Button on a related list that opens a screen flow
Summary
This content outlines a practical way to replace the standard 'New' button on a related list (like Contacts on an Account) with a button that opens a Screen Flow. It explains common approaches and highlights their UX drawbacks, then presents a clever flow-based hack that mimics the native button experience while enabling automation and UI simplification. Salesforce teams can use this pattern to improve user experience and streamline data entry with minimal development effort.
Takeaways
- Replace standard related list New buttons with screen flow-triggering custom buttons.
- Avoid UX confusion by placing automation-enabled buttons directly on related lists.
- Use flows to prepopulate fields and simplify new record creation without coding.
- Hiding standard buttons helps streamline the interface when adding custom actions.
- This screen flow hack offers more customization without needing a Lightning Web Component.
Imagine this: on the account page, a list of related contacts is displayed. On the related list, clicking the standard New button opens the standard New Contact page. While this works, sometimes you want to minimize the number of fields displayed and/or introduce automation to prefill some fields. One approach is to create a new Lightning Web Component and then use it to override the New button. However this requires development, which we generally try to avoid. A second approach is to create a new action button on the account that creates a contact. This works well as long as you dont need to introduce automation as part of this process. You can then hide the standard New button on the Contact related list. A third approach is to create a screen flow and associate it with a New Contact button at the top of the Account. This is similar to the second approach but allows more customization. However the last two approaches change the UX.