opportunities, leads. Are fields filled in consistently? Are close dates and amounts accurate?
- Fix obvious issues: If you see missing or bad data, flag it. You may need a quick cleanup before reporting.
- Standardize where possible: Make sure things like product names, territories, and sales stages are standardized so your reports aren’t a mess of duplicates.
Don’t skip this. There’s nothing worse than presenting a “detailed” report and getting called out for wrong numbers.
3. Pick the Right Reporting Tool in Dynamics
Dynamics gives you a buffet of reporting options. Some are better than others, depending on your needs. Here’s the honest rundown:
- Advanced Find: Great for quick, ad-hoc lists. Not visually appealing, but you can export to Excel.
- Dashboards: Good for high-level tracking, but not great for detail.
- Reports (SSRS): Powerful, but requires setup and (sometimes) a developer. Best for recurring, formatted reports.
- Excel Templates: Flexible. You can pull data into Excel and build custom pivot tables or charts.
- Power BI Integration: For deep dives and slick visuals. But it’s overkill for simple lists, and setup can be a hassle.
Bottom line: If you just need numbers and details, Advanced Find and Excel will get you 80% of the way. For recurring, polished reports, SSRS or Power BI is worth the time—if you have it.
4. Build a Detailed Sales Performance Report with Advanced Find
Let’s get hands-on. Here’s how to use Advanced Find to create a detailed sales report you can actually use.
Step 1: Open Advanced Find
- In Dynamics, look for the funnel icon or “Advanced Find” in the toolbar.
- Click it. A new window opens.
Step 2: Choose Your Data Type
- Select the record type. For sales performance, “Opportunities” is the usual go-to.
- You can also pick “Leads,” “Quotes,” or “Orders” if that fits your process better.
Step 3: Set Up Your Filters
- Choose filters that match your questions:
- Status: Closed Won, Closed Lost, Open
- Owner: Individual sales reps or teams
- Close Date: Set your timeframe (last month, this quarter, etc.)
- Product: Filter by product, if you want product-level reporting
Example:
- “Show me all Opportunities closed as Won in Q2 by rep.”
Step 4: Add Columns
- Click “Edit Columns.”
- Add what you need: Opportunity Name, Owner, Estimated Revenue, Actual Revenue, Close Date, Product, etc.
- Drag columns to reorder them.
Step 5: Run, Review, and Export
- Click “Results.” Now you see your data in a grid.
- Spot-check: Are the numbers what you expected? If not, tweak your filters or fix your data.
- Click “Export to Excel” for deeper analysis or sharing.
Pro tip: Save your Advanced Find as a “Saved View” so you can run it again later—no need to rebuild from scratch.
5. Level Up: Build Recurring or Polished Reports
If you need more than a quick export—for example, a monthly sales deck or exec summary—here’s what actually works:
Option 1: Excel Templates
- Build your report in Excel using the Dynamics data export.
- Use Pivot Tables and charts to slice by rep, region, product, etc.
- Save your template. Each month, just refresh the data.
This is fast, flexible, and doesn’t require coding. Downside: you still have to export and update each time.
Option 2: SSRS Reports (a.k.a. “Classic Reports”)
- If your org uses on-premises Dynamics or has a technical team, ask about SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) reports.
- These can be scheduled, formatted, and delivered straight from Dynamics.
- Downside: Setup isn’t trivial, and you’ll need IT for changes.
Option 3: Power BI Integration
- For deep-dive analysis or if you need fancy visuals, Power BI is the way to go.
- You can connect Dynamics directly, build interactive dashboards, and even share them online.
- Downsides: It takes time to set up, Power BI licenses aren’t free, and you’ll need to learn the basics of Power Query.
Honest take: Unless you need weekly board-ready decks, don’t overcomplicate it. Most teams do just fine with Advanced Find + Excel.
6. Common Pitfalls (And How to Dodge Them)
Even pros get tripped up by a few Dynamics quirks. Here’s what to watch for:
- Out-of-date fields: Salespeople forget to update stages or close dates. Build reports that flag “stale” opportunities.
- Duplicate records: Clean your data regularly, or your numbers will be inflated.
- Too many columns: More isn’t better. Only show what’s actionable.
- One-off reports: If you’re running the same report every week, automate it or save the view.
Pro tip: If a report takes more than 15 minutes to explain, it’s too complicated. Keep it simple.
7. Share and Act on Your Reports
A report’s useless if it just sits in your inbox. Make sure people actually use what you build.
- Schedule regular review meetings. Pull up the report, walk through wins and bottlenecks.
- Highlight trends, not just snapshots. Are things improving? Getting worse? Why?
- Ask for feedback. What’s missing? What’s confusing?
Honest advice: Don’t chase perfection. A simple, accurate report that gets used is 10x better than a flashy one nobody understands.
Wrapping Up
Sales reporting in Dynamics isn’t rocket science, but it does take a little upfront thinking—and some discipline to keep your data clean. Start with the basics, get comfortable with Advanced Find and Excel, and only move to fancier tools if you really need them. Keep your reports focused, actionable, and easy to understand. The goal isn’t to impress people with a wall of numbers; it’s to help your team actually sell more. Iterate, improve, and keep it simple.