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How-to guide

Adding a bucket field to a Salesforce report

Bucket fields are configured inside the report builder. The steps below cover the Lightning experience; Classic is similar but uses the older Bucket Column menu.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Founder & Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated May 16, 2026

Bucket fields are configured inside the report builder. The steps below cover the Lightning experience; Classic is similar but uses the older Bucket Column menu.

  1. Open the report in edit mode

    Reports tab, find the report, click Edit. The Outline panel on the left shows columns, groups, and filters. Bucket fields appear in the Columns lane once created.

  2. Add the bucket field

    Click the dropdown on the column header you want to bucket, choose Bucket This Column. The Edit Bucket Field modal opens with the source field, name, and bucket list. Name the bucket field clearly so dashboard consumers know what it represents.

  3. Define the buckets

    For numeric, type range thresholds. For picklist, drag values into named bucket groups. For text, type the value or partial match. Use the Show Unbucketed Values option to surface anything not yet mapped, and decide whether to add an Other bucket or leave them ungrouped.

  4. Apply and group by the bucket

    Save the bucket. It appears as a new column. Drag it into Group Rows to group the report by bucket, or use it as a chart axis. Subtotals, totals, and grand totals follow normal grouping behaviour.

  5. Surface in a dashboard

    Dashboards see bucket fields as normal grouping fields. Pick the bucket field as the grouping for a chart or table component. The component refreshes when underlying data changes, with no extra wiring.

Key options
Bucket field typeremember

Numeric, picklist, or text. Determines what source fields are eligible and how rules are defined. Cannot change after creation.

Show unbucketed valuesremember

Toggle that surfaces source values not assigned to any bucket as a default Other group. On by default; turn off when you want to hide unmapped rows from the report.

Display orderremember

Buckets appear in the order you define them, not alphabetical. Lightning supports drag-to-reorder for picklist and text; numeric buckets sort by range.

Source fieldremember

The column the bucket reads from. Can be a standard field, custom field, or another formula. Cannot be another bucket field; nested bucketing is not supported.

Gotchas
  • Filters run before bucketing. You cannot filter the report on a bucket value; filter the source field instead.
  • Bucket fields are report-local. Cloning copies them; there is no Setup library to share definitions across reports.
  • Numeric range buckets must not overlap. The first matching range wins, but Lightning does not warn at save time if you write Amount 10000 to 50000 and Amount 50000 to 100000 (the 50000 boundary belongs to the second bucket).
  • The 250-value-per-bucket cap is easy to hit on bucketed state, country, or city fields. Plan an Other catch-all.
  • Bucket values do not write back to records. If marketing wants to "tag" records with the bucket value, build a custom field instead.

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