Salesforce Workflows & Process Builder: Plan for the Future, Nonprofits

The future of Salesforce automation is Flow, and the future is now! In the Winter ‘23 Admin Countdown, Salesforce has mapped out the release schedule for a series of changes, starting this fall, meant to move everyone over to Flow. Soon, you will see some differences in the Workflows & Process Builder features in your Salesforce account. The Winter ’23 release, coming mid-October 2022, will eliminate the “create new” button for workflows and Processes, but all current ones will continue to work as they have (for now).

Whenever there is a change in a platform, it’s important to think about what you are doing now while preparing for the future. If you keep updated on the changes, think them through, and prepare your staff, you can minimize technical issues and confusion along the way.

We know many nonprofits are using workflows for donor communications, tasks, and other crucial automations. This is an opportunity to set aside some time to think through how you’ll manage the coming release, along with the eventual move to Flow.

Educate Your Staff: No New Workflow Rules or Process Builder

First, you’ll want to make sure everyone in your organization with Salesforce Admin access is on the same page. Let everyone know that the button for “Create New” in Workflow Rules and Process Builder is going away. Point them to the Trailhead for Flow so they can familiarize themselves with how it works. Starting ASAP, encourage everyone to create any new automations in Flow.

Then you can start preparing for the migration.

Inventory All Existing Automations

To view all your existing workflows, go to Setup and type “Workflow” in the Quick Find box:

Select Workflow Rules to see a list of active workflows:

You can do the same for your existing Processes, just type Process Builder in the Quick Find bar:

Validate Your Processes

Here we mean “processes” in the more general sense! Use the lists you found to map out all the existing automations your organization is currently using, and how they intersect with each other. Thinking through this piece will help you to see what needs to be in Flow. Two big questions to ask yourself and others at your org:

• What’s Needed Now? Does your organization really need all the automations that have been set up? Over time, they have a tendency to accumulate. The list can get long, but not all of them are useful anymore. Clean out those dusty corners and cull old automations that have been retired or duplicated. Are there tasks being created that no one ever completes? Are there field updates happening on objects you don’t even use anymore? This is a good time to clean things up and make them more efficient.

• What’s Needed in the Future? Now that you’ve got a list of the automations that are actually being used, it’s time to think about what you’re NOT doing that might be good to start! Talk with your users to get ideas. What’s missing for them? What’s cumbersome? This is your chance to plan for future automations. What areas of your work will be growing in the future? What might need to shift to accommodate for that growth?

Map It Out for Flow

Now you can take everything you’ve learned and map out how you’ll redesign your processes (small-p!) using Flow. Can you consolidate multiple automations into one? How can you simplify as much as possible? Flow can feel intimidating, but it’s just a logic puzzle — think through your requirements step by step, just as you did in the beginning with workflows. Make sure you’re following Flow best practices (and check out some additional resources at the end of this post). Create your migration plan, including whatever phases your mind wants to build into the big move.

Prepare and Stay in the Loop

Stay up to date by reading all the Salesforce release notes and diving into the Trailheads on the release resources page. These will help you prepare yourself and your users for the new changes. Keep an eye out for new announcements — for example, there is a migration tool in beta right now, which could be a big help for organizations that have a LOT of existing automations. If that’s you, you’ll want to know when it’s generally available and plan accordingly!

Prepare Now

The full retirement of Workflow and Process Builder hasn’t been formally announced yet, but it’s expected to happen sometime in the next couple of years. So, thinking through these steps now will help you and your users be comfortable with the move. Even though most of these automations happen in the background, mostly invisible to non-admin end users, you’ll still want to think through the steps and make sure everyone is on the same page through the process, as you would with any other change that affects how technology is used at your organization.

As always, we are here to help you with technology changes. Send a support email or contact us if you would like us to do the work for you so you can focus on other important mission-driven projects.

Resources

Release Resources Page
Release Notes for Winter ’23
Salesforce Help Page on Creating Flows
Trailhead for Flow
Salesforce Blog Post Announcement for Moving to Flow
Tips and Information for Managing the Retirement of Workflows and Process Builder