Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “build sales dashboards and one-off reports”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

60 min
typically, once a week
55%
of the time can be automated
Some setup
to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Software featureBest fix

Ask the CRM's AI to build the report in plain English

HubSpot Breeze, Salesforce Agentforce and Pipedrive AI can build reports and answer pipeline questions from a plain-language request.

Typically saves about 40% of the time15 min to set up
  1. 1Open the AI assistant in your CRM.
  2. 2Ask for the report in plain words, e.g. "pipeline created by source this quarter vs last".
  3. 3Check the filters it used, then save the report to a dashboard.
  4. 4Share the dashboard link instead of rebuilding the report each time.

Tools: HubSpot Breeze · Salesforce Agentforce · Pipedrive AI · Zoho Zia

Fix 2 of 2

Automation

Build the report once so it refreshes itself

Connect the spreadsheet or dashboard straight to the source so next week's report is already done.

Typically saves about 80% of the time4 h to set up
  1. 1List where each number comes from.
  2. 2Use Power Query (Excel), a connected sheet, or a Google Data Studio or Power BI dashboard pulling from the source.
  3. 3Schedule the refresh and send the link instead of an attachment.

Tools: Excel Power Query · Power BI · Google Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) · Google Sheets connectors

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

Sales ManagerSales Ops / RevOps

HourLeak · the 8-minute work audit

How many hours does this cost you?

The free 8-minute check works out where your week goes and gives you your top fixes. The team scan does the same for everyone and adds it up, so you know which leaks to fix first.

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Answers are anonymous. Leaders only see team totals.

Other common tasks for Sales Managers