• CRM reporting allows you to analyze detailed data over specific time periods, compare trends, and generate more comprehensive insights.
  • A CRM dashboard provides a real-time snapshot of your business performance.

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.

TechnologyAdvice is able to offer our services for free because some vendors may pay us for web traffic or other sales opportunities. Our mission is to help technology buyers make better purchasing decisions, so we provide you with information for all vendors — even those that don’t pay us.

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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

By consolidating customer and sales data, CRM reporting provides actionable insights that inform strategic decisions about sales, marketing, and customer service.

CRM reports track key metrics like conversion rates, sales pipelines, and team productivity, enabling sales teams to optimize their efforts and focus on high-impact activities.

Reports on customer interactions, satisfaction, and churn rates help businesses proactively address issues and build long-term relationships.

Tracking the effectiveness of marketing and sales channels allows businesses to allocate resources to the most productive areas.

Historical data enables accurate sales forecasting, helping businesses anticipate trends, adjust goals, and make informed decisions about inventory, staffing, and budgeting.

Top 5 CRM reporting tools

Software

Overall Score (Out of 5)

Best Use Case

Key Features

HubSpot logo.

HubSpot Sales Hub

4.79

Overall marketing and sales reporting

Customizable reports, dashboards, multi-touch attribution, real-time insights

Salesforce logo.

Salesforce

4.74

Advanced reporting

Einstein Analytics, deep customization, real-time forecasting

Pipedrive logo.

Pipedrive

4.5

Visual sales pipeline reporting

Custom pipeline views, forecasting, deal progress tracking

Zoho CRM logo.

Zoho CRM

4.42

AI-driven reporting

Predictive insights, Zia AI, customizable dashboards

Monday CRM logo.

Monday CRM

4

Project performance tracking

Custom dashboards, workload management, task automation

HubSpot logo.

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. 

Read more: How to Use a CRM for Business: A Complete Guide

Custom report builder: lets users create tailored reports using specific data sources and visualizations​.

Pre-built dashboards: includes templates for common reporting needs like sales performance and marketing analytics​.

Multi-touch attribution: tracks how marketing touchpoints contribute to revenue.

Real-time sales analytics: provides live insights into sales metrics like deal progress​.

Customizable dashboards: allows layout adjustments and sharing based on permissions​.

Cross-object reporting: analyzes multiple data objects (contacts, deals, etc.) in a single report​.

Free Plan:

Price: $0/month
Features:

  • Contact management
  • Deal pipeline
  • Quotes
  • Live chat
  • Meeting scheduling

Starter Plan:

Price: $20/month per seat

Features:

Everything in Free, plus:

  • Sales automation
  • Goals
  • Sales content analytics
  • Payments
  • Task queues

Professional Plan:

Price: $100/month per seat

Features: 

Everything in Starter, plus:

  • Prospecting and lead management
  • Sequences
  • Forecasting
  • Custom Reporting
  • Sales Analytics
  • Playbooks

Enterprise Plan:

Price: $150/month per seat

Features:

Everything in Professional, plus:

  • Custom objects
  • Predictive lead scoring
  • Conversation intelligence
  • Recurring revenue tracking
  • Deal Journey Analytics

For more detailed pricing and features, visit HubSpot Sales Hub Pricing.

Salesforce logo.

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 

Export reports: Export or connect a report to another tool, such as Quip, to work with report data outside of Salesforce.

Analyze reports: Einstein Discovery for Reports scans your report data quickly and thoroughly using AI and comprehensive statistical analysis.

Mobile-optimized reporting: Access reports and dashboards on mobile devices for flexibility in tracking performance on the go​.

AppExchange integrations: Integrates with third-party tools via AppExchange, enhancing reporting capabilities. 

Free trial available

Essentials: $25/user/month

Professional: $75/user/month

Enterprise: $150/user/month

Unlimited: $300/user/month

*All plans billed annually

Pipedrive logo.

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

Revenue forecasting: Advanced tools predict future revenue based on current deals and historical data​.

Deal conversion tracking: The platform tracks deal progress through sales stages, helping users optimize conversion rates.

Lead performance monitoring: Pipedrive reports on lead status, source, and conversion rates, allowing businesses to evaluate lead generation strategies​.

Team performance insights: Managers can monitor individual and team performance, tracking sales activities and deal progress. 

Free trial available

Essential: $14/user/month

Advanced: $29/user/month

Professional: $49/user/month

Power: $64/user/month

Enterprise: $99/user/month

Zoho CRM logo.

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.

Read more: CRM Types: Which CRM Software is Right for You? 

Real-time data updates: Provides instant updates for reports.

AI-powered analytics (Zia): Zia offers predictive insights and sales forecasts.

Scheduled reporting: Automates the delivery of reports to users or stakeholders on a regular schedule.

Multiple report formats: Supports various report types like tabular and matrix formats for flexible reporting​.

Zoho Analytics integration: Enables deeper insights by integrating with Zoho Analytics for multi-source data analysis​.

Free version available

Standard Edition: $14/user/month (billed annually)
Features:
Sales tracking
Custom dashboards
Multiple pipelines
Sales forecasting
Social media management

Professional Edition: $23/user/month (billed annually)
Features:
Everything in Standard, plus:
Advanced customizations
Process management

Enterprise Edition: $40/user/month (billed annually)
Features:
Advanced customization
Territory management
More extensive analytics and business intelligence tools
AI-driven sales insights

Ultimate Edition: $52/user/month (billed annually)
Features: All Enterprise features, plus:
Higher storage
Enhanced customization
Advanced automation capabilities

For more detailed information on pricing and features, visit the Zoho CRM Pricing page.

Monday CRM logo.

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.

Pivot tables: Transform raw data into actionable insights by organizing, filtering, and analyzing large data sets.

Time tracking: Enables teams to track task time, helping with productivity and billing.

Customizable reports: Tailor reports to specific business needs with dynamic data visualization.

Timeline view: Visualizes project timelines and milestones clearly.

Automated reporting: Automatically generates scheduled reports based on triggers.

Cross-board reporting: Gather and consolidate data from multiple boards into a unified view.

Basic Plan: $12/user/month

Standard Plan: $14/user/month

Pro Plan: $24/user/month

Enterprise: Contact monday for a customized quote

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

CRM reporting refers to analyzing data from your CRM system to generate insights about customer relationships and business performance.

CRM tools are platforms that help businesses manage interactions with current and potential customers.

Generating a CRM report involves selecting relevant data points, setting filters, and choosing report formats such as charts or graphs.

CRM reporting helps businesses track performance metrics, forecast future sales, and improve customer relationships by providing actionable insights.

At TechnologyAdvice, we assess a wide range of factors before selecting our top choices for CRM reporting software. To make our selections, we rely on extensive research, product information, vendor websites, competitor analysis, and first-hand experience. We then evaluate which solutions meet the specific needs of businesses across sales, marketing, and customer service roles. By understanding the unique requirements of CRM users, we identify the essential reporting features that enable teams to track and analyze performance effectively. Reputable providers known for their ease of use, reporting flexibility, and customer satisfaction are prioritized in our compilation.

Each solution is then assessed based on key features, including report customization, data accuracy, integration capabilities, and visualization tools. Pricing models, customer support, and long-term usability are also examined. Free trials and demos are often utilized to gain first-hand experience with the software, ensuring our recommendations are grounded in actual user interaction. Ultimately, we curate a comprehensive list to help readers make informed decisions about CRM reporting tools. Our internal algorithm calculates star ratings based on the following categories:

Report Types and Templates

We evaluate each platform based on the variety of report types and templates available, ranging from basic summary reports to more complex multi-data source reports. CRM systems that offer a wide range of pre-built templates for sales, marketing, and customer support analytics receive higher scores. We also consider the availability of customizable report templates that allow users to tailor their reports to specific KPIs and business needs.

Customization and Flexibility

The ability to customize reports is essential for CRM users, so we assess how flexible each platform is when it comes to building and modifying reports. This includes evaluating how easily users can add custom fields, filters, and data sources. Solutions that offer more flexible report-building tools, allowing for custom dashboards and ad-hoc reports, are rated more favorably.

Data Handling and Accuracy

Accurate and efficient data handling is crucial for generating reliable CRM reports. We analyze each system’s ability to manage large data sets, perform real-time data updates, and eliminate duplicates or inaccuracies. Platforms that offer real-time reporting and ensure high data integrity score better in this category.

Visualization and Analysis

CRM reporting tools are rated based on the clarity and functionality of their data visualization options. This includes support for charts, graphs, and dashboards that help teams analyze trends and performance metrics. We look for platforms that offer interactive visualizations, enabling users to drill down into specific data points and generate actionable insights from their reports.

Integration and Sharing

The best CRM reporting tools seamlessly integrate with other essential business platforms, such as marketing automation systems, financial software, and external databases. We assess how well each platform allows for data sharing and exporting reports into various formats (PDF, Excel, etc.), as well as how easily teams can share reports across departments or with external stakeholders.

User Experience

Ease of use is critical when it comes to CRM reporting tools. We evaluate the learning curve, interface design, and how intuitive the reporting features are for both new and experienced users. Platforms that offer user-friendly dashboards and strong customer support resources rank higher in this category. Scalability to meet the growing needs of businesses is also a key factor.

User Scores

We analyze user reviews from our own and other platforms to gather feedback on how real users experience the CRM reporting software. This includes ratings on ease of use, report customization, data accuracy, and overall satisfaction. We also consider feedback regarding the quality of customer support and the platform’s reliability.