Understanding Salesforce Flow
Salesforce Flow is a powerful, point-and-click automation tool that lets admins and developers automate complex business processes without writing code. Flow Builder enables you to collect data from users, update or create records, call Apex actions, call external services, and orchestrate multi-step business logic using a visual canvas.
Why Flows Matter
Flows have become the cornerstone of Salesforce automation. They can replace many use-cases previously handled by Workflow Rules, Process Builder and some Apex triggers. Flows support screen interactions (for guided UI), background automation, and complex branching logic—making them ideal for modern Salesforce implementations.
Types of Flows
Key flow types include:
- Screen Flow: Interactive flows that present screens to users (used in Lightning pages, utility bar, or actions).
- Record-Triggered Flow: Runs automatically when a record is created, updated, or deleted. Can be before-save (fast field updates) or after-save (complex actions and integrations).
- Scheduled Flow: Runs at a specified time or on a recurring schedule to process batches of records.
- Autolaunched Flow: No UI; invoked by other flows, Apex, Process Builder, or REST—used for service tasks.
Common Flow Elements
Flows are composed of elements. Some commonly used elements are:
- Get Records — retrieve records from the database
- Create/Update/Delete Records — DML operations
- Decision — branching logic based on conditions
- Assignment — set or change variable values
- Loop — iterate over collections
- Action — invoke Apex, callouts, Quick Actions, or send emails
When to Use Flow vs. Apex
Use Flow when business logic can be expressed using point-and-click elements, especially for admin-owned automations. Use Apex when you need:
- Complex bulk processing that requires advanced algorithms or performance optimization
- Unsupported integrations or low-level platform operations
- Functionality not available via Flow actions
Best Practices
- Name elements clearly and follow a consistent naming convention for flows and variables.
- Prefer before-save Record-Triggered Flows for simple field updates to improve performance.
- Minimize SOQL/DML in loops — use bulk patterns and collection-based operations.
- Use subflows for reusable logic and keep flows modular.
- Test flows with different data sets and enable fault paths to gracefully handle errors.
Simple Flow Example (pseudocode)
// Record-Triggered Flow: When Opportunity StageName = 'Closed Won'
1. Get Records -> Account where Id = {!$Record.AccountId}
2. Decision -> If Account.Type = 'Customer'
3. Assignment -> Set {!message} = 'Thank you'
4. Action -> Send Email using {!message}
Salesforce Flow is versatile—from simple field updates to orchestrating multi-system integrations. Learning Flow Builder is essential for admins and developers who want to deliver scalable, maintainable automation.