If you’re swimming in Salesforce data and need to show how your revenue is trending, you’ve probably poked around Insightsquared. This guide is for the folks who want to see their revenue growth over time—without spending hours lost in menus or building Frankenstein spreadsheets. I’ll walk through what actually works in Insightsquared, what to avoid, and a few tips you won’t find in the help docs.
1. Know What You’re Actually Trying to Show
Before you click a single button, get clear on your goal. “Visualize revenue growth” sounds simple, but there are a few ways people get tripped up:
- Are you showing closed revenue, pipeline, or both? Most execs want to see closed revenue over time, but sometimes you need pipeline too.
- How granular do you need to be? Monthly is the default, but quarterly or weekly might matter, depending on your sales cycle.
- Do you want cumulative growth or period-over-period? Cumulative shows the total stack-up; period-over-period (like month-to-month) spotlights the pace.
Pro tip: Write down what you’re after. “I want to see how much new revenue we closed each month for the last year” is way easier to build than “I want to see all the growth.”
2. Get Your Data in Order (Don’t Ignore This)
Insightsquared is only as good as the data you feed it. If your CRM’s a mess, your charts will be too. Here’s what actually matters:
- Close dates: Make sure your deals have real close dates. If people fudge these, your charts will be nonsense.
- Deal amounts: Check for zeroes, duplicates, or placeholders.
- Deal stages: Only “Closed Won” (or your equivalent) should count. Don’t mix in “Prospecting” or “Negotiation” unless you want to see pipeline.
Quick check: Run a report in Salesforce (or whatever you use) with deal amount, close date, and stage. Spot-check the last 3 months. Clean up as needed. This step saves you headaches later.
3. Navigating Insightsquared: Where to Start
Assuming your data’s clean, log into Insightsquared and head to the Analytics section. There are a few different ways to visualize revenue, but for most teams, you’ll want to use:
- Standard Reports: These are out-of-the-box, low effort, and good for most use cases.
- Custom Dashboards: Useful if you want more control or need to mash up multiple views.
- Report Builder: For the control freaks (no judgment) who want to tweak every detail.
Let’s stick with the Standard Reports first—they’re faster and usually “good enough.”
4. Building a Revenue Growth Chart (Step by Step)
Step 1: Open the Right Report
- Go to Reports > Revenue or Closed Revenue (the exact names may vary depending on your version and setup).
- Look for something like “Revenue over time” or “Closed Won by Month.”
Step 2: Set Your Filters
- Date Range: Pick the period you care about (last 12 months, this year, etc.).
- Stage: Filter to just “Closed Won” (or whatever your true closed stage is called).
- Team/Rep/Region: If you want to break it down further, add these filters.
Don’t overcomplicate: Too many filters = weird gaps or tiny data slices that don’t tell you much.
Step 3: Choose Your Time Interval
- By default, Insightsquared shows monthly intervals. To switch, look for a “Group by” or “Interval” option and pick month, quarter, or week.
- For most SaaS teams, monthly is the sweet spot. Weekly is usually too noisy; quarterly hides detail.
Step 4: Pick Your Chart Type
- Bar chart: Good for seeing month-to-month jumps.
- Line chart: Best for showing trends (up, down, or flat).
- Cumulative line: Shows growth stacking up over time.
Most execs want either a line or cumulative chart. Don’t bother with pie charts—they’re terrible for time series.
Step 5: Add to Dashboard (If You Want)
- Click “Add to Dashboard” (or similar button).
- Name it something clear (“Monthly Revenue Growth, 2023”).
- Save it somewhere people can actually find it.
5. Interpreting Your Chart (And What to Watch Out For)
Now you’ve got your chart. But before you email it to the exec team, sanity-check your results:
- Weird dips or spikes? Double-check for data entry errors, missing close dates, or deals moved after the fact.
- Does the total make sense? Compare the total to your known bookings for the year. If it’s way off, something’s wrong in your filters or data.
- Seasonality vs. growth: A flat summer or a Q4 spike might be normal. Don’t panic over every blip.
Don’t fall for the “hockey stick” trap: If your chart suddenly jumps in the last month, it’s probably an artifact of late-entered deals or a mis-set filter. Always ask “Does this pass the sniff test?”
6. When to Use Custom Dashboards (And When Not To)
Standard reports do the job for most folks, but sometimes you need more:
- Comparing multiple teams or products side by side
- Blending pipeline and closed revenue into one view
- Adding targets/quota lines for context
In that case:
- Go to Dashboards
- Click “Create New Dashboard”
- Add your saved reports, arrange them, and annotate as needed
Honest take: Don’t get lost building dashboards for every possible slice. You’ll spend more time wrangling charts than understanding what’s really happening. Start simple—add complexity only if people actually ask for it.
7. Common Mistakes (And How to Dodge Them)
- Using the wrong date field: Make sure you’re grouping by the close date, not the created date or last modified date.
- Mixing currencies: If you sell in more than one currency, double-check if Insightsquared is converting or just adding up apples and oranges.
- Ignoring data lag: Deals sometimes get entered late. Last month’s numbers might not be final until a week or two in.
- Over-filtering: If you filter down to a tiny segment (“just SMB deals from the Northeast, closed by Susan, between 2-3pm”), you’ll get jagged, meaningless charts.
- Relying on default colors/labels: Rename things so they make sense to your audience. “Closed Won” might be “Booked ARR” or “New MRR” in your world.
8. What to Skip (Unless You Really Need It)
- “Advanced AI insights” or “Predictive trends”: These sound cool but often just add confusion. Unless you’ve got a data science team, stick to the basics.
- Pie charts for time series: No one can compare 12 slices of pie over time. Use a line or bar.
- Exporting to Excel and rebuilding charts: If Insightsquared can do it, let it. Only export if you hit a true wall.
9. Pro Tips from the Trenches
- Annotate your charts: If you had a one-off mega deal in March, add a note. Saves you from explaining it every time.
- Automate delivery: Most versions of Insightsquared let you schedule email reports. Set up a monthly or quarterly blast to your execs so you’re not scrambling last minute.
- Version control: If you tweak filters or logic, save as a new version. That way you’re not overwriting the “official” numbers.
- Ask for feedback: Show your chart to someone outside your team before sharing it wide. If they can’t tell what it means, tweak it.
10. Keep It Simple and Iterate
Visualizing revenue growth in Insightsquared isn’t rocket science, but it does take a clear goal and a little discipline. Start with the basics, make sure your data’s clean, and don’t waste time chasing fancy features. If your first chart isn’t perfect—good. You’ll get feedback and improve it. Keep it simple, focus on what matters, and let the numbers speak for themselves.