Workflow

Open CertifiedOnDemand.com Section Resources

This is not an exhaustive list; additional resources are referenced within objectives below.
ObjectiveResourcesKey Facts
Describe the capabilities of workflow and approvals.Salesforce.com Automation: Workflow & Approvals
[Must / 5m / Dan Stone]

Creating a Workflow Rule
[Must / 2m / Salesforce.com]

Workflow & Approvals Overview
[Must / Medium / CertifiedOnDemand.com]

Workflow
[Should / Medium / Salesforce.com]

Examples of Workflow Rules
[Should / Long / Salesforce.com]

Approvals
[Should / Medium / Salesforce.com]

Examples of Approval Processes
[Should / Medium / Salesforce.com]

Create Simple Workflow in Salesforce.com
[Could / 6m / Alex Zarowny]		Workflow rules are used to automatically take action when a record meets specific criteria. For example, you could create a workflow rule to notify the strategic accounts team public group when an opportunity is greater than $1,000,000 USD.

An approval process is manually initiated by the user. The administrator configures the approval process which determines the conditions that must be met in order to submit a record for approval, who must approve the record, and what actions take place as a result of approval or rejection.

For example, all opportunities with a discount greater than 10% must be approved by the account executive's manager prior to shipping. All opportunities with a discount greater than 15% must be approved by the VP of Sales prior to quote approval.

To view the remainder of this content, you must purchase the Salesforce.com Certified Administrator Study Guide.  Please Login or purchase the study guide.

88 Responses to “Workflow”

  1. kmkaast April 29, 2017 at 5:06 pm #

    A Workflow Alert can be tracked in Activity History ?

  2. McFarland April 28, 2017 at 2:52 am #

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0pZSJvAus

    The “Building a Simple Flow” link should be updated. I included a link to what I found on youtube. 🙂

  3. kmkaast April 18, 2017 at 10:32 am #

    I suggest adding Process automation trailhead to the list , very useful

    https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/modules/business_process_automation/units/process_builder

    • JohnCoppedge May 12, 2017 at 6:14 pm #

      Thanks – I will be doing a major sweep through trailhead to add relevant materials

  4. kmkaast April 18, 2017 at 4:08 am #

    Tried to make a report on historical approval requests , Choosed Each “A” record must have at least one related “B” record to get only the opportunities with approval steps , Always getting same oppty. on the report created not related to any approval steps , tried a lot of scenarios but it doesn’t work.

  5. kmkaast April 17, 2017 at 8:46 am #

    On https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=workflow_time_action_considerations.htm&type=0&language=en_US
    “Salesforce doesn’t display time-dependent action controls on the workflow rule edit page if you set the workflow rule evaluation criteria to Evaluate the rule when a record is: created, and any time it’s edited to subsequently meet criteria.”
    I tried same scenario with workflow rule evaluation criteria to Evaluate the rule when a record is: created, and any time it’s edited to subsequently meet criteria , and time-dependent action controls displayed and added to the workflow. Please clarify

    • JohnCoppedge April 17, 2017 at 12:23 pm #

      If you had a workflow rule that sent an email 30 days after the opportunity was closed, then this would be ” created, and any time it’s edited to subsequently meet criteria.”. One email would get sent after 30 days no matter how many times the opportunity was edited (assuming it remains closed).

      If this were set to every time (which is not possible), then one email would get sent for every opportunity edit (assuming it remains closed, 30 days later).

      • kmkaast April 17, 2017 at 12:41 pm #

        My concern is that on the link added its mentioned that it doesn’t display time-dependent action controls on this case while it was displayed and added when i tried.

        • JohnCoppedge April 17, 2017 at 1:35 pm #

          Ah gotcha… that’s a mistake in the documentation. It should be the option for everytime the record is edited (paraphrasing)

  6. Hani130 March 22, 2017 at 2:11 pm #

    Can I change the ‘record type’ of a Record using Workflow field update action? if yes can you give me an example.

    • JohnCoppedge March 22, 2017 at 2:29 pm #

      Yep – you can write a field update that will update the record type. A common example is changing the opportunity to a “locked” version of the opportunity (read only page layout) when the opportunity is closed/won.

  7. veonading February 28, 2017 at 7:16 pm #

    Hi, John,
    in the cross-object field update session, there is a sentence:
    “Cross-object field updates work for custom-to-custom master-detail relationships, custom-to-standard master-detail relationships, and a few !!!!! standard-to-standard master-detail relationships!!!!!”
    here is standard-to-standard master-detail relationship mentioned. BUT, in the master-detail relationship session, it is mentioned that a standard object cannot be a detail object in the master-detail relationship.

    Where is my misunderstanding?

    • ybiyani@hotmail.com March 10, 2017 at 12:22 pm #

      I think it is referring to the relationship like account-contacts, where the account is master and the contact is the details. Activities on a standard object would also be an example of a standard-to-standard master-detail relationship.

      • JohnCoppedge March 10, 2017 at 8:55 pm #

        Yeah exactly- there are more exception with the standard relationships (e.g. you can rollup opps but not contacts on account, at least last time I checked :). When you go to CREATE a new relationship, you cannot create a master/detail relationship where a standard object is the detail (e.g. I can’t create an object called “Custom account” and then make opportunity a detail of that custom object)

  8. Dee_kochar January 29, 2017 at 7:08 am #

    Hi John ,

    I was trying to create a flow which would create an account , a contact and an opportunity when user enters certain data fields such as First name ,last name, company name etc. I was able to create an account and an contact based on the data that user entered . But i had to manually link the contact to that account. How can i do that using the flow designer ? ..

    • JohnCoppedge February 16, 2017 at 12:28 am #

      There is an option to store the id of the created records into a variable in the record create action.

      So you would have create account action –> account ID (variable)

      Then feed the account ID variable into the contact.account field in the contact create action

  9. Karthik January 15, 2017 at 5:03 pm #

    Hi John,

    I get error when I play the video under topic “Create Simple Workflow in Salesforce.com”

    Thanks

    • Karthik January 15, 2017 at 5:07 pm #

      Looks like it has something to do with my PC. sorry

  10. hiral.shah197 December 26, 2016 at 5:57 pm #

    Hi John,
    What will be the answer of following question?

    True or False: Time-based workflow actions can not be used when the workflow rule criteria is set to “Every time a record is created or edited”.

    Thanks in advance.

  11. mimou225 October 22, 2016 at 4:34 pm #

    hi john

    the link “Time-Dependent Action and Time Trigger Considerations” does’nt work since the last update of salesforce docs.

  12. nk005347 October 21, 2016 at 12:28 pm #

    Could be a stupid question but i am not able to figure out how to search topics in vineyard videos. I can open links in this material but can’t reach the repository of other videos that could be stored there.

    Regds
    Nikhil

    • JohnCoppedge October 21, 2016 at 8:16 pm #

      Not sure you can – you can probably search through google though with a term to limit the site

  13. bhav May 22, 2016 at 7:12 pm #

    I would say a & b

    The wording of “b” is saying whether the action takes place immediately or on a specific date (if you have specified a time trigger).

  14. sscornav May 11, 2016 at 2:40 pm #

    What should an admin consider with configuring workflow rules? Choose 2 answers.
    a) rules can be evaluated when records are created or edited
    b) rule actions can take place immediately or on a specific date
    c) rules must be deactivated before using an import wizard
    d) all existing records are evaluated when a new rule is activated

    Clearly one of the answers is “a” I know that “d” is not true. I would think “b” is true, but the wording is funny. Can you help with whether or not “c” is true?

  15. joe@360nonprofit.com February 2, 2016 at 4:03 pm #

    Error Page Hyperlinks

    Creating Email Alerts for Workflow, Approvals, or Milestones
    [Could / Medium / Salesforce.com]

    Creating Tasks for Workflow, Approvals, or Milestones
    [Could / Medium / Salesforce.com]

    • JohnCoppedge February 6, 2016 at 12:28 am #

      Something weird going on with a few of these links- they seem to work while logged in, but not when not logged in.

      Will look at correcting… stay tuned.

    • JohnCoppedge February 17, 2016 at 2:11 am #

      All links are now fixed, thanks Joe

  16. joe@360nonprofit.com February 2, 2016 at 3:57 pm #

    “Page Error” Page not available

    determine workflow execution. Creating Workflow Rules
    [Should / Short / Salesforce.com]

  17. lkulik February 1, 2016 at 1:23 pm #

    Hi,
    It seems the path has changed from: Setup –> Monitoring –> Time-Based Workflow to Setup –> Monitor –> Time-Based Workflow.
    BR
    Lukasz

    • JohnCoppedge February 2, 2016 at 12:08 am #

      It depends if you have the new setup UI configured- there are steps in the getting started section to make sure the instructions will match.

  18. Rajesh Kulanthaivelu January 28, 2016 at 3:56 pm #

    Hello John,

    Following links come up with an error “The document was not found”.

    Creating Workflow Rules
    Creating Email Alerts for Workflow, Approvals, or Milestones
    Creating Tasks for Workflow, Approvals, or Milestones
    Defining Outbound Messages

    Regards,

    Rajesh K

  19. tejalr8@gmail.com January 28, 2016 at 6:48 am #

    Hi john,
    Do we need to think about Visual Workflows and Wave Analytic for ADM(201) ?
    Tejal.

    • JohnCoppedge January 28, 2016 at 2:14 pm #

      Wave- no
      Visual workflow you should be aware of, but you’re not expected to know how to configure it

  20. ruanhoo January 28, 2016 at 6:08 am #

    Hi,

    The “Creating Workflow Rules” link doesn’t work.

    Thanks,
    Alan

  21. tejalr8@gmail.com January 28, 2016 at 1:23 am #

    Hi John,
    I was practicing on approval proecesses , and was trying on eg. from help and training link what page u suggested for practicing in here.

    here is the link:
    https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=approvals_useful_approval_processes_expense.htm&language=en_US

    @ point :Prep your Org.
    actually i m not able to understand this Point what it says..
    It create that filed on User obj.
    but then after what it’s asking us to do? and what is the intention , im not able to understand.
    can u please explain..

    Confuse abt this following line:
    “Create a custom field on the user object called Office Location. Assign the “HQ” value to users in the headquarters office location.”

    Thank you
    Tejal.

    • JohnCoppedge January 28, 2016 at 2:32 pm #

      They are asking you to create a custom field on the user object – this field would be used to indicate which location/office that user works in.

      So if you have one user in the Toyko office, you’d fill in that value on their user record, a second user in Paris, you’d fill in that value on each respective user record.

  22. crystalq December 31, 2015 at 10:42 pm #

    Hi John, could you think of a business case for case Comments to update case? https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=workflow_cross_object_field_updates.htm&language=en_US. I could not figure out. Which field of case should be updated based on case comment? Many thanks for your advice!

    • JohnCoppedge January 1, 2016 at 9:08 pm #

      Lets say the customer service rep updates the case status to “waiting for customer input”.

      Customer then adds a comment via communities – this could update the case status accordingly.

  23. soraya.attia@papilioconsulting.be November 17, 2015 at 9:07 am #

    With reference to “Checking the box “Re-evaluate Workflow Rules after Field Change” in a field update can cause a workflow rule to trigger as a result of a field update.”
    isn’t this the same behaviour as setting the Evaluation criteria in a workflow rule to ‘created and every time it’s edited’?

    • JohnCoppedge December 3, 2015 at 2:30 am #

      No not quite, example:

      Workflow 1) sets opp stage to closed/won
      Workflow 2) sends email ‘we won’ when opp stage closed/won

      If re-evaluate is not checked on the field update of workflow 1, workflow 2 won’t fire (even if set to created and every time edited)

      • soraya.attia@papilioconsulting.be December 3, 2015 at 11:33 am #

        Hi John,
        I have the following scenario but it doesn’t seem to work:
        1) escalation rule : when case is not picked-up within 2 hours, the case is auto-reassigned and a notification email is sent out
        2) workflow rule : criteria when case = escalated (see 1) -> workflow action = update field case priority to high

        Escalation rule works but workflow rule doesn’t execute. I also flagged the parameter “Re-evaluate Workflow Rules after Field Change” in the field update detail.

        Any thoughts on this one? Being trying to solve this for a few days now and cannot seem to find the solution and I have a demo to present tomorrow so any help would be welcome before then, thanks a lot 🙂

        • JohnCoppedge December 3, 2015 at 3:09 pm #

          I suspect that case escalation rules can’t trigger the workflow to fire. You would probably need to mirror the escalation timing with a time-based workflow rule.

          • soraya.attia@papilioconsulting.be December 3, 2015 at 4:47 pm #

            Ok, thanks will try this.

          • soraya.attia@papilioconsulting.be December 3, 2015 at 7:35 pm #

            John, another enigma: when creating a time-based workflow rule for another scenario, I added two workflow tasks to the time-based rule : an email alert and task creation. It only sent an email but didn’t create the task.
            Is it possible to add two or more workflow actions to a time-based rule?

            Thanks.

          • JohnCoppedge December 4, 2015 at 5:59 pm #

            Should believe- believe I have done it as well. Have you double checked everything on the rule? Any reason the task couldnt be created (e.g. validation rule)?

  24. abojic October 28, 2015 at 11:52 pm #

    Building a simple flow new link:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkdc_133qHk

  25. Bilal Nawaz October 14, 2015 at 1:46 am #

    Hello john

    How can i create “Custom User Fields” that are used in Approval process as ‘Next Automated Approver Determined By’?

    Right now it has only standard user fields “manager” how can i add Custom User Fields in it !!!!!!

    • JohnCoppedge October 14, 2015 at 10:28 am #

      Are you referring the hierarchy field type? You can create that under the standard object configuration, then add a field to the user object. I believe custom hierarchy fields can be referenced in approval processes as well.

  26. johnnychuk August 17, 2015 at 3:46 am #

    RE: Defining Flow Triggers for Workflow (Pilot): The Process Builder has superseded flow trigger workflow actions, formerly available in a pilot program. Organizations that are using flow trigger workflow actions can continue to create and edit them, but flow trigger workflow actions aren’t available for new organizations. For information on enabling the Process Builder in your organization, contact Salesforce.

    • JohnCoppedge August 17, 2015 at 7:14 pm #

      Thanks Johnny – I just updated the material for Spring/Summer 15 releases. This link got removed and replaced with the process builder info.

  27. jmaddison May 18, 2015 at 12:29 am #

    Is Process Builder part on the Certfication Test?

  28. Rena Bennett-Dellwo May 4, 2015 at 5:10 pm #

    Cool. Thanks.

  29. Rena Bennett-Dellwo April 17, 2015 at 11:52 pm #

    Silly question time: Why is Process Builder referred to – pretty much everywhere – as “Salesforce1 Platform Lightning Process Builder”? It doesn’t seem to provide capabilities specific to SF1, at least not based on what I’ve seen in some of the other links provided in this module and elsewhere.

    • JohnCoppedge May 4, 2015 at 5:00 pm #

      Salesforce1 is the platform, lightning is a framework within the platform. The new process builder falls under the lightning framework (I previously thought they were separate, as I only saw the development portion of lightning at DreamForce). Ultimately the capabilities and how they relate are more important than the name of the component itself. I will be doing site updates to reflect all of this 🙂

  30. Agyasi Ampah April 15, 2015 at 12:41 pm #

    Thanks John.
    very deep topic, and for the ADM 201 would you recommend knowing this much

    • JohnCoppedge April 15, 2015 at 5:34 pm #

      You need to know the fundamentals of how a workflow rule is structure, what it can do, and when it would execute.

  31. Mickael Gueron January 26, 2015 at 8:31 pm #

    Hi John,
    Link behind “Building a Simple Flow” is outdated – Video is here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzWN2KGp2hc

  32. Alex Messinger January 19, 2015 at 5:45 pm #

    I’m still unclear on what a flow does with respect to the data in salesforce. does it update a record? Create a record? Any resources that would give an overview of this would be much appreciated.

  33. Naureen Hameed November 3, 2014 at 4:49 am #

    Hi John
    Is approval an automated or manually initiated process? Thanks

  34. Sreekanth G October 26, 2014 at 6:06 am #

    Hi John,
    Link is broken for below topic. Please update correct URL. Thnx

    Creating Tasks for Workflow, Approvals, or Milestones

  35. Jeanne Busch October 25, 2014 at 1:39 am #

    SDFC seems to have another dead link:
    Creating Tasks for Workflow, Approvals, or Milestones
    [Could / Medium / Salesforce.com]

  36. Sridhar Yerra October 10, 2014 at 10:36 am #

    “Configuring Rule Settings and Criteria” link is displaying “The document was not found.” Error

    • JohnCoppedge October 19, 2014 at 2:10 am #

      Thanks – this link is actually on SFDC’s end. I reported the dead link and found a suitable replacement.

  37. Scott Waddell October 8, 2014 at 2:29 pm #

    Not sure if this is needed for the cert exam, but just in case: https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=data_approval_requests.htm&language=en_US

    • JohnCoppedge December 5, 2014 at 4:24 am #

      Going to backlog this one – this is important but brings up a broader topic around how to transfer approvals, etc.

      Will add that to the list.

  38. Scott Waddell October 8, 2014 at 2:22 pm #

    I found this to be very useful in understanding Approvals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u3L8JIJjbE

  39. Carter Brantley September 29, 2014 at 9:38 pm #

    FYI the ‘Building a Simple Flow’ video has been removed by the user.

  40. Reid Pichard May 6, 2014 at 1:12 pm #

    Hi John,
    Great study guide, thank you!
    In the Approval Process Structure section I believe you have a typo:
    ” An approval submission can have one 3 outcomes:”

  41. Kaira Bergstra January 26, 2014 at 4:18 pm #

    Hi John,

    The linked page ‘Field Updates That Re-evaluate Workflow Rules’ says:

    “If any of the triggered workflow rules result in another field update that’s also enabled for workflow rule re-evaluation, a domino effect occurs, and more workflow rules can be re-evaluated as a result of the newly-triggered field update. This cascade of workflow rule re-evaluation and triggering can happen up to five times after the initial field update that started it.”

    You say:

    “Currently a workflow rule can only trigger one layer deep – e.g. a field update that triggers a second field update will not trigger a third field update (even if configured accordingly).”

    Is it that up to 6 in total workflow rules may be evaluated in sequence, but as far as field updates go, only two updates can happen? For the other workflows, only non-field-update actions will be taken?

    Thanks,
    Kaira

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