Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we’re back.

In case you missed the last post, we are discussing the advantages of Visual Workflow, or Flow, over other Salesforce automation tools. Also, if you missed the last post, you can, y’know… scroll down. It’s still there. Oh no, don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Just in case your scroll wheel is broken, here’s a quick refresher? We covered that Flow can:

1. Create Records – One of the only bits of Salesforce automation that can create a record, and it can create more than one at a time too.
2. Perform If, Then, Else functionality, with Nesting – Branching logic that can make different things happen based on looking up data in Salesforce.

So now let’s move on to…

3. Work with Objects and Fields that Workflow Cannot

Ever wanted to do cross-object workflow from Case to Contact? How about workflow that creates an Event instead of a Task? Workflow that filters based on what department the User is in? Workflow that creates tasks with the owner being retrieved from a User lookup field? Workflow that makes a Chatter post? Workflow that refers to the Record Owner’s manager? Workflow that can do something as FREAKING SIMPLE as fill in a lookup field? (This is a personal point of frustration for yours truly.)

Welcome to the wild, winsome, wicked, and wonderful world of Flow.

Flow can access data from any point in Salesforce, provided you can give it a frame of reference. And it can create data anywhere as well. It can create any type of record, including some that aren’t quite obvious, like Chatter posts, Private Messages, Contact Roles, Case Team members, Opportunity Team members, Account Team members, Public Groups… The list goes on and on.

Within all of the objects available, you can create data and filter choices based on data you wouldn’t have been able to access otherwise. Not only can you access any data in the system to determine your actions (e.g. only creating a record if the Salesperson who clicked it is in a certain territory), but you can use it to access other data that workflow would normally be able to access, but just can’t. Have you ever tried to use workflow to populate the email of the $User’s manager for an approval process? I have. You can’t do it. Not without visual workflow.

4. Make a Single Click into a Workhorse Woolly Mammoth!

Each non-code automation tool in Salesforce has its strengths and weaknesses. Workflow can be chained to run one after another, but using it to move large amounts of data becomes cumbersome and unmanageable. Custom URLs can create records, though they can only do it once. But what if you wanted to do all of those things?

As far as I have found in my work, there is no upper limit on what can be done in Flow. I mean, I’m sure there is a limit SOMEWHERE, but I have yet to hit it, with my wild and woolly adventures therein.

As an example, let’s say you wanted to clone a record 5 times, bringing over 30 fields into the clone each time. Now let’s say it’s a DIFFERENT 30 fields in each clone. Sure, this is a pretty wacky hypothetical that generally falls beyond the realm of what one might ACTUALLY be asked to set up, but I have been asked to set up things that are not too far off. With workflow, you could have the fields populated when the records are created manually, but you’d have to set up 30+ field updates, one for each field that gets brought over. With a custom URL, you would need 5 separate URLs, as you could not create multiple records nor implement the branching.

5. Automate / Drive / Force Process

To be fair, other kinds of button-click automation are also quite adept at providing this kind of service. But stop. Close your eyes. Think about driving process (or as Salesforce evangelist David Schach refers to it, “forcing function”), and think of all the things we just talked about.

Ok, yes, you can open your eyes if you need to go back and read what they were again.

Flow presents, by default, a Wizard-type interface. But what if it was your only method of making something happen?

• What if you locked down your Opportunity’s Stage field and required the user to click a Flow button to make a change? You can filter it down different paths: if they’re changing the stage to Negotiation, you can ask and require certain information which then gets pushed into Opp fields, or if they’re changing it to Closed Won, you can require different information and even generate other records based on that, like tickets to setup your customer or other custom object records.
• Do the same thing for Case Status, where if the owner is on your Retention team, you can require him to put in 3 dates for scheduled follow-up calls, and then create those Events for him!
• Turn your User creation into a guided wizard process, to be sure that every step of the process is covered. (Because we Admins have a TON of things to think and worry about every day, and sometimes those little details just slip our minds, don’t they? Plus it can be a huge time-saver!)
• Require that a date field be updated through a Flow (I’ll go into this in an upcoming post) so that the date field’s value can be copied into another record in another custom object. If these custom objects are not Master-Detail, you won’t be able to use regular Workflow for those!

When you can drive your Users to work down certain paths:

• You minimize the demons of procrastination, obstinance, forgetfulness and human error.
• You ensure a higher standard of work and customer interaction.
• You ensure higher data quality.
• You ensure quality metrics and analytics.
• And you then become able to give your executive team whatever data they need without worrying about how reliable the data is.

Don’t think of it as being authoritarian or restrictive; think of it as ensuring job security for yourself.

Because when you become indispensable to your executives, they’ll do anything to keep you, and keep you happy! And Visual Workflow brought you there. I’d say that’s a tool worth learning, wouldn’t you?