Everything You Need to Know About Salesforce Workflow Rules and Process Builder

In the above example, we created a new task with our rule. This and most other actions can be created one step at a time as you go, but if you want to send an email, you must have existing templates before you start. Here’s how to create them:

1. Unlike with the workflow rules, you can create email templates in the more intuitive Lightning Experience. To navigate to the template builder, click the settings gear icon in the top-right corner of your dashboard. Then in the top-right of that screen, click the Create drop-down menu and select Email Template.

2. Next, select what type of email template you want to create.

You can use plain text to create a simple, natural email that contains merge field data like {!Contact.FirstName} to autofill known variables and speed up email writing. You can also add attachments to your templates, which could be used to include a current sales sheet along with all prospecting emails, for example.

You can also choose HTML (using Letterhead) to build a template with your company letterhead. To use this option, you must have existing letterhead under Setup > Email > Letterheads. You can edit colors, height, dividing lines, headers, footers, logos, and more on this template without having prior HTML experience.

 Once you create the letterhead, you can choose from a series of preset formats that divide the content into blocks, and then insert images and use the WYSIWYG editor. To ensure your message gets across no matter what, you will be prompted to create a text-only version for situations where an email app such as Outlook doesn’t automatically load images and formatting. This option also allows for attachments and merge fields.

The third option is creating a custom template (without using Letterhead), allowing for an entirely HTML email template’s code to be inserted and rendered. This is helpful if your organization uses a more advanced email building tool or completely custom developed code, and you want to maintain that for automated emails through Salesforce. Again, merge fields, attachments, and a plain text emergency version are all available through this option.  

The final option is to use Visualforce. This is a custom tag-based code language for Salesforce, similar to HTML. Its main advantage is including tags that relate specifically to Salesforce data, such as fields and records.

 3. Select your creation method and develop your template based on your available assets and expertise, along with the purpose. Create a simple conversational message with the Text option. If you want a robust marketing email but lack the design talent, HTML with Letterhead is an easy way to sidestep the limitation. Animated, interactive, and otherwise advanced emails should be built in HTML or Visualforce.

4. Use merge fields to make your emails even more automatic. Insert first and last names carefully, and construct sentences that sound human and not automated. Insert organizations or areas for emails trying to sell to problems in a particular city, for example. Plan them out carefully to avoid embarrassing automated mistakes.

5. Add attachments to your templates, where necessary. Attachments like sales sheets, reports, and other frequently sent documents can be perfect to include in templates. To avoid oversending these materials, create several specific templates for situations where one attachment might be better than another.

6. Create a plain text version of your email when prompted. Not all web browsers and email clients give automatic permissions to display HTML images and formatting, which could leave your email an unreadable mess that goes straight to the trash can. The plain text version will display when HTML is rejected, allowing your message to remain persuasive and intentional. Avoid simply copying over HTML text — tailor your template to the fact that your immaculate designs and company logo won’t be there. Provide the same information in a short message that doesn’t rely on pictures to bring it all home.

Special Lightning Experience Templates

Say you’re in a lead’s record and you decide to send them a fresh email. You’ve started drafting it in the Activity sidebar, using merge fields, and it hits you: This would make a great template!

 Luckily, you don’t have to re-create all your work in the email template builder. Instead, when you have the email where you want it, hover your mouse over the plus (+) icon next to a document, and select Save as a new template. Then you can name it and reuse it in the future.

Using Process Builder to Create Workflows

Salesforce doesn’t hide the fact that it would prefer users to stick to the latest version of its platform, given its “no software,” cloud-based philosophy. Process Builder is considered an improved version of workflow rules in nearly every regard, and it provides a more intuitive way to think about your process automation. That is why it is available in the updated Lightning Experience, while workflow rules are relegated to Salesforce Classic. It should be noted that the email template creation method above works for Process Builder, too. 

Here’s a basic guide on how to achieve nearly the same goal as the workflow rule example above, but with extra “if/else logic” to make it more nuanced and workable for multiple scenarios.

1. Navigate to Process Builder in the Lightning experience by clicking the gear icon in the top-right corner, selecting Setup Home, then clicking the Create menu in the top-right corner, followed by Workflow Process.

2. Click the New button to create your first process. Give the process an identifying name and description, along with a completely unique API Name (usually autogenerated from the process name you choose). For this example, we’ll call our process the Account Manager Assigner, with a purpose broader than the workflow rule example earlier in this article. Its description in this process divides newly won opportunities up to the appropriate account manager and sets follow-up tasks for them.

These processes can contain a network of related rules; provide a name and API name that is unique, broad, and forward-thinking to clarify their intent; and help admins decide whether to include new rules under the existing process. 

3. Select when the process starts, which is essentially the evaluation criteria of Process Builder. You can choose A Record Changes, which allows for processes that react to human input, or when It’s invoked by another process, which allows for chained automated processes. For our example, we’ll choose A Record Changes.

4. Now you’ll see a basic process flow, which has similar inputs to workflow rules but in a more visual layout. From Start, there’s a space to add a base object, plus custom criteria that can either be true or false. When true, it can trigger immediate actions and/or scheduled actions, and either stop or begin more actions. When false, it could stop, or add new if/else criteria for evaluation. 

5. We’ll start by borrowing from the earlier workflow rule. Add an object, then the opportunity. Select to start the process when a record is created or edited. There is an advanced option that allows for a process to evaluate multiple times per transaction, but it isn’t necessary for this process.

6. The new version of criteria rules is slightly different. You still give your rule a name that helps easily identify the step, but now you can set the executive criteria to when the conditions are met, when a fully custom formula evaluates to true, or no criteria at all — just execute the actions. If you select Conditions, they work the same way, with a field, operator, and value, but now they include a type, based on the affected field. You can still customize the logic between each line to be OR or AND. For the example, we’ll name this Opportunity Won High Value. This action group’s criteria is set to whether the opportunity’s “won” state equals TRUE and its value is greater than or equal to $1 million.

7. Now we need to define our first criteria action group. The actions available in the Process Builder include Create a Record, Email Alerts, and Update Record, but Outbound Messages are no longer available. In its place is Quick Actions for creating micro records like logging a call, and Post to Chatter (Salesforce’s intranet social network tool), which can help with sales competitions and sharing information.

For our example, we’ll select Create a Record, and name it Follow Up New Client as before. Set the record type to Task. Now we can customize the field values that define the task. This is similar to creating a task in workflow rules, but now you can customize every aspect of it — nothing is assumed.

 The three field values we’ll use are Assigned to ID “Lead Account Manager” (a placeholder name for this example), Priority set to High, and Due Date Only = TODAY + 2. What this means is that a won opportunity worth $1 million or more will create a task assigned to the lead account manager and that has it marked as high priority and due in just two days. 

Under advanced options, Process Builder asks if you want to execute the actions only when specified changes are made to the record. Typically, when this option appears, you want to tick the i box, as it lets the process ignore irrelevant record changes, such as adding a description to the opportunity.

8. At this point, we have a solid rule that mostly mirrors the workflow rule from before. However, look at the options before us. If the criteria is true, it will create our task and then stop. If it isn’t true, it will stop. That’s not a very robust process.

For example, we could create another immediate action that sets a second follow-up task for the salesperson. We could create an action that sends an email alert to the assigned user’s manager, informing them to check in with their account manager to ensure they followed through with the won opportunity. Or we could add another criteria defining a different set of actions for a different outcome. 

9. Let’s explore the latter for an example of an if/else statement. This criteria will be Opportunity Won Low Value, where the reminder task is assigned to a lower-level account executive when the won opportunity is worth less than $1 million. Everything else is the same, but now we’re developing a branching path that automates every outcome. A good idea for this is to post to the Chatter of the lead account manager to let them know that the account executive has received this client in a dashboard they’ll always have open.

10. Consider the other logical outcome: The opportunity is lost. Creating yet another criteria for this situation closes the loop, which creates a full process for one set of common activities. This last event might inform the VP of sales via Chatter that an opportunity is closed and lost.