by Dibyendu Datta | July 02, 2024

How to Export a List View in Salesforce to Excel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Effective data management is essential for informed decision-making, understanding customer behavior, and driving business growth. Salesforce, a leading CRM platform, offers a robust framework for managing and analyzing data. To fully leverage Salesforce data, users often need to export it for advanced analysis or reporting.

This article provides a detailed guide on exporting list views to Excel, highlighting benefits such as increased flexibility, improved data manipulation, and enhanced reporting. It also addresses common export issues and offers solutions for a seamless experience, empowering users to enhance their data management strategies!

What is the Salesforce Data Export?

The Salesforce Data Export is a feature that allows users to retrieve data from their Salesforce organization for various purposes, such as backup, reporting, or further processing by external applications. This function enables users to export all their data manually or automatically through scheduled exports. Depending on the Salesforce edition, users can generate backup files of their data either weekly (every seven days) or monthly (every 29 days). The data is exported as a set of comma-separated values (CSV) files, which can be downloaded from Salesforce or delivered via email. This service provides a convenient way to obtain a copy of your Salesforce data, either for backup or for importing into a different system.

3 Methods for exporting Salesforce list views to Excel

There are several methods to export list views from Salesforce to Excel. Here are some of the most common ones:

1. Export list views from Salesforce to Excel natively as CSV

Salesforce allows you to export data natively in CSV format. Here are the steps:

1. 1. Navigate to the list view you want to export
   2. Click on the Export button
   3. Choose Export to CSV
   4. Open the downloaded CSV file in Excel

However, this method might lead to potential formatting issues. For instance, date and number formats might not be correctly recognized by Excel and may require manual adjustments.

2. Export list views from Salesforce to Excel using the Data Export service

Salesforce’s Data Export Service is another option. Here’s how to use it:

1. 1. Go to Setup and enter “Data Export” in the Quick Find box
   2. Select Data Export
   3. Configure your export options in Schedule Export, such as the export frequency (manual or automatic) and the data range
   4. Select Export Now and click on Start Export

The Data Export Service allows for both manual and automatic data exports. Manual exports are initiated by the user, while automatic exports can be scheduled to run at specific intervals.

3. Export list views from Salesforce to Excel using third-party tools

Depending on your business needs, third-party tools can provide more granular control over the data export process. Here are some well-known tools:

• CData Connect Cloud: CData Connect Cloud provides real-time access to Salesforce data directly from the Excel toolbar, enabling mass imports, exports, updates, data cleansing, de-duplication, Excel-based analysis, and efficient data management.
• Ascendix Search: Ascendix Search offers advanced search capabilities and the ability to export Salesforce data directly to Excel.
• Bardeen: Bardeen allows you to automate the process of exporting Salesforce data to Excel.
• Dataloader.io: Dataloader.io is a cloud-based tool that allows you to import, export, and delete data in Salesforce.
• Workbench: Workbench is a powerful suite of tools for interacting with your Salesforce data. It supports SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) queries, data loading, and metadata functionality.

CData Connect Cloud: Immediate access to Salesforce data within Excel  

CData Connect Cloud offers a cloud-to-cloud interface for Salesforce, enabling users to access live Salesforce data in Excel easily. The process is simple: create and configure a Salesforce connection in CData Connect Cloud, subscribe to and add the CData Connect Cloud add-in connector for Excel in your system, log into your Connect Cloud account in Excel, select the previously created Salesforce connection, and you're ready to go! This seamless integration eliminates the need for manual data entry, ensuring your data is always up to date.  

Watch the YouTube video or refer to the article to learn more. 

If you need to connect to Salesforce—or any other data solution like SharePoint, Workday, BigQuery, MongoDB, Snowflake, S3, Databricks—to Excel (Desktop or 365), CData Connect Cloud has you covered.  

As always, our support team is ready to answer any questions you have. Have you joined the CData Community? Ask questions, get answers, and share your knowledge in CData connectivity tools. Join us!