Salesforce Dynamic Dashboards: The Complete Guide to "View as User"

Let's be honest: building reports and dashboards in Salesforce can be a time-consuming chore. You finally create the perfect Sales Leaderboard dashboard, and your VP of Sales loves it.

Then comes the request: "This is great! Now, can you make one just for the East region manager? And one for the West manager? And one for each sales rep so they can only see their own pipeline?"

Before you know it, you're drowning in a sea of cloned dashboards, all showing the same components but filtered for different users.

This is the exact problem Salesforce Dynamic Dashboards were built to solve.

What is a Salesforce Dynamic Dashboard? 

A Salesforce Dynamic Dashboard is a dashboard that displays data based on the security and sharing permissions of the user who is viewing it.

Instead of a single "Running User" whose permissions are used for everyone, a dynamic dashboard runs as the "Dashboard Viewer." This means a Sales Manager sees their team's data, while a Sales Rep viewing the exact same dashboard sees only their own opportunities.

It's one dashboard that serves everyone, personally.

Static vs. Dynamic Dashboards: What’s the Difference?

To really get it, let's look at the default: the Static Dashboard.

Feature	Static Dashboard (The Default)	Dynamic Dashboard (The Game-Changer)
Data Visibility	Everyone sees data as one specified user (the "Running User").	Each user sees the data they have access to.
Primary Use Case	Broad, company-wide metrics (e.g., total company sales, open cases).	Role-specific data (e.g., "My Pipeline," "My Team's Cases").
Security	Ignores the viewer's personal permissions.	Enforces the viewer's permissions and role hierarchy.
Maintenance	Requires cloning the dashboard for every new team or user.	"Build once, deploy to many."

The Top 3 Benefits of Going Dynamic

So, why should you make the switch? The advantages go far beyond just cleaning up your dashboard folder.

1. Massively Reduce Admin Workload This is the biggest win. Stop cloning, stop maintaining 20 different versions of the same dashboard. Build your "Sales Rep Pipeline" or "Manager View" dashboard once. When you hire a new rep, you don't have to do anything—they just get access to the folder, and the dashboard automatically shows them their data.

2. Enforce Data Security Automatically With static dashboards, you run the risk of accidentally showing a sales rep the entire company's pipeline if you set the "Running User" to a system admin. Dynamic dashboards respect your existing Salesforce sharing rules. If a user isn't supposed to see a record, it will not appear on their dashboard. No exceptions.

3. Empower Your Users with Personal Data Users are far more likely to adopt and use a dashboard that is directly relevant to them. When a rep logs in and sees "My Open Opportunities" and "My Quota Attainment" right on their homepage, they are more engaged. It moves the dashboard from a simple report to a personal productivity tool.

How to Create a Salesforce Dynamic Dashboard (Step-by-Step)

Ready to build one? You'll be surprised at how easy it is. It's just one setting.

1. Create or Edit a Dashboard: Go to the Dashboards tab, find the dashboard you want to convert, and click Edit.

2. Open Dashboard Properties: Click the Gear icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner to open the Dashboard Properties menu.

3. Change the "View As" Setting: In the "View Dashboard As" section, you'll see the default is "Me" or another "Specified User." Change this setting to The dashboard viewer.

4. Grant Viewer Choice (Optional but Recommended): You will also see a checkbox that says, "Let dashboard viewers choose whom they view the dashboard as."

   • If you check this: Users with "View My Team's Dashboards" or "View All Data" permissions will get a "View as..." button on the dashboard. This is perfect for managers who want to see the dashboard as themselves or as one of their direct reports.

   • If you leave this unchecked: The dashboard is always viewed as the logged-in user. This is simpler and often best for "rep-level" dashboards.

5. Click Save.

That's it. Your dashboard is now dynamic. When any user opens it, the components will refresh and show them the data they, and only they, have permission to see.

What’s the Catch? The Limitations You MUST Know

Before you convert your entire org, there are a few critical limitations to be aware of. These are the "gotchas" that every admin needs to know.

• There’s a Hard Limit: This is the most important one. Your Salesforce org has a limit on how many dynamic dashboards you can have.

  • Enterprise Edition: 5

  • Unlimited & Performance Editions: 10

  • Developer Edition: 3

• No Scheduled Refreshes: Dynamic dashboards show real-time data when a user opens them. Because they run with user-level permissions, you cannot schedule them to refresh. Users must click the "Refresh" button manually.

• No Subscriptions: For the same reason, you cannot set up dashboard subscriptions for dynamic dashboards.

• No Private Folders: You cannot save a dynamic dashboard in a user's private folder. It must be in a shared public or internal folder.

• The Recycle Bin Trap: Deleted dynamic dashboards still count against your limit until they are permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin. If you hit your limit, go check your bin!

Pro-Tips for Mastering Dynamic Dashboards

Given the strict limits, you need to be strategic. Here are my top best practices.

1. Audit First, Build Second: You only get a few! Don't waste them. Before you build a new one, find out how many you're already using.

   • How to Find Them: Create a new "Dashboards" report. Add the "Dashboard Running User" column. Filter this column to show "Run as logged-in user" and "Let authorized users change running user." This will list every dynamic dashboard in your org.

2. Use Filters, Not More Dashboards: Don't use a valuable dynamic dashboard for something a simple filter can solve. If your users just want to toggle between "This Quarter" and "Last Quarter," add a dashboard filter. Save your dynamic dashboards for their real purpose: user-level data security.

3. Optimize Your Source Reports: A dynamic dashboard is only as fast as the reports it runs. Since it refreshes in real-time, slow reports will mean a slow dashboard. Edit your source reports and make sure they are efficient:

   • Remove unnecessary columns.

   • Add strong report-level filters to limit the data.

   • Avoid complex formulas where possible.

The Final Verdict

Salesforce Dynamic Dashboards are one of the most powerful and admin-friendly features in the reporting suite. They solve the single biggest problem of dashboard management: scalability.

While the hard limit of 5 or 10 means you must be strategic, using them for your core "team" and "rep" dashboards will save you hundreds of hours and make your data more secure and relevant to your users.