Unlock Seamless Automation with Salesforce Flows

Experience the power of Salesforce Flows to transform your operations. Automate complex workflows, streamline data management, and enhance user interactions—all without writing a single line of code. Elevate your efficiency and drive innovation within the Salesforce ecosystem.

Key Benefits of Salesforce Flows

  • Increased Efficiency: Reduce manual effort and minimize errors by automating routine tasks and complex processes.
  • Enhanced User Experience: Provide a seamless, guided experience for users with Screen Flows that simplify data entry and interactions.
  • Customizable Solutions: Tailor workflows and automation to fit your specific business needs without requiring extensive custom development.
  • Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrate Salesforce Flows with other Salesforce features and external applications to create a unified system.

Streamline your processes with the right Salesforce Flow for your business.

Converting from Workflows to Salesforce Flows: Best Practices

Transitioning from traditional workflows to Salesforce Flows offers a significant advantage in automation and process management. To ensure a smooth transition and maximize the benefits, consider these best practices:

  • Modular Design: Instead of creating a single, all-encompassing flow, design a modular architecture with one primary flow per object. This flow should handle the main logic and control the flow of data.
  • Use Sub-Flows: Break down complex processes into smaller, manageable sub-flows. These sub-flows can handle specific actions or tasks, such as data updates, notifications, or validations. This modular approach enhances clarity and reduces the complexity of individual flows.
  • Process Visibility: Bolt Today built custom coding on Salesforce to track the status of the DHS form filling process.
  • Flow Naming Conventions: Implement consistent naming conventions for flows and sub-flows. Clear and descriptive names make it easier to understand the purpose of each component and simplify management.
  • Simplified Debugging: Modular flows are easier to debug since you can isolate issues to specific sub-flows. This targeted approach reduces troubleshooting time and minimizes the impact on the overall system.
  • Version Control: Utilize Salesforce’s versioning features to manage changes and updates to your flows. By maintaining versions, you can track changes, roll back if necessary, and ensure stability during modifications.
  • Documentation: Maintain comprehensive documentation for each flow and sub-flow. Document the purpose, logic, and interactions of each component to facilitate easier maintenance and onboarding of new administrators.
  • Optimize Flow Efficiency: Design flows to be efficient by minimizing the number of elements and actions. Avoid excessive loops or complex logic that can impact performance.
  • Monitor and Optimize: Regularly monitor flow performance and execution. Use Salesforce’s built-in tools to identify and address performance bottlenecks or inefficiencies.
  • Scalability Considerations: Plan for future growth by designing flows that can easily accommodate changes in business processes or additional functionality. Modular design supports scalability by allowing you to add or modify sub-flows without disrupting the entire system.
  • Testing in Sandbox: Before deploying flows to production, thoroughly test them in a sandbox environment. Simulate various scenarios to ensure that the flows perform as expected and handle edge cases appropriately.
  • User Acceptance Testing: Involve end-users in testing to validate that the flows meet their needs and provide a seamless user experience. Gather feedback and make necessary adjustments based on their input.

By adopting these best practices, you can transition from workflows to Salesforce Flows smoothly, ensuring a well-organized, maintainable, and efficient automation setup.

Understanding the Order of Operations in Salesforce

When working with Salesforce Flows, it's essential to understand the Order of Operations in Salesforce. This sequence determines how and when your Flows, along with other automation tools, are executed. Knowing this order helps ensure that your Flows run smoothly, deliver accurate results, and integrate seamlessly with other processes. Properly managing this sequence is crucial for optimizing the efficiency of your automation and maintaining the integrity of your data.

Salesforce executes operations in a defined order, including the following components:

  • Triggers: Execute first, initiating processes when records are created or updated. Triggers can be before or after record operations (before insert, after update).
  • Validation Rules: Applied next to ensure that data meets predefined criteria before it is saved to the database.
  • Workflows: Follow validation rules and automate actions like field updates, task creation, and email alerts based on specified conditions.
  • Processes (Process Builder): Run after workflows, offering advanced automation capabilities, such as creating records, updating records, and calling other processes or flows.
  • Salesforce Flows: Executed after Process Builder. Flows are used for complex logic and user interactions, offering robust solutions for automating and managing intricate business processes. They guide users through multi-step processes, collect data, and integrate with other Salesforce features.
  • Apex Code: Runs last, allowing for complex custom logic and integrations not achievable with standard tools.
  • Post-Save Actions: Includes any asynchronous processes such as future methods or batch jobs.
  • Data Integrity: Ensures that operations are executed in the correct order to prevent conflicts and maintain consistent data. For example, Salesforce Flows should run after validation rules and Process Builder actions to ensure accurate data processing.
  • Automation Accuracy: Guarantees that the logic within Flows is applied correctly and in the intended order. For instance, if a Flow is designed to update records based on certain conditions, it should be executed after all validation rules and other processes have been completed.
  • Performance Optimization: Helps in optimizing Salesforce automation performance by ensuring that operations are not redundant and are executed in the most efficient order.
  • User Experience: Contributes to a smooth user experience by ensuring that Flows and other automation tools deliver timely and accurate updates and interactions.
  • Troubleshooting: Understanding the order of operations aids in diagnosing issues with Flows and other automation components. It helps identify where in the order things may have gone wrong.
  • Design Flows Thoughtfully: When designing Salesforce Flows, consider how they fit into the overall order of operations. Ensure that Flows are triggered at the right time and follow the correct order to achieve the desired outcome.
  • Monitor Flow Execution: Use Salesforce’s debugging tools and logs to track Flow execution. This helps in understanding how Flows interact with other components and ensures they operate as intended.
  • Document Flow Logic: Maintain documentation of your Flow designs and their role in the order of operations. Clear documentation helps in managing and troubleshooting Flows effectively.
  • Test Thoroughly: Before deploying Flows, test them in a sandbox environment to ensure they function correctly within the order and interact properly with other components.

By understanding and managing the order of operations, including the role of Salesforce Flows, you can ensure that your automation is efficient, reliable, and aligned with your business processes.

Dos and Don’ts with Salesforce Flows

While Salesforce Flows are powerful tools, they come with limitations and considerations. They are versatile tools that can significantly enhance your automation capabilities. To maximize their effectiveness, it's crucial to follow best practices in both technical and business contexts.

Technical
Dos and Don’ts

Technical Dos:

  • Adopt a Modular Design: Break down complex automation into manageable components by creating sub-flows for specific tasks. This makes maintenance easier and reduces the risk of errors.
  • Leverage Invocable Apex: For processes that require complex logic, use invocable Apex methods within your Flows. This allows you to handle intricate operations without overcomplicating the Flow itself.
  • Optimize Flow Performance: Monitor your Flow executions to ensure they stay within Salesforce’s limits, such as the 200 executions per hour constraint. This helps in avoiding performance bottlenecks.

Technical Don’ts:

  • Avoid Overcomplicating Flows: Don’t try to fit highly complex logic into a single Flow. If the process is too complicated, it’s better to use Apex or a combination of smaller, modular Flows.
  • Don’t Ignore Salesforce Edition Limits: Be mindful of the limits on the number of Flows and processes in Salesforce Essentials and Professional editions. Avoid creating unnecessary Flows that could exceed these limits.
  • Steer Clear of Unclear Automation: Never implement a Flow if the underlying business process is not well understood. This can lead to inefficient or faulty automation that is difficult to maintain.

Business
Dos and Don’ts

Business Dos:

  • Use Flows for Configurable Automation: Flows are ideal for automating business processes that are well-defined and do not require extensive custom coding. They offer a user-friendly way to implement automation without needing deep technical expertise.
  • Prioritize Flow Over Legacy Tools: As Salesforce phases out Process Builder and Workflow Rules by December 2025, migrate your existing processes to Flows. This ensures your automation remains up-to-date and fully supported.
  • Document Flow Processes: Ensure that all business processes automated with Flows are thoroughly documented. This makes it easier to manage, update, and troubleshoot the Flows in the future.

Business Don’ts:

  • Don’t Use Flows for Undefined Processes: Avoid using Flows to automate processes that haven’t been clearly defined. This can lead to inefficiencies and potential errors in your business operations.
  • Avoid Short-Term Fixes in Legacy Tools: While it may be tempting to make quick edits to existing processes in Process Builder or Workflow Rules, focus on migrating these to Flows to ensure long-term maintainability and support.
  • Don’t Overlook User Experience: When designing Flows, consider how they impact the end-user experience. Ensure that Flows are intuitive and add value to the user’s interaction with Salesforce.

Discover how tailored flows can transform your Salesforce experience.

Types of Salesforce Flows and When to Use Them

Salesforce Flows come in various types, each designed to handle specific automation scenarios. Understanding these flow types and their purposes will help you choose the most appropriate solution for your business processes.

Screen Flows are interactive flows that guide users through a series of screens. These screens can include forms, questions, and instructions to collect information or assist users in completing tasks.

When to Use:

  • Data Collection: Ideal for gathering user input, such as filling out forms or collecting survey responses.
  • Guided Processes: Useful for walking users through complex procedures, like onboarding processes or multi-step approvals.
  • User Interaction: Perfect for scenarios where users need to interact with Salesforce through a user-friendly interface.

Auto-Launch Flows operate behind the scenes without direct user interaction. They run automatically based on predefined logic or triggers.

When to Use:

  • Record Updates: To automatically update records, such as modifying a field value or adjusting related records.
  • Email Notifications: To send automated emails based on specific conditions or criteria.
  • Task Creation: For generating tasks or creating records without requiring manual user input.

Scheduled-Trigger Flows are activated at specific time intervals, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. They run on a predefined schedule rather than in response to user actions.

When to Use:

  • Recurring Tasks: To handle routine tasks like sending reminders or reports regularly.
  • Data Updates: For performing regular updates to records, such as refreshing data or aggregating information.
  • System Maintenance: To automate background processes that need to be executed periodically.

Record-Triggered Flows are activated when a record is created, updated, or deleted. They respond to changes in Salesforce records and can perform actions based on these changes.

When to Use:

  • Record Automation: To automate processes like updating related records or creating new records based on changes.
  • Notifications: To send alerts or notifications when specific record conditions are met.
  • Data Integrity: To enforce business rules or validate data when records are modified.

Platform Event-Triggered Flows respond to events that are published to Salesforce’s platform event bus. They are used to handle events from external systems or processes.

When to Use:

  • Integrations: To manage complex integrations with third-party systems that send events to Salesforce.
  • Real-Time Processing: For real-time automation based on events or changes in external systems.
  • Event-Driven Architecture: To trigger processes in response to specific events or changes occurring outside of Salesforce.

Auto-Launch Flows (No Trigger) are manually initiated or triggered by other automation tools. They do not require a specific trigger like record changes or schedules.

When to Use:

  • Manual Execution: For flows that need to be run manually by users or administrators, such as ad-hoc data manipulation.
  • Integration with Other Tools: To be called by other automation tools, processes, or custom code without a specific trigger.
  • Flexible Automation: For tasks that don’t fit neatly into other flow types but still require automation.

Limitations of Salesforce Flows

Salesforce Flows are powerful tools that can automate complex processes, streamline operations, and enhance user experiences. However, understanding the governance limits and limitations associated with flows is crucial to ensure optimal performance and avoid potential issues. Here’s a detailed overview:

Flow usage-based entitlements refer to the allowances provided by Salesforce to manage flow executions. These entitlements ensure sufficient capacity for your flow operations. If your usage exceeds the allocated limits, Salesforce will discuss potential contract adjustments. Despite these entitlements, if you exceed the limits, your flows continue to run as usual until the issue is addressed.

When working with Salesforce Flows, it’s important to be aware of both flow-specific limits and Apex governor limits. These limits are designed to maintain system stability and performance by preventing any single flow from consuming excessive resources.

  • Per-Transaction Flow Limits: Salesforce imposes strict limits on flows to prevent them from monopolizing resources. If a flow causes a transaction to exceed these governor limits, the entire transaction is rolled back, even if a fault connector path is defined. This ensures that resources are fairly distributed across the multitenant environment.

When designing and building flows using Flow Builder, keep the following considerations in mind:

  • Locale Support: Flow Builder supports a limited number of locales. Ensure that your flows are compatible with the supported locales.
  • Managed Packages: Flows installed from managed packages are not open for modification unless they are templates, due to intellectual property protection.

While designing flows, consider the Salesforce features that can impact flow performance and behavior. These include data considerations, feature limitations, and integration points.

Data management is crucial when working with flows:

  • Data Limits: Be aware of the limits related to the volume of data that flows can handle. Excessive data operations may impact flow performance and lead to governor limit issues.

Managing flows involves adhering to certain administrative and activation limits:

  • Administration Limits: Understand the limits related to flow administration, such as the maximum number of active flows and the impact of flow updates on system performance.
  • Activation Limits: There are limits on the number of flows that can be active simultaneously. Plan your flow deployment strategy to stay within these limits.

When including flows in managed or unmanaged packages:

  • Package Limitations: Understand the limitations and behaviors associated with packaging flows, such as component dependencies and deployment constraints.

When deploying flows using change sets:

  • Component Dependencies: Be aware of the dependencies between flow components and other Salesforce elements. Ensure that all necessary components are included in the change set to avoid deployment issues.
  • Deployment Behavior: Understand how flows interact with other components during deployment and address any potential conflicts.

For flows installed from packages:

  • Distribution and Upgrades: Consider how flows are distributed, upgraded, or removed when installed from a package. Follow best practices to manage these flows effectively.

When troubleshooting flow issues:

  • Error Reviews: Review error emails and use the debug options in Flow Builder to identify and resolve issues. Understanding common error patterns can help in quick resolution.

By being aware of these governance limits and limitations, you can better manage your Salesforce Flows, ensuring they operate efficiently and effectively within the system constraints.

Why Choose Bolt Today?

At Bolt Today, our expertise in Salesforce Flows ensures that you receive a solution that is both effective and tailored to your business needs. Our approach includes:

  • Consultation and Analysis: We start with a comprehensive assessment of your current processes to identify areas where Salesforce Flows can add value.
  • Custom Design and Development: Our team designs and builds Salesforce Flows that address your unique challenges, optimizing workflows and enhancing automation.
  • Seamless Implementation: We manage the deployment of your Salesforce Flows, ensuring they are integrated smoothly into your existing systems.
  • Ongoing Support: Post-implementation, we provide continuous support and updates to ensure your flows continue to perform optimally.

Get Started with Salesforce Flows

Transform the way you manage and automate your business processes with Salesforce Flows. Contact Bolt Today to learn how we can help you leverage this powerful tool to enhance efficiency, improve user experiences, and drive business growth.

Ready to elevate your Salesforce experience? Reach out to us today for a consultation and discover how Salesforce Flows can make a difference for your organization.

Ready to automate smarter? Start implementing Salesforce Flows today.