The client, a rapidly expanding real estate brokerage, relied heavily on Salesforce to manage listings, leads, opportunities, brokers, and commission payouts. While Salesforce was effectively supporting their sales operations, it was not being used to automate reporting or operational workflows. Instead, analysts had to manually export Salesforce records into Excel, apply formulas, add business rules, format reports, and eventually convert them into PDFs before sharing them with internal teams or clients.
This manual reporting cycle was particularly problematic for quotes, invoices, performance summaries, and commission payout sheets. As the deal volume grew and more brokers joined, the reporting workload increased significantly. What once took minutes to complete began taking hours or even days, especially during month-end or payout cycles.
Because the reports were static once exported, they quickly became outdated. Sales teams had to rely on analysts to confirm commission statuses, and leadership had little confidence in real-time reporting, as the system did not reflect operational changes instantly. Duplicate versions of reports circulated through email threads, shared folders, and message channels, leading to confusion and misalignment.
The business needed a more efficient solution—a way to generate accurate, real-time reports, calculations, and dashboards directly within Salesforce, without the need for manual exports or formatting. The goal was to streamline reporting, improve data accuracy, and provide better visibility across teams.
Salesforce was used as the system of record, but the company relied heavily on manual processes to generate reports, calculate commissions, and share financial data across teams. Analysts had to start from scratch each time a report was needed, using raw Salesforce data, applying formulas, and formatting documents without a standardized, reusable template.
This inconsistent workflow not only consumed valuable time but also introduced errors as the manual processes became prone to mistakes. Each report cycle was a “fresh start,” causing delays and misalignment across teams.
Once data was exported from Salesforce into spreadsheets, it became static. Deals continued to progress, invoices were updated, and payments changed status, but these changes were not reflected in the exported reports. Leadership found themselves making decisions based on outdated information, which hindered accurate forecasting and strategic planning.
Sales and Finance teams worked with different, disconnected data, leading to miscommunication and delayed decision-making. Leadership was left relying on outdated revenue numbers, often having to reconcile multiple data sets just to get a real-time view of business performance.
The client’s commission structures were complex, varying by region, sales structure, and broker type. This lack of a centralized system for calculating commissions meant that analysts had to manually interpret rules, apply formulas, and validate results each time a commission was due.
As deal volume grew, so did the risk of miscalculations, delayed payouts, and disputes, which affected sales motivation and trust in the system. The lack of automation meant that commission calculations were time-consuming and prone to error.
Salesforce dashboards were unable to support the level of business logic required for accurate financial and operational reporting. Without support for conditional formulas, weighted scoring, or payout structures, dashboards could not display the full picture of performance.
This limitation meant that leadership had to rely on spreadsheets for deeper analysis, which slowed down decision-making and made it difficult to track KPIs in real time. Without the necessary reporting functionality, leadership had limited visibility into the operational and financial health of the business.
Due to the lack of standardized templates, report formats and structures varied depending on who created them. This inconsistency created confusion across teams, with reports often differing in naming conventions, branding, and data logic.
As a result, there was uncertainty around which version of a report was the "correct" one, and comparing reports across teams became challenging. This lack of consistency undermined collaboration and led to inefficiencies.
We started with a comprehensive discovery phase to understand how reporting worked at the operational level. This meant reviewing Salesforce records, exported reporting files, audit spreadsheets, and stakeholder notes to capture how reports were being manually adjusted.
During this phase, workshops were conducted with operations, finance, sales leadership, and field brokers to uncover rules that were never formally documented but were critical for day-to-day decision-making. We documented logic for quote generation, invoice formatting, commission structures, scoring systems, and financial projections. This matrix became the foundation for system standardization, ensuring that once automation was in place, every rule would be applied consistently across all reports and outputs.
Once the reporting logic was clearly documented, we developed a modular framework built on Lightning Web Components and reusable Apex service layers. This framework allowed Salesforce to transform raw data into dynamic, formatted reports such as Excel workbooks and PDFs without the need for manual intervention.
The framework was designed to be configuration-driven, meaning updates to business rules, such as commission structure changes or pricing updates, could be applied directly within Salesforce, rather than requiring new code or redevelopment. By separating the logic layer from the presentation layer, the system supported multiple report types using the same foundation, eliminating duplication and preventing inconsistencies.
With the automation framework in place, we introduced a one-click solution to generate reports. Users could now generate fully formatted documents, such as quotes, invoices, and commission statements, with a single click inside the relevant Salesforce record.
When a user clicked an option like “Generate Quote” or “Create Commission Statement,” the system automatically retrieved live Salesforce data, applied the correct formulas and formatting, and generated a polished document ready to be shared internally or with clients. This process, which once took hours, now completed in seconds, with 100% accuracy and consistency.
Once automated report generation was stable, we focused on creating live dashboards that would surface real-time business metrics. Salesforce dashboards were reconfigured to display key financial data such as revenue projections, broker performance, payout timelines, and operational throughput, all updated instantly as new deals, commissions, and customer data entered the system.
With real-time dashboards, leadership no longer had to rely on static, outdated reports. They could now make proactive decisions based on up-to-date data, improving their ability to respond to market changes and optimize operations.
Before full deployment, the system underwent extensive validation. Testing scenarios included complex commission structures, partial payouts, discount approvals, and multi-tiered pricing. This ensured that the automation was stable, accurate, and aligned with real-world use cases.
The rollout included in-system walkthroughs, training sessions, and feedback loops to refine the user experience. Each department received role-specific training to ensure they understood how the automation improved their workflow and how they could use it effectively in their daily tasks.
By the end of the implementation, the organization had transformed its reporting process from a manual, error-prone cycle to an automated, accurate, and scalable system. Salesforce now handles dynamic report generation and provides real-time financial visibility, enabling better decision-making across the company.
40% reduction in reporting workload as analysts no longer manually format documents
95% real-time data visibility through live dashboards and automated report updates
100% accuracy in commission and quote calculations, eliminating human error
Reporting formats became standardized across all teams, ensuring consistency
Collaboration improved as all users accessed the same live data instead of separate exports
Faster decision-making with live, accurate revenue data driving proactive business strategies
Make every lead, deal, and report speak the same language.