How to Download Salesforce Report to Excel

Getting your Salesforce report data into Excel is a fundamental task for almost anyone working with CRM data. You might need to perform custom calculations, create pivot tables, build unique charts, or simply share a snapshot of your data with team members who don't have Salesforce access. This guide will walk you through exactly how to download your reports, highlight best practices for clean data, and point out common pitfalls to avoid.

How to Export a Salesforce Report to Excel

The process is straightforward in both Salesforce Lightning and Classic experiences. While the user interface looks a bit different, the core steps and options are functionally the same. Let's cover the most common experience, Lightning, first.

Step-by-Step Guide (Salesforce Lightning)

Follow these steps to get your report data exported and ready for analysis in your favorite spreadsheet tool.

1. Open Your Report: Navigate to the Reports tab in Salesforce and find the report you want to export. Click on it to open it.
2. Run the Report: Make sure you have the latest data by clicking the Run button. This ensures that any changes made since the report was last viewed are included in your export. If the report has filters, adjust them to your needs before running.
3. Find the Export Option: In the top-right corner, you'll see a dropdown arrow next to the "Edit" and "Subscribe" buttons. Click this arrow to reveal more options, and then select Export.
4. Choose Your Export View: A small window will pop up with two key options under the "Export View" section. This is the most important step, and your choice here will dramatically affect your Excel file.
5. Choose Your Format: You can select either .xlsx (Excel) or .csv (Comma Delimited). For most users, .xlsx is the preferred choice as it handles formatting and special characters better.
6. Click Export: Once you've made your selections, click the Export button. Your file will be generated and downloaded by your browser, ready to be opened in Excel or Google Sheets.

A Note for Salesforce Classic Users

If you're still using the Classic interface, the process is very similar. After running your report, you'll find a button that says Export Details right above the report data. Clicking this will give you the same format options (.xlsx or .csv) to complete your download.

Why "Details Only" is Almost Always the Right Choice

New users often choose "Formatted Report" because it looks familiar. They see the same report layout in Excel that they saw in Salesforce and think the job is done. However, this beautiful formatting is misleading and quickly becomes a huge headache.

Imagine trying to create a pivot table from a formatted export. Excel will get confused by:

• Merged cells in the headers.
• Summary rows ("Total," "Subtotal") mixed in with your actual data.
• Grouping labels that don't belong to a specific data column.

The "Details Only" export solves all of this. It gives you raw data, which is the perfect starting point for any type of analysis in a spreadsheet. With a clean data set, you can:

• Create your own pivot tables without manual cleanup.
• Apply filters and sorts to any column with a single click.
• Write formulas (like VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, etc.) that can easily be dragged down columns.
• Build charts and graphs that are accurate and easy to configure.

Think of it this way: a "Formatted Report" is a finished picture, while a "Details Only" report provides you with all the raw materials (the data) you need to build whatever picture you want.

Common Issues When Exporting Salesforce Reports (And How to Fix Them)

While the process is usually smooth, you can run into a few common snags. Here’s what to look out for.

1. Missing Rows in Your Export

You exported a report with thousands of records, but your Excel file only contains a fraction of them. Why?

The Cause: Salesforce has limits on the number of rows you can export directly. In its standard browser-based export, you can only export reports that have detail rows (like in a Tabular or Summary report). You cannot, for example, export a Matrix-only report without any detail rows at all. Your organization's edition and specific settings can influence these limits.

The Solution:

• Add More Filters: The easiest solution is to make your report more specific. Add filters (like a shorter date range or a specific campaign) to reduce the number of records returned so it can be exported. You can export the data in smaller chunks if needed.
• Use a Data Loader Tool: For very large data sets, use a tool like Salesforce Data Loader. This requires more technical skill but is designed for bulk data operations.
• Scheduled Reports: You can also schedule the report to be emailed to you, which sometimes handles larger data sets more effectively.

2. Dates or Numbers Not Working in Excel

You’ve exported your data, but Excel is treating your dates as text or your currency values have formatting you can't work with.

The Cause: This can be a mismatch between Salesforce's data locale settings and your computer’s regional settings. For instance, a date formatted as DD/MM/YYYY in Salesforce might not be recognized by an Excel set to see MM/DD/YYYY.

The Solution: This is a core reason to use the .xlsx format instead of .csv. The .xlsx format is "smarter" and usually preserves data types like dates, currencies, and numbers correctly. If you're still having issues, check Excel’s "Text to Columns" feature to re-format the problematic column and tell Excel what kind of data it's looking at.

The Hidden Costs of Manual Reporting

Downloading a Salesforce report to Excel is easy. But relying on this process for your weekly or monthly reporting creates a cycle of repetitive, manual work that is both inefficient and prone to error.

Think about the typical weekly reporting ritual:

• On Monday morning, you log in and export the sales activity report.
• You spend 20 minutes cleaning it up in Excel.
• You create a few pivot tables and charts for your team meeting.
• During the meeting, your manager asks a follow-up question.
• You have to go back into Salesforce, adjust the report, re-export it, and redo the analysis.

By the time you've gotten the answer, half your morning is gone. Worse, the data you're looking at is a static snapshot. The moment you exported it, it became outdated. This manual 'download and refresh' cycle prevents you from having a real-time view of your performance.

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to export a report from Salesforce to Excel is a crucial skill for getting ad-hoc data. Always remember to use the "Details Only" option for the cleanest and most analysis-ready data, and be mindful of export limits for larger reports. Understanding this simple process empowers you to dig deeper into your CRM data without being a Salesforce admin.

This whole manual cycle of exporting CSVs, wrestling with them in spreadsheets, and presenting stale data is exactly why we built Graphed. By securely connecting directly to your Salesforce account, we eliminate the need for manual downloads. You can use natural language prompts like "Show me our sales pipeline conversion rates by rep this quarter" and get live, interactive dashboards instantly, without ever touching an export button. It gives you back the hours lost to spreadsheets and provides real-time answers when you need them most.