Salesforce Flow is a powerful point-and-click automation tool that lets you streamline business processes in Salesforce without writing code. In FieldKo (built on the Salesforce platform), you can use Flows to automate tasks and alerts based on your field data, such as Visits, Tasks, and Surveys. This article introduces what Flows are, how they work, and walks you through a basic example relevant to FieldKo. By the end, you’ll understand how to create a simple record-triggered Flow using standard Salesforce Flow Builder features like triggers, decisions, assignments, and actions.
What is a Salesforce Flow?
A Salesforce Flow is essentially an automated workflow that you configure visually. It’s called "Flow" because you build it like a flowchart: you define a starting point, add logical steps, and specify outcomes. When the Flow runs, it can evaluate conditions and perform actions automatically, all behind the scenes in Salesforce. In other words, once a Flow is activated, it listens for a trigger event and then executes your defined process without any manual intervention.
Key points about Flows:
No coding required: Salesforce Flows are declarative. You drag and drop elements in Flow Builder to set up logic. This makes automation accessible to administrators who aren’t developers.
Trigger-driven: Every Flow has a trigger that starts it (for example, a record being created or updated). When that event happens, the Flow is launched automatically.
Multi-step logic: Within the Flow, you can include complex logic (like checks and calculations). It can branch into different paths based on conditions (similar to if/then in a spreadsheet or code).
Automated actions: At the end of a path (or along the way), the Flow can perform one or many actions – for example, updating a record, creating a follow-up task, or sending an email notification.
Because FieldKo is built on Salesforce, all FieldKo data (e.g. Visits, Tasks, Survey Responses) are stored as Salesforce objects. This means you can plug FieldKo records directly into Flows. Any standard Salesforce automation you create can incorporate FieldKo’s objects. For instance, you could have a Flow monitor the Visit object and react whenever a visit record is completed. In short, if you can imagine an automated process involving your FieldKo data, a Salesforce Flow can handle it using standard Salesforce functionality.
Key Flow Elements and Terminology
When building a Flow in Salesforce, you’ll encounter a few core components. Understanding these will help you design your automation correctly:
Trigger: This is what starts the Flow. In a Record-Triggered Flow, the trigger is a record event (such as “A Visit record is created or updated”). You specify the object (e.g. Visit) and when to trigger (on create, on update, or on delete). You can also set entry conditions so the Flow only runs for certain records (for example, only trigger when a Visit’s status is “Completed”). The trigger provides the Flow with the relevant record data to use in subsequent steps.
Decision Element: A decision is like an “if/else” check inside your Flow. This element lets you define one or more criteria and branch the Flow’s path depending on whether those conditions are met. For example, a Decision might check: “Does this Visit have any required survey responses missing?” If yes, the Flow will follow one path (to handle the issue); if no, it can follow another or simply end. Every Decision can have multiple defined outcomes (with conditions you set) and a default outcome for when none of the conditions match.
Assignment Element: Assignments let you set or update values within the Flow. Think of this as storing data or preparing information to use later. For instance, you might use an Assignment to update a variable (a temporary holding place for data in the Flow) – perhaps counting how many required questions were skipped, or setting a text variable to craft a message. Assignments are useful for manipulating data without immediately saving to the database. Later, you can use these values when creating records or sending notifications.
Action: An Action is something the Flow does (an outcome). Salesforce provides many built-in actions: you can create or update a record, send an email alert, post to Chatter, send a custom notification, and much more. In FieldKo scenarios, common actions might be:
Create a Task: e.g. assign a follow-up Task to a user if something needs attention.
Send an Email: e.g. email a manager or rep with a compliance alert.
Update a Field: e.g. mark a Visit record as “Flagged” for follow-up.
Launch a Sub-flow or Apex (advanced): e.g. invoke another automation or code (only if needed for complex scenarios)
All these elements are arranged on the canvas in Flow Builder. When the Flow runs, it moves step-by-step through your elements. The trigger supplies data (like the Visit record that kicked things off). The Flow then evaluates any Decisions to choose the right path, performs Assignments to set up values if needed, and finally executes the Actions that automate your process.
Building a Basic Flow Example
Let’s walk through a simplified example to tie this together. Suppose you want to ensure that when a field rep completes a Visit in FieldKo, they didn’t skip any required survey responses. Maybe you have certain survey questions that must be answered during a store visit. If a rep submits the visit without answering those, we want to automatically create a follow-up task (or send an alert) so nothing falls through the cracks. We can accomplish this with a record-triggered Flow on the Visit object.
Scenario: “When a Visit is marked complete, check if any required survey questions were left unanswered. If yes, alert the team or assign a task for follow-up.”
Here’s how you could build this Flow, step by step:
Create a New Flow: In Salesforce Setup, go to Flows and click “New Flow.” Select Record-Triggered Flow as the type (since we want it to run when a Visit record changes). For this example, choose “When a record is updated or created” as the trigger, and set the object to Visit. We’ll configure it to run after save because we plan to create a task (which is an action on a different record).
Set Entry Conditions: We only want this to run for completed visits. In the Start element, set a condition like Status equals “Completed”. You might also add a condition to ensure the visit has an associated survey that’s required, if applicable (for instance, “Survey Required” equals True).
Add a Decision Element: Drag a Decision onto the canvas. Name it something like “Missing Required Answers?”. Configure one outcome (call it “MissingAnswers”) with criteria that checks for the presence of any required survey responses that are blank. How exactly to check this will depend on FieldKo’s data model:
One approach is if FieldKo marks a Visit with a flag or count of unanswered required questions (e.g. a field like Unanswered_Required_Questions__c). If such a field > 0, that’s your condition.
Or, if required questions are stored as related records, you might need a prior Get Records element to find related survey responses. But for simplicity, assume there's a boolean field on Visit like Required_Questions_Completed__c. The Decision criteria could be “Required_Questions_Completed__c equals False”.
The Decision’s default outcome will cover cases where no answers are missing (in which case the Flow can simply end without doing anything).
Add an Action – Create Task: On the outcome path where answers are missing, add an Action element. Select the Create Records action (to create a Task record). Set up the new Task with details such as:
Assigned To: e.g. the Visit’s owner or perhaps the manager of that rep. (You can assign to a specific user or role; this might involve doing a Get Records to find the manager user.)
Subject: something like “Follow up on incomplete survey for Visit [Visit Name]”.
Related To (WhatId): link it to the Visit or Account if appropriate, so context is clear.
Due Date: maybe ASAP or next day.
Status/Priority: as needed (e.g. Status = “Not Started”, High priority).
This automated Task creation means as soon as a problematic Visit is synced, a Task will appear in Salesforce for the responsible person to address the issue. (Alternatively, instead of a Task you could use an Email Alert action to notify someone directly. The setup would be similar—use an Action to send an email template to the desired recipients.)
Test the Flow: Before activating, test with sample data. For example, create a dummy Visit record (or update one) marked “Completed” but leave a required survey question blank. After saving, check that the Flow creates the follow-up Task as expected. Salesforce provides a debug mode in Flow Builder you can use to simulate the Flow with sample values.
Activate the Flow: Once you’re satisfied, activate it. From then on, every time a Visit is completed without required answers, the Flow will automatically run. The assigned user (say a manager) will immediately get a Task on their to-do list to follow up, ensuring the issue is addressed promptly.
This basic example demonstrates the power of Salesforce Flow: it monitors a condition and takes action automatically. No one has to manually chase down missing data – the system proactively flags it.
You can adapt this pattern to countless other scenarios in FieldKo. For instance, you might extend it to send an email alert to the area manager whenever such an incident occurs, or post a message in a collaboration feed. The point is that with a Flow in place, your processes become more reliable and hands-free.
Using FieldKo Data in Flows
One of the key advantages of FieldKo being native to Salesforce is that all your FieldKo objects are available in Flow Builder as triggers or resources. You can build Flows on standard objects (Accounts, Contacts) or on FieldKo’s custom objects like Visit, Task, Survey, Survey Response, etc. Admins can create Flows for other FieldKo-related events:
Visit Flows: e.g. trigger when a Visit is created to auto-assign initial Tasks; or when a Visit is deleted to clean up child records.
Task Flows: e.g. trigger when a Task record is marked “Skipped” to log a compliance event or notify a supervisor.
Survey Flows: e.g. trigger when a Survey Response record fails an audit question to alert management (we will cover similar ideas in the next article on Compliance Alerts).
Account Flows: e.g. if FieldKo tracks store compliance at the Account level, a flow could update an Account’s “Compliance Score” each time related Visits are completed.
When setting up these automations, use the same Flow elements we discussed: define the right trigger, use Decisions to check conditions, and choose Actions that make sense (create a Task, send an Email, update fields, etc.). Salesforce Flow’s flexibility means you can almost certainly support any business workflow you need. And because these are standard Salesforce tools, you benefit from ongoing improvements Salesforce makes to Flow Builder (ensuring your automations are robust and up-to-date).
Recap and Next Steps
We’ve introduced the basics of Salesforce Flows and how they apply to FieldKo. To recap:
Salesforce Flows are Salesforce’s declarative automation tool, which you can use to automate processes in FieldKo without code.
Flows consist of triggers, logic, and actions: they kick off on events (like a record change), evaluate conditions (Decisions), and perform work (Assignments/Actions) like updating records or sending notifications.
FieldKo data can drive Flows: since FieldKo runs on Salesforce, objects like Visits and Tasks can trigger Flows or be updated by Flows, integrating your field operations with powerful automation.
Example given: we walked through creating a Flow that catches incomplete visit surveys and assigns a follow-up Task automatically, illustrating how Flows enforce business rules in real time.
With these basics, you’re ready to explore building your own Flows. In Salesforce, try creating a simple Flow on a FieldKo object to get familiar. Start small – for example, notify yourself when a Visit is created – and then gradually incorporate Decisions and more complex logic.
Salesforce’s documentation and Trailhead modules are excellent next resources to deepen your Flow skills. With practice, you’ll be able to implement all sorts of automations, ensuring FieldKo works even harder for you by automating routine processes and safeguarding data quality.