In an earlier post , I mentioned a tool I'm using to import Salesforce data - via SOQL or existing reports - into Excel. This post is more about using that tool, XL-Connector from Xappex . Here, I'll walk through the (simple) process of importing and refreshing a report, and I'll provide a simple VBA macro to automate the refresh. In a future post, I'll expand on that macro to show a friendly view of my opportunity pipeline and a single-page view of how each of my sales reps are doing against a series of KPIs. Importing a report is simple enough. From the XL-Connector tab, select Log In and enter your credentials. I'm using the old id and password (as opposed to SSO), so I provide that along with my 'token'.  (Don't remember your token? Log in to Salesforce via your browser, click on your photo, select Settings, then 'reset my security token'.) Once you're logged in the lock turns green. Back in Excel, on the XL-Connector tab, select ...

Obviously, Salesforce has strong built-in reporting tools. And I'm a big fan of the dashboards, especially filtered dashboards and dynamic dashboards. WAY better than the old approach of creating a unique set of reports and a corresponding dashboard for every conceivable view. Still, I often want to pull my Salesforce data into Excel. This might be for further manipulation / processing, aggregating data that doesn't live in Salesforce, or distribution to non-Salesforce users (hey, those licenses are expensive!). Reporting Tool - XL-Connector: I'm using a new (to me) tool when I have to repeatedly pull Salesforce data into Excel: XL-Connector  (fka Enabler 4 Excel) from Xappex. There's a lot you can do with XL-Connector. My primary use is just to extract data from Salesforce, and this can be done in two ways: reports or SOQL queries. The great part is that once you've captured data into an Excel file, refreshing the data is trivial. I've stored my credential...

To better support this SaaS world we live in, we've so far calculated and forecasted both the Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and the First-Year Value (FYV) of our opportunities. Two more things to wrap up this series. First, I want to track scheduled payments. And then we'll create a report to track the month-end MRR under contract, as this is a critical metric for SaaS providers. Scheduled Payments I want to help my finance team to tracking payments that are expected from prior-period bookings. So I've added a custom field, Payment Amount, to my Activity Object, and added that field to the Event page layout. Now when I mark an opportunity closed-won and the opportunity term exceeds 23 months, I create an Event to record the scheduled payment(s). (For my purposes, I don't create a Schedule Payment for the initial billing, though you could if you want to record all billing events in Salesforce.) From the opportunity record, I record a new all-day event with no...