The Salesforce Admin’s Guide to Choosing the Right Flow
Summary
Choosing the right Salesforce Flow type starts with understanding the trigger event that initiates the flow. Different flow types serve distinct roles, from interactive screen flows that guide users, to record-triggered flows that react silently to data changes, to schedule-triggered batch tasks, autolaunched reusable modules, and platform event listeners. This guide breaks down the common flow types and their triggers so you can pick the best one upfront, saving time and avoiding rebuilds. It also briefly introduces advanced flows like orchestrations and approval processes for complex automation. With this knowledge, Salesforce professionals can confidently build clean, scalable flows aligned to their business needs.
Takeaways
- Identify the trigger event first to select the correct flow type.
- Use screen flows for user interactions and guided inputs.
- Record-triggered flows replace legacy Process Builder and Workflow Rules.
- Autolaunched flows enable reusable, modular logic called by other automations.
- Flow Orchestrations coordinate complex, multi-step processes with multiple users.
Flows are massive. You’re sitting there with a business requirement, staring at that “New Flow” screen, and you don’t know which flow type to choose. It can be intimidating, for sure. You may choose a flow type and start to build it, only to find out partway through that the flow type won’t work. Now, you have the task of copying and pasting all your configuration work from the original flow type to another flow type. What a time-sink! Many of us flow builders have been there and can definitely relate (myself included). I’m here to help demystify flow types with this guide that you can use as your compass. But first, let’s level set. I’m not going to teach you how to build flows here. Instead, I’ll help you determine which “flow road” to take. The primary difference between flow types is the trigger event: “What tells the flow to start?” If you can answer that question about your business requirement, you know which flow type to choose.