Your Salesforce dashboard is where pipeline, revenue, and campaign performance finally come together. But those insights are useless if only a handful of users with licenses can see them. Sharing dashboards correctly means sales, marketing, finance, and leadership are all looking at the same source of truth. Using folders, permissions, and visibility settings well keeps data secure while still giving teams what they need to act quickly.
Now imagine you never again have to click through folders, tweak sharing rules, or export to Google Sheets for every stakeholder. An AI agent can sit on top of Salesforce and Google Sheets, repeat your best-practice sharing steps, and keep dashboards synced for every team and territory. Instead of burning time on access requests and manual exports, you get a quiet, reliable assistant that provisions views, updates links, and maintains sharing hygiene at scale while you focus on deals and strategy.
Before you automate anything, you need to master the native patterns. In Salesforce, dashboards are shared through folders and permissions, not directly on the dashboard itself.
Method 1: Share via dashboard folder (recommended)
Salesforce help: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.dashboards_share_folder.htm&type=5
Method 2: Use roles and public groups for scalable access
Docs on groups & sharing: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.security_about_groups.htm&type=5
Method 3: Control dashboard running user and visibility
This ensures users see data appropriate to their access. More: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.dashboards_dynamic.htm&type=5
Method 4: Export components to a file for ad-hoc sharing
It works, but you will quickly drown in versions if you repeat this weekly.
Method 5: Create a dedicated 'Executive' or 'Client' folder
This pattern isolates sensitive dashboards while still letting you tailor what each group sees.
Manual work is fine for one or two dashboards. But for agencies, revenue teams, or multi-region orgs, you often need the same Salesforce data shared into Google Sheets where non-Salesforce users live.
Method 6: Use a Salesforce–Sheets connector (no-code)
Google Sheets sharing help: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/2494822
Method 7: Scheduled report exports via email + Sheets
Method 8: No-code integration platform (e.g., iPaaS)
This removes repetitive exports but still relies on API connectors, not true cross-app computer use.
Traditional automation breaks whenever UX changes, fields are renamed, or new dashboards are added. An AI computer agent can behave like a power user: logging into Salesforce, navigating folders, clicking 'Share', and even jumping into Google Sheets.
Method 9: AI agent to maintain Salesforce folder sharing How it works
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Method 10: AI agent to sync dashboards to Google Sheets for non-licensed users Scenario: You run an agency that manages 30 clients. Each client needs a weekly performance dashboard, but you do not want to buy 30 Salesforce viewer licenses.
AI workflow
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Method 11: AI agent to provision and revoke dashboard access at scale Use case: New sales reps join; others move territories. Instead of manual clean-up in Salesforce, you delegate access management.
AI workflow
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By combining Salesforce's native folder sharing, no-code integrations to Google Sheets, and an AI agent that literally drives the browser for you, you create a reporting layer where every stakeholder sees the right dashboard in the tool they already use, without you babysitting every share button.
In Salesforce, you control dashboard visibility primarily through folders, not the individual dashboard. First, confirm which folder your dashboard lives in. Go to the Dashboards tab, click 'All Folders', and locate the correct folder. Next, click the down arrow beside the folder name and choose 'Share'. In the sharing dialog, add users, roles, or public groups, then assign the appropriate access level: 'View' (read-only), 'Edit', or 'Manage'.
Best practice is to share folders with public groups that mirror business structures (such as 'Sales Ops', 'Marketing Leaders') and manage membership in those groups. That way, when someone joins or leaves the team, you update group membership rather than chasing down every folder. Also, review the dashboard's running user or dynamic settings so people see only the data they’re allowed to access. Salesforce docs on folder sharing: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.dashboards_share_folder.htm&type=5
Non-Salesforce users can’t log directly into your org without a license, so you have two main options: export or sync. The simplest export option is to open the report behind a dashboard component, click 'Export', and send the .xlsx or .csv file manually. This is fine for one-off requests but becomes painful when done weekly.
A better pattern is to sync data into Google Sheets and share that instead. Use a Salesforce-to-Sheets connector or an integration platform to pull the report that powers your dashboard into a specific Sheet on a schedule. Once the Sheet is populated, click 'Share' in Google Sheets and grant view-only access or create a link restricted to your domain. This keeps non-licensed executives, clients, or partners in the loop without giving them direct Salesforce access. Google Sheets sharing guide: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/2494822
To share dashboards effectively, you need a mix of profile permissions and, often, folder access rights. At a minimum, users who create and manage dashboards typically need 'Create and Customize Dashboards' and 'View Dashboards in Public Folders'. Without these, they may be able to consume dashboards but not share or edit them.
Folder-level permissions then determine who can see or manage sets of dashboards. A user with 'Manage' access to a dashboard folder can change its sharing settings; users with 'Edit' can adjust dashboards inside but not the folder’s sharing; 'View' users can only consume dashboards. Your Salesforce admin can also use role hierarchies and public groups to propagate access. For example, setting access at the role level ensures managers inherit visibility into their team’s dashboards. If you get a 'You don’t have permission' message when trying to share, talk to your admin about upgrading your profile or granting manage access for the relevant folders. More: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.dashboards_overview.htm&type=5
When someone reports that they can’t see a dashboard, work through a structured checklist. First, confirm they are looking in the right app and tab: ask them to go to the Dashboards tab and select 'All Dashboards'. If the dashboard still doesn’t appear, check the folder. Open 'All Folders', find the folder containing the dashboard, and click 'Share' to verify that this user, their role, or one of their public groups is listed with at least 'View' access.
Next, confirm the underlying reports and objects are accessible. If a user lacks object or field-level permissions, the dashboard may be hidden or show incomplete data. Check the dashboard’s running user or dynamic dashboard settings: if it’s set to 'View as' someone with broader access, the user may see more than they should, which can cause admins to hide it. Finally, ask your admin to run a permission set and sharing check for that user; sometimes, a missing permission set or role misalignment is the root cause.
To keep Google Sheets aligned with your Salesforce dashboards, design a repeatable sync workflow instead of ad-hoc exports. Start by identifying the reports behind your key dashboard components. For each report, either:
1) Use a Salesforce–Google Sheets connector to pull data into a dedicated Sheet tab on a fixed schedule (e.g., hourly, daily). Map Salesforce fields to specific columns so formulas and charts in Sheets don’t break.
2) Or set up scheduled report emails and use an automation tool to capture attachments and overwrite Sheets programmatically.
Once the sync is in place, treat each Sheet as the 'public window' into a given dashboard. Share the Sheet link with stakeholders once, using view-only permissions and, if needed, domain restrictions. From there, they always see refreshed data without you re-exporting. Document the refresh cadence in the Sheet (for example, 'Last updated daily at 6am from Salesforce') so users trust the numbers and know how fresh they are.