Booking tickets? Paying bills? Doing reservations? Your customers want personalized and seamless experiences whenever they interact with your brand. But is workflow automation only living on the whiteboard of your conference room? If yes, then now is the time to change that reality.

Enter Salesforce.

Salesforce helps in workflow automation. And Salesforce developers help create workflow automation using the #1 customer relationship management (CRM) software.

As the top-rated CRM software, Salesforce brings a tool – called Salesforce Flow – that helps automate different processes. These processes may include approval automation, guided visual experiences, behind-the-scenes automation, and so much more. The best part is that Salesforce Flow enables workflow automation with clicks and not codes.

Salesforce Flow: Configure. Click. Automate

Previously known as Salesforce Flow, Flow Builder offers declarative process automation for any Salesforce experience, portal, or app. Flow comes with point-and-click automation capabilities, so creating complex business automation will never be a problem with Salesforce.

Flow types will be every Salesforce admin’s best friend. Why? Because a Flow type will handle a large share of even the most complicated business requirements without involving Salesforce developers. Moreover, the biggest upside of Salesforce Flow is that it is easier and simpler to maintain. (If, however, you plan on using Salesforce Flow for the first time, you may have to tread on a somewhat steep learning curve, depending on your technical competence.)

Are you looking to get started with Salesforce Flow? If so, simply type “Flows” into the Quick Find section – and you will be able to create a new Flow.

The Three Building Blocks Of Salesforce Flow

1) Elements

These are individual building blocks in a Flow. Every element performs a logical action that can be decisions, loops, or assignments. Data elements are also likely to query the database or make any record changes.

2) Connectors

This building block of a flow will help you determine which element will lead to which one. For instance, the Winter ’21 brought some connectors that enabled auto-layout and even helped form a connection between the Elements automatically.

3) Resources

Last but not least, this building block of a Flow includes separate variables of data. These variables can be strings of numbers, formulae, records, collections, or text. You may also use Resources for a declarative replacement right before a trigger.

Salesforce Flow Best Practices You Should Follow

1) Decide The Flow Way Before You Begin Building

Put all the details of your business process on paper; you can write it or draw it. That is how you will get a crystal-clear idea of the kind of information you require, where you could possibly get those details, and the logic to acquire the information. Doing this exercise will help you build the Flow to a business process easily.

2) Create The Flow In A Sandbox Or Developer Edition Org First

You would not want to alter records present inside your production org. That is why it is advisable to create flows in a different environment. Doing this will help you enter fake data and analyze a range of permutations of the Flow without sweating about modifying or removing data that your users may need.

3) Stop Hard-Coding Salesforce IDs

Remember that IDs are specific to an org, so it is not required for you to hard-code existing or new IDs. The way forward is to let Salesforce build the IDs. Once the IDs are built, pass them into different variables as soon as the Flow begins. You can do that by leveraging an element known as Get Records or by using the merge field right inside a URL.

4) Let The Flow End And Then Carry Out Changes On The Database

Did you know about Flow limits? As Flows operate under strict Apex governor limits, they are restricted. Want to overcome those limits? If yes, then you must bunch every database change together when your Flow is ending. And, yes, these changes can include deleting, updating, or creating records. However, there is one thing you should note – avoid making any change in a loop path.

5) Have Complete Control Whenever Running Users Navigate Backwards

Your Flow may commit some database changes, or it may even perform some actions between screens. If that is the case, then you should avoid having your users navigate from previous screens to the upcoming screens. If, however, you do not stop this user behavior, then the Flow may make duplicate changes to your business’s database.

6) Get An Error Handler

Unfortunately, a Flow may not behave the way you intended it to work. Why? Maybe the Flow was not configured properly, or it may be lacking some crucial pieces of information, or the running user may not have permission to execute the Flow. Whatever the case may be, a faulty Flow will show an error message to the user and admin. Nonetheless, if you are a Salesforce admin, you will be able to control this sort of behavior.

7) Saving Early And Saving Often

Flow Builder may face some unexpected issues, such as a drop in internet connectivity. Worst of all, Salesforce will never save any change to your Flow automatically. The best advice is to save your work frequently and early on when you are building a Flow. That way, your Flow will never fall victim to accidental system crashes and to loss of internet connectivity.

8) Restrict Data Access Through Permission Sets And Profiles

As a Salesforce admin, you have to make sure that your Flow should be accessed by only the right set of people in your firm. To do that, you will have to enable permissions and edit the access for a Flow. Doing this will help you save a lot of confusion and errors down the road.

Finding The Right Salesforce Partner

Building Flows and managing them can be a headache for even the most seasoned Salesforce users, particularly if their org is huge. Does this scenario resonate with you? If yes, then you will have to get the services from a trusted Salesforce consulting company. At Flexsin, we have emerged as a Salesforce Silver Partner and have helped many businesses configure and implement their org in the shortest turnaround time. Got excellent business automation ideas but are clueless about building a Flow for them? We have you covered.

Recently, we helped a B2B education company automate its contract management and opportunity conversion processes using Salesforce. Find out more about that case study here. Get on a no-obligation consultation call with our Salesforce specialists and make sure your BPA project gets off on the right foot.