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Build a pivot table report in a Canvas Dashboard

Last update: August 27, 2026

CREATED FOR:

  • User
IMPORTANT
The Canvas Dashboards feature is currently only available for users participating in the beta stage. Parts of the feature may not be complete or work as intended during this stage. Please submit any feedback regarding your experience by following the instructions in the Provide feedback section in the Canvas Dashboards beta overview article.

If you have feedback regarding a possible bug or technical issue, please submit a ticket to Workfront Support. For more information, see Contact Customer Support.

Please note that this beta is not available on the following cloud providers:
  • Bring Your Own Key for Amazon Web Services
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform

You can add a pivot table report to a Canvas Dashboard to see aggregated totals for your data—such as sums, counts, and averages—in a table format. Pivot tables are useful when comparing multiple aggregated values or counts against multiple dimensions.

Pivot table report example

Access Requirements

Expand to view access requirements for the functionality in this article.
table 0-row-2 1-row-0 2-row-2 3-row-2 layout-auto html-authored no-header
Adobe Workfront package Any
Adobe Workfront license

Standard

Plan
Access level configurations Edit access to Reports, Dashboards, and Calendars

For more detail about the information in this table, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.

Prerequisites

You must create a dashboard before you can build a pivot table report. For more information, see Create a Canvas Dashboard.

Build a pivot table report in a Canvas Dashboard

There are many configuration options available for building a pivot table report. In this section, we’ll walk you through the general process of creating one.

  1. Click the Main Menu icon Main Menu in the upper-left corner of Adobe Workfront, then click Dashboards.

  2. In the left panel, click Canvas Dashboards, then click the name of the dashboard you want to add the report to.

  3. Click Add report in the upper-right corner of the page.

  4. In the Add report box, select Create report.

  5. On the left side, select Pivot Table.

  6. In the upper-right corner, click Create report.

  7. (Optional) Follow the steps below to configure the Details section:

    1. Choose the Root Entity for the report.

      note
      NOTE
      The Root Entity sets which object your fields come from. Once selected, every field selector you use later in this report starts from that object, so you can go straight to the field you want.

    2. Enter a report Name.

    3. Enter a report Description.

    4. (Optional) In the Run this report with the access rights of field, begin typing the name of the user whose permissions you want the report to use, then select the user when they appear in the list. When you configure a report to run as another user, all viewers of the dashboard see the same data, regardless of their own access level. If you don’t select a user, each viewer sees data based on their own permissions.

      note important
      IMPORTANT
      If the selected user is deactivated or loses access to the relevant workspaces or record types, the report may display incomplete data or fail to render.

  8. Follow the steps below to configure the Metrics section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Show metrics Build KPI icon icon.

    2. Click Add metric and then select the field you want. The field appears as a column in the preview section on the right.

      note
      NOTE
      A metric (also called a measure) is a number field you want to add up or total. For example, you might add up all the costs, or count how many tasks there are.

    3. Enter a Column label.

    4. In the Aggregation type drop-down, select how the data rolls up for that field. The options in this field vary depending on the type of field you selected.

    5. Repeat the above two steps for each metric you want to add.

  9. Follow the steps below to configure the Segments section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Segments Drilldown group icon icon.

    2. Click Add segment and then select the segment you want. The field appears as a column in the preview section on the right.

      note
      NOTE
      A segment is the category you use to group your data, like grouping tasks by status or by owner. It’s how your metrics get sorted and totaled.

    3. Repeat the above two steps to add up to 2 segments.

  10. Follow the steps below to configure the Filter section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Filter Filter icon icon.

    2. Select Edit filter.

    3. Click Add condition and then specify the field you want to filter by and the modifier that defines what kind of condition the field must meet.

    4. (Optional) Click Add filter group to add another set of filtering criteria. The default operator between the sets is AND. Click the operator to change it to OR.

  11. Follow the steps below to configure the Drilldown Column Settings section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Drilldown Columns Drilldown columns icon icon.

    2. Click Add column and then select the field you want to display as a column in the drilldown table. Repeat this process for each column you want to add.

  12. Click Save to create the report and add it to the dashboard.

Build a pivot table report example

In this section, we will go over the steps to create a pivot table report that summarizes task completion data.

  1. Click the Main Menu icon Main Menu in the upper-left corner of Adobe Workfront, then click Dashboards.

  2. In the left panel, click Canvas Dashboards, then click the name of the dashboard you want to add the report to.

  3. Click Add report in the upper-right corner of the page.

  4. In the Add report box, select Create report.

  5. On the left side, select Pivot Table.

  6. In the upper-right corner, click Create report.

  7. Follow the steps below to configure the Details section:

    1. Choose Task as the Root Entity.
    2. Type Task planned vs actual hours by portfolio and project in the Name field.
    3. Type a description in the Description field.

  8. Follow the steps below to configure the Metrics section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Show metrics Build KPI icon icon.
    2. Click Add metric, then select Name. Type Task count in the Column label field. In the Aggregation type drop-down, select Count.
    3. Click Add metric, then select Actual hours. Type Actual hours in the Column label field. In the Aggregation type drop-down, select Sum.
    4. Click Add metric, then select Planned Hours. Type Total planned hours in the Column label field. In the Aggregation type drop-down, select Sum.

  9. Follow the steps below to configure the Segments section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Segments Drilldown group icon icon.
    2. Click Add segment, then select Project > Portfolio > Name.
    3. Click Add segment, then select Project > Name.

  10. Follow the steps below to configure the Filter section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Filter Filter icon icon.
    2. Select Edit filter, then Add condition.
    3. Click into the empty condition filter, then click Pick a Field.
    4. Select Status.
    5. Change the operator to Equal, then choose in progress.

  11. Follow the steps below to configure the Drilldown Column Settings section:

    1. In the left panel, click the Drilldown Columns Drilldown columns icon icon.
    2. Click Add column, then select Name.
    3. Click Add column, then select Assigned To > Name.
    4. Click Add column, then select Planned Completion Date.

  12. Click Save in the top-right corner of the screen.

Considerations when building a pivot table report

Reports with financial data

Users with View or Edit access to Financial Data in their access level will still see financial data in Canvas Dashboard visualizations—even if the View finance permission is removed at the task or project level.

  • Users without financial data rights at the access level will not see financial data in reports.
  • Users who do see financial data are limited to records they already have permission to view (projects, tasks, issues, etc.). They will not see financial values for records they cannot access.
  • Report creators should exercise caution when including financial data in dashboards and be mindful of who they share dashboards with to prevent unintended access.

This is a known limit, and we plan to address it in the future.

Utilizing the field selector

The Sections drop-down in the Build pivot table section is designed to narrow down the choices in a field selector to make an object easier to find when building a pivot table report. To start, you would select a base entity object.

  • All Sections: All object types in Workfront and Workfront Planning.
  • Workfront Objects: Native Workfront objects.
  • Planning Record Types: Custom record types defined in Workfront Planning.

Sections drop-down

Once the base entity object has been selected, the Sections drop-down then updates with applicable field type options to choose from.

  • All Sections: Native fields, custom fields, and related objects.
  • All Fields: Both native and custom fields (excludes relationships).
  • Custom Fields: Customer-defined fields either on a custom form or Planning record.
  • Workfront Fields: Native fields only.
  • Relationships: Connected records.

Reportable objects selection

We limit the access to choosing children objects as segments of a pivot table. Segment options can be attributes of the record itself or other related records that do not represent a 1:many or many:many relationship.

We also limit access to referencing any parent or child attribute as a metric to reduce the potential for double-counting or double-summarizing values, leading to a misrepresentation of the actual data.

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