How does Dashboard work in Salesforce?
Each dashboard contains up to 20 components, where each component visualizes data from a single source report. Component types include bar charts, line charts, donut charts, funnel charts, scatter plots, gauge widgets, metric numbers, and Lightning tables. Dashboards can run as the logged-in user (dynamic dashboards) or as a specified running user, which affects data visibility and is important for executive views that need to show company-wide metrics regardless of the viewer's sharing access.
Dynamic dashboards display data according to each viewer's security permissions, enabling a single dashboard to serve multiple roles. Dashboard filters allow users to interactively slice data without modifying the underlying reports. Dashboards can be scheduled for email snapshots, embedded in Lightning pages, and added to the Salesforce mobile app home page. For teams outgrowing native dashboard limitations, CRM Analytics (formerly Einstein Analytics) offers interactive exploration and AI-powered insights.