Key takeaways
What is CRM reporting?
Modern customer relationship management (CRM) systems can do almost everything, from keeping track of interactions, sales, lead management, marketing, and more. But how do you turn all that data into something actionable? That’s where CRM reporting comes in.
CRM reporting is the process of gathering all the information stored in your CRM system and transforming it into clear, insightful reports that help you make better decisions. Whether you’re tracking sales performance, customer satisfaction, or marketing campaigns, CRM reporting helps you understand what’s working and what’s not—so you can keep improving your business strategies.
This guide will help you explore the latest trends, best practices, and tools to optimize your CRM reporting for 2024. We’ll break down how to maximize the insights from your CRM data to improve performance tracking and business performance.
- Hubspot Sales Hub: Best for comprehensive marketing and sales reporting
- Salesforce: Best for advanced reporting
- Pipedrive: Best for visual sales pipeline reporting
- Zoho CRM: Best for AI-driven reporting
- monday CRM: Best for project performance tracking
Difference between CRM reports and CRM dashboards
At first glance, CRM reports and dashboards might seem like they serve the same purpose, but they’re actually quite different tools designed for specific needs. A CRM dashboard provides a real-time snapshot of your business performance. It’s a visual, easy-to-understand overview that helps you monitor key metrics like sales numbers, customer inquiries, or marketing results—all in one place. Dashboards are great for quick insights and daily check-ins.
CRM reports dive much deeper. They allow you to analyze detailed data over specific time periods, compare trends, and generate more comprehensive insights. Reports are ideal when you need to measure performance over weeks, months, or even years, and when you want to explore the “why” behind the numbers.
Read more: Everything You Need to Know About CRM Analytics (2024)
Benefits of using CRM reporting
Top 5 CRM reporting tools
Software
Overall Score (Out of 5)
Best Use Case
Key Features
HubSpot Sales Hub
4.79
Overall marketing and sales reporting
Customizable reports, dashboards, multi-touch attribution, real-time insights
Salesforce
4.74
Advanced reporting
Einstein Analytics, deep customization, real-time forecasting
Pipedrive
4.5
Visual sales pipeline reporting
Custom pipeline views, forecasting, deal progress tracking
Zoho CRM
4.42
AI-driven reporting
Predictive insights, Zia AI, customizable dashboards
Monday CRM
4
Project performance tracking
Custom dashboards, workload management, task automation
HubSpot: Best for combining marketing and sales reporting
Overall Score
4.79/5
Report Types and Templates
5/5
Customization and Flexibility
4.58/5
Data Handling and Accuracy
5/5
Visualization and Analysis
4.58/5
Integration and Sharing
5/5
User Experience
5/5
User scores
4.45/5
Pros
- All-in-one platform has more data to to use in reports
- Easy-to-use reporting tools
- Easy-to-read dashboards that consolidate various reports
- Good for sales and marketing alignment
- Free tier of software available
Cons
- No external data integration directly into reports
- Reports lack depth. Not ideal for large complex organizations
- Limited historical data comparison
Why we chose HubSpot Sales Hub
While Salesforce or Zoho CRM often require external integrations or complex setups to bridge the gap between marketing and sales data, HubSpot natively connects these two crucial business functions. This gives your team an easy way to follow the entire customer journey—from initial marketing touchpoints to final sales—without jumping through hoops.
One of the standout features is multi-touch attribution, which lets you see how your marketing efforts directly impact closed deals. Compared to Salesforce, which offers similar but more intricate tools, HubSpot’s solution is more accessible and easier to use. Zoho CRM, on the other hand, doesn’t provide the same level of seamless integration between marketing and sales data, making HubSpot more suitable for businesses looking to combine these insights effortlessly.
HubSpot’s custom report builder also hits the sweet spot between ease of use and flexibility. While Salesforce provides high-end customization, it often requires a steep learning curve and higher costs, especially for smaller teams. Pipedrive, which is more focused on sales pipeline management, lacks the marketing reporting capabilities that HubSpot offers. HubSpot allows you to build tailored reports that incorporate data from both marketing and sales activities, giving you a more complete view of your business performance without the complexity of Salesforce or the limitations of Pipedrive.
The unified dashboards in HubSpot offer a comprehensive, real-time look at your business performance by combining sales and marketing data in one place. Unlike platforms such as Zoho CRM or Pipedrive, where sales and marketing functions are often siloed into different modules, HubSpot lets you track every step of the customer journey on a single platform. This gives you greater visibility and enhances collaboration between teams.
What makes HubSpot even more appealing is its scalable pricing and intuitive interface. While Salesforce is undoubtedly powerful, its complexity and higher costs make it less suitable for smaller teams or those without dedicated admins. HubSpot, on the other hand, provides an accessible, feature-rich solution that doesn’t compromise on reporting power.
Salesforce Sales Cloud: Best for advanced reporting
Overall Score
4.74/5
Report Types and Templates
5/5
Customization and Flexibility
5/5
Data Handling and Accuracy
5/5
Visualization and Analysis
5/5
Integration and Sharing
5/5
User Experience
3.75/5
User scores
4.45/5
Pros
- Highly customizable reporting
- Advanced analytics with Salesforce Einstein
- Full suite of reporting tools
- Real-time reports
- Biggest name in the CRM space
Cons
- High cost
- Complex reports customization process
Why we chose Salesforce Sales Cloud
If you’re looking for a platform that lets you create highly tailored reports with drag-and-drop ease, Salesforce excels where others, like HubSpot, fall short. Its Einstein Analytics feature adds robust predictive capabilities, helping you with sales forecasting, lead prioritization, and tracking customer behavior.
With Salesforce, you get a reporting suite that’s both comprehensive and actionable. You can set up custom dashboards to monitor key metrics—like sales performance and deal progress—in real-time. The platform’s forecasting tools offer a detailed look at future revenue, letting you adjust your strategies proactively. This level of insight is especially beneficial for larger businesses with complex sales pipelines. While HubSpot offers user-friendly reporting, Salesforce gives you much more in terms of customization and depth.
Einstein Analytics integrates AI-driven predictive insights. If you’re looking for advanced sales forecasting and lead scoring capabilities, Salesforce helps refine your sales strategies in ways HubSpot can’t match. It also supports extensive cross-platform integrations through AppExchange, allowing you to consolidate data from various tools, making Salesforce a versatile choice for large organizations.
In short, if you need a powerful, scalable CRM reporting tool to handle large datasets and offer actionable insights, Salesforce is your best option.
Read more: CRM Migration: Complete Guide for Spreadsheet Migration
Pipedrive: Best for visual sales pipeline reporting
Overall Score
4.5/5
Report Types and Templates
4.58/5
Customization and Flexibility
3.75/5
Data Handling and Accuracy
3.75/5
Visualization and Analysis
5/5
Integration and Sharing
5/5
User Experience
5/5
User scores
4.46/5
Pros
- Revenue forecasting
- Deal tracking
- Goal tracking
- Team performance insights
Cons
- No native marketing integration
- Some key reporting tools only available at higher price tiers
Why we chose Pipedrive
Pipedrive is the go-to CRM for visual sales pipeline reporting thanks to its intuitive, streamlined interface that focuses on simplicity without sacrificing functionality. Unlike broader platforms like HubSpot or Zoho CRM, Pipedrive is specifically designed to help you manage sales pipelines visually.
What sets Pipedrive apart from competitors like Salesmate is its balance of user-friendliness and customization. While Salesmate offers powerful features, it can be more complex to navigate. Pipedrive, on the other hand, simplifies the process without losing the ability to customize your pipeline, making it easy to gain a clear, real-time overview of every deal. With customizable dashboards, you can quickly identify bottlenecks and focus your team’s efforts where they matter most.
Starting with the Essential Plan, you get basic reporting tools, while the Advanced Plan introduces automation to help streamline workflows. The higher-tier Professional and Enterprise Plans offer detailed team-based reports, advanced custom fields, and fully automated workflows, ensuring scalability as your business grows. This contrasts with HubSpot, where similar features can be more expensive and bundled with marketing tools that sales-focused teams may not need.
Also read: Best Sales Engagement Software 2024
Zoho CRM: Best for customizable and AI-driven reporting
Overall Score
4.42/5
Report Types and Templates
5/5
Customization and Flexibility
4.58/5
Data Handling and Accuracy
4.5/5
Visualization and Analysis
4.58/5
Integration and Sharing
5/5
User Experience
2.5/5
User scores
4.3/5
Pros
- Highly customizable reporting features
- Advanced AI assistance with Zia
- Full set of analytics tools
- Multiple pipeline management
Cons
- Limited reporting features in lower tiers
- Interface less intuitive compared to competitors
Why we chose Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM offers flexible reporting features and advanced AI-powered analytics at a competitive price. Zoho’s Zia AI provides predictive insights, deal forecasts, and actionable recommendations, helping you make data-driven decisions. Zia automatically analyzes patterns and enriches data, giving Zoho an edge over competitors like HubSpot and Salesforce regarding advanced AI functionalities.
You can create personalized reports and dashboards by adjusting fields, layouts, and workflows using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. This level of flexibility goes beyond what HubSpot offers, especially at lower pricing tiers, where reporting tools are more limited. While Salesforce also offers powerful AI features, Zoho provides similar capabilities at a much lower cost, making it a more budget-friendly option for businesses seeking robust, AI-driven reporting without the higher price tag.
Zoho CRM’s pricing structure further enhances its accessibility. Even in lower-tier plans, you gain access to essential features like custom dashboards and AI-based insights. HubSpot and Salesforce often lock similar functionalities behind higher-priced plans, meaning you get more value for your money with Zoho.
Zoho CRM’s combination of customization, AI capabilities, and cost-effectiveness makes it particularly appealing for small to mid-sized businesses that want advanced reporting tools without the high price point. Whether looking for powerful analytics or personalized reporting solutions, Zoho CRM offers a versatile, budget-friendly platform for growing businesses.
monday CRM: Best for project performance tracking
Overall Score
4/5
Report Types and Templates
4.17/5
Customization and Flexibility
4.17/5
Data Handling and Accuracy
5/5
Visualization and Analysis
4.17/5
Integration and Sharing
3.33/5
User Experience
2.5/5
User scores
4.67/5
Pros
- Visual data representation of reports
- Pivot tables provide advanced data summarization and custom analysis
- Workload management tracks team capacity
- Stacked charts
Cons
- Advanced dashboards only available at higher price tiers
- Customization can be complex for new users
Why we chose monday crm
monday CRM puts an emphasis on visual data representation and customizable tracking features. As monday’s flagship software is primarily a project management tool, it excels at integrating sales processes with project management workflows.
A key strength of monday CRM is its custom dashboards, which provide real-time visibility into performance metrics such as task completion rates, revenue generated, and customer interactions. These highly customizable dashboards can aggregate data from multiple boards, offering a comprehensive view of team performance and sales activities. This level of integration gives monday CRM a significant advantage over competitors like Pipedrive CRM, which tends to focus more narrowly on sales data.
The platform’s workload and time-tracking tools are another crucial feature, enabling effective resource allocation, capacity management, and timely task completion. This functionality is particularly valuable for businesses managing both ongoing projects and sales pipelines, as it helps prevent employee overload while monitoring key project milestones and performance outcomes. Compared to more complex and expensive solutions like Salesforce, monday CRM offers an intuitive, affordable, and flexible option, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses seeking in-depth reporting without a steep learning curve.
monday CRM’s integration with tools such as Google Drive, Slack, and Mailchimp allows users to consolidate all relevant project data in one place, eliminating the need to switch between platforms. Its automation features further streamline project tracking by sending notifications or updates for milestone completions, task reassignments, or approaching deadlines, significantly enhancing productivity by reducing manual reporting work.