by Mike Walsh | Feb 21, 2019 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
Quality workflows are one of the things that makes Salesforce so useful. A good admin should be able to take just about any routine process and streamline it via a workflow. As we reviewed in this previous post, the flow builder is an intuitive and visual way of automating processes, saving time and money, all while requiring absolutely no coding! What’s more, because you build it directly in Salesforce, you will essentially be setting up a web of flows that send, receive and send back all sorts of values and records.
The New Salesforce Flow Builder began rolling out to users starting at the beginning of this year, and it is flush with useful upgrades, including a simper toolbox, more standardized designs and overall faster performance.
Demoing the Flow Builder
So what does all of this look like exactly, and are there any specific ways the changes can be used? Well, I’m glad you asked. First of all, the flow builder recently got a facelift to mimic the Lightning Design System. The workspace is clean and simple, with many familiar element shapes for each action. As for the second question, the flow building can be used for just about everything, from the simplest of tasks, to very complex, multi-step processes.
But why describe it when I can show you instead? On their blog, Salesforce has recently released a series of demo videos that will show any interested admin or user the Flow Builder, starting with the absolute basics and building from there!
And for anyone who wants to briefly know what the demos cover, without actually sitting down to watch them, well here you go:
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Send an Email
- This video covers how to create flows, how to send an email from a flow, and the different types of flows that you can create.
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Get a Record and Use It
- This video covers how to create flows, how to send an email from a flow, and the different types of flows that you can create.
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Get Multiple Records and Loop Through Them
- This video covers how to use the Get Records element to retrieve multiple records from Salesforce, how to use collection variables, and how to use the Loop element to repeat an action on all of the retrieved records.
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Decisions, Related Records and Buttons
- This video covers how to use the Decision element to choose which path your flow should take based on a picklist value on a record. It also covers how to add a screen to your flow to show information to a user, and how to create an object-specific Flow quick action to launch your screen flow from a button on record detail page in Lightning.
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Screen Elements
- This video covers how to configure different types of screen components such as choices, picklists, radio button groups, and checkboxes, so you can get the right kinds of data from your users in an interactive screen flow.
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Roundup of Other Flow Features
- This video covers how to create more advanced logic in flows using formulas. It also shows how flows can be extended using flow actions, AppExchange, and more.
Watch the Tutorial Videos
This is only the beginning! Advanced Admins can do all of this and more. Of course, you can also be sure that Salesforce will continue improving and tweaking their system at regular intervals.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
by Mike Walsh | Mar 6, 2018 | Salesforce Tips
If you have seen our posts over the last two weeks then you already know that we have been rounding some of the top features of the Spring ‘18 Release of Salesforce. There are a lot of updates in this release and can all be a lot to sort through. That is why we decided to break it down a bit and give you a simplified guide to some of the top features.
Before diving in, If you would like to catch up with our previous articles, click here for Part 1, or Part 2.
Spring 18 Features – Part 3
Rooting out duplicates in the system can be a big challenge for any organization. Anyone, from admins to users, hates dealing with dupes. Not to mention that duplicates can cause issues of efficiency and functionality issues, in addition to being plain old annoying. Salesforce is now introducing the duplicate jobs features, allowing you to report on, view, and merge duplicates in your system. Set up your validation rules and run the program in the background. This is an easy way to take control of your database, and prevent bad data from hurting your business. Previously, you could only do this through a 3rd party app, integrated to Salesforce, but it will now be a standard feature for Lightning.
These days, most business professionals have a LinkedIn account. The platform is a great place to network and connect with other professionals. So wouldn’t it be nice to generate leads from all those contacts? That is exactly what Salesforce thought. This new feature allows users to connect their Salesforce to LinkedIn ads. This Web2Lead style integration creates leads in Salesforce from ad clicks on LinkedIn. Available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning, this is a great way to passively increases your daily lead flow.
Updating large volumes of records can be rather mind numbing for Lighting users. The default record updating function made the process slow and tedious, however, this is problem no longer. Salesforce has finally built mass actions into the system as a native feature. You can now perform mass updates for up to 200 records, all from a simple list view. Let the OCD flow through you, as you can organize and clean up all your records in a fraction of the time it used to take.
There are quite a few enhancements for Flows in Lightning. The breakdown is as follows:
- Better Flow Screens – Lightning Components allow you to build flow screens that look and operate in any way that you want them to.
- Override the Default Header and Footer – Style customizations for both Lighting and Classic
- Track Progress Through a Flow with Stages (Beta) – A developing feature so you can indicate a user’s point in any flow
- Call JavaScript Directly from Your Flow with Local Actions (Pilot) – Pull data from an on-premises or private cloud database directly into your flow without going through the Salesforce server. Or do things directly in the browser, such as open a particular URL or confirm that a record was created with a toast message.
- Upload Files Directly from a Flow – Don’t break your concentration or lose your place in the flow to add important documents
- New Labels for Some Flow Types – Flow type changed to “Screen Flow”. Field Service Mobile is now called Field Service Mobile Flow, and Field Service Web has changed to Field Service Snap-In Flow.
- Launch Flows as Subtabs in Lightning Console Apps (Pilot) – When records are opened in a console app and there’s an associated flow, the flow is autolaunched as a subtab.
- Launch a Flow from an Object-Specific Action – Add flows to the action menu on your Lightning pages without hunting down the flow’s URL.
- Start Flows Dynamically from Apex – Previously, you could start a flow interview from Apex, but you had to hardcode the flow name in your method.
- Check Which Flow Translations Are Out of Date – When you change a flow that has translations, the affected translations are marked out of date in the UI and in bilingual export files.
- Execute All Autolaunched Flow Interviews When Invoked in Bulk (Critical Update) – When flow interviews are invoked in bulk, they are now all executed. Previously, when multiple flow interviews were invoked in bulk, only the first interview was started and executed; the remaining interviews were discarded.
If you aren’t familiar, Paths are a feature of Salesforce Lightning that allows users to see a visual representation of where a record is in its life cycle and provides users advice on what actions are needed based on the records current state. Starting with Leads and Opportunities, Paths have been very successful for guiding users and ensuring proper progress of objects through their life cycle.
For Spring ‘18, Salesforce is expanding the role of Paths to now include any standard object. Admins can take advantage, and ensure users have the proper directions they need for any object. Paths can now work for Accounts, Campaigns, Cases or any other standard object. A custom component setup allows you to build out your paths fairly quickly, and add an extra layer of knowledge for your users.
Conclusion
That’s it for the Salesforce Spring ‘18 Release. We hope you have enjoyed this series and that it has helped you digest all the information a little easier.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
by Mike Walsh | Jan 17, 2014 | Salesforce Tips
If you’re a Salesforce junkie (read: geek) like us, you probably already know that Spring ’14 is on its way with some awesome new features. But if you’re more excited about the upcoming Game of Thrones season than release notes, let me highlight a few things that might be really useful for you and your team.
- Forecasts are getting a make-over, allowing for multiple forecast types.
- Salesforce1 is continuing to bring the platform to a whole new level with Twitter access, 2-click messages to your team, and embedded report charts on records right in the app.
- Chatter is getting even more useful with topics for sorting records, the ability to post and highlight announcements, send private messages, and share badges. Basically, Chatter is getting even more of the social media features you love to use on your lunch break.
- Reports and Dashboards will be easier to create, filter, and export for data work. You can also add report charts to Visualforce pages with a single line of code.
On top of the above features, Salesforce is doing the unthinkable and premiering a new Orders object. If you’ve been banging your head against a table trying to create an order management system in your org, this is going to be a game-changer! Integrated with Salesforce1, Accounts, Contracts, and Price Books, this new feature will save you weeks of custom development!
Keep an eye out for our upcoming post about this awesome new feature, check out Salesforce’s New Features page for more information on the Spring ’14 release, and get psyched for some cool new tools coming your way this Spring!
-Jared and the Salesforce Guys
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.
