How to create a workflow in SalesForce?
How to create a workflow rule in SalesForce
Creating a workflow rule in SalesForce is done in the SalesForce setup, under process automation > worlkflow actions.
What is a workflow in SalesForce? Workflows are used to automatize actions. See below in detail what are they used for, how to create them, and how to activate them in SalesForce Lightning.
1 – Understand workflows in SalesForce
The most important first is to understand the SalesForce workflows. What are they used for? A workflow is a set of actions triggered automatically after some events occur in the SalesForce data.
It can automates different kind of company processes such as tasks, to assign new tasks to users, email alerts, to send emails to one or more recipients that are designated in advance, update fields, setting specific records values, or outbound messages, sending technical XML formatted messages to listeners.
As an example, SalesForce workflows can assign follow-up tasks to support representatives after a given amount of time, they can send email alerts to management team when big deals are signed by a sales representative, changing an owner name field a few days after a contract expiration, or sending technical messages to external systems whenever approved reports are triggered.
The workflows rules can consist of some criteria that will start the workflow, the actions to take when a record has been created with a given value, or time dependant actions such as sending month end closing reports a few days before the end of month closure.
2 – Create of a new workflow rule
To start the creation of a new workflow rule, go to setup settings by clicking on the gear icon in SalesForce Lightning interface, and search for the workflow menu in the search tab on the top left of the screen.
The workflow rules are accessible under process automation > workflow actions > workflow rules.
You existing workflows will then be listed on the next screen.
In case you have no existing workflow, the list will be empy, and the only optiona vailable will be to create a new workflow by using the appropriate button above the workflow list.
The first step in creating a new workflow rule is to select the object that will be affected by it. It can be any kind of SalesForce data object: account, agent work, assistant progress, campaign, campaign member, case, case comment, chatter activity, contact, contact request, duplicate record item, duplicate record set, email message, event, feed item, group, group member, image, knowledge, and more.
In our example, we will create a contact related workflow.
Then, the next step is give the rule a name, and eventually a description, in order to be able to find it later on, and to help your coworkers identifying it along the over workflows thats are accessible on the system.
Also, an evaluation criteria must be choosen. When will the rule be activated? When the record is created, edited?
Finally, the rule criteria must be entered.
When will the rule activate itself? In our example, we want to create a rule that will be activated every time a new customer is entered in France, which will be identified by a phone number starting with French country code, +33.
That way, everytime there is a change on a contact reachable with the French mobile network, our sales representative responsible for the French market will check it, and contact the customer if necessary.
3 – Setup workflow action for rule activation
The next step is to define which action the workflow will perform once the rule has been verified.
This is possible by selecting the add workflow actions below the immediate workflow actions part, to execute an action as soon as the rule is verified. If the action should occur at given points in time, it should instead be created as a time-dependent workflow action.
By clicking on the add workflow action button, different types of workflow actions are accessible: set up an email alert, update a field, send a technical message, or use an existing action from another workflow.
In our case, we want to send an email to the sales representative everytime a contact with a French phone number changes.
4 – Setup email alert
We can then setup the email that will be sent out the to the sales representative, by entering the email description, a unique name for that email, and selecting the email template to use.
The recipient can be of different type, but in our case it will be an internal user, as we will send emails to the sales representative responsible for a specific zone.
It is possible to select directly from the list of existing internal recipients.
It is also possible to enter manually a list of additional email addresses, in order to send the email to external recipients in copy, for example also sending the email to the personal mailbox of the sales representative, or to put in copy his manager.
The From email address must also be selected, it is the one that will appear as the sender’s email address for the emails recipients.
Then, click on save to proceed with the workflow rule creation.
5 – Validate workflow actions
After that, the workflow action newly created, an immediate email creation as soon as a contact phone number with French prefix is created, will be displayed in the list of actions for that workflow rule.
In case that no other actions are required, simply click on the done button in the upper right corner to finish with the workflow creation.
The workflow will then be displayed for review, with all its details. Make sure that everything is correct, as it is now directly activated, and will start sending emails, or performing other actions, without any further confirmation, as soon as you click on the activate button.
It will always be possible to deactivate an existing and running workflow from that screen, as well as to edit it, or clone it in order to create easily a similar workflow.
Creation of a workflow successful
Have you manager to create successfully a workflow rule in your SalesForce?
Let us know in comment, and do not hesitate to ask us any question you might have.
