Before vs After Record Triggered Flow

In the ever-evolving landscape of Salesforce, the introduction of record-triggered flows has marked a significant leap in business automation. By offering before and after save options, Salesforce provides users with enhanced flexibility to cater to diverse automation needs. This comprehensive guide aims to elucidate both flow types’ distinctions and benefits.

What will you learn:

• Learn the fundamental differences between “before save” and “after save” record-triggered flows in Salesforce.
• Understand each flow type’s primary benefits, limitations, and ideal use cases to better cater to diverse automation needs.
• Discover recommendations on transitioning from Workflow Rules and Process Builder to these flow-based automations for optimized business processes.

Understanding Record-Triggered Flows

At their core, record-triggered flows are automation processes that activate based on specific record activities, such as creation, update, or deletion. Using record-triggered flows to automate tasks has never been more intuitive and customizable. Depending on when you want the automation to occur about saving the record, you’ll lean towards either a before or after save flow.

Before Save Flows (Fast Field Updates)

What Are They?

Before saving flows, intervene before the data gets committed to the Salesforce database, aiming to streamline the data-entry process.

Primary Benefits:

• Speed: One of the most striking benefits of before-save flows is their speed. They operate at nearly 10 times the speed of after-save flows, making them ideal for real-time operations.
• Efficiency: Since they directly modify the record before it hits the database, these flows sidestep the need for additional DML operations, conserving your Salesforce limits.

Limitations:

• Scope: Their primary function is to modify fields on the triggering record. This means you can’t introduce new records or delete existing ones within this flow type.
• Field Access: Since they operate before saving the record, certain field values that are determined post-save, like auto-number or formula fields, are inaccessible.

Ideal Use Cases:

These flows shine in scenarios where direct and rapid updates to the triggering record are necessary. Examples include data validation, standardization, or immediate calculations.

After Save Flows (Actions and Related Records)

What Are They?

After save flows come into action once the record data is safely stored in the Salesforce database, granting a wide canvas for automation.

Primary Benefits:

• Versatility: These flows can interact with multiple records, not just the triggering one. They can create, modify, or remove any record within Salesforce.
• Complex Operations: They support diverse operations such as sending emails, interacting with external systems, or invoking other flows.
• Path Options: They offer varied execution paths, including immediate, scheduled, and asynchronous, providing a spectrum of automation timing options. Here is where the power of the Scheduled path in record-triggered Flow truly shines, allowing admins and developers to set up actions that occur at predefined intervals or specific future dates, thereby creating a reliable, automated workflow that doesn’t require manual intervention after the initial setup.

Limitations:

• Performance: Being more versatile makes them slightly slower than before save flows.
• DML Constraints: Actions within these flows count towards Salesforce’s DML limits, which can be a consideration for organizations with extensive automation.

Ideal Use Cases:

When the automation requires interacting with multiple records, sending notifications, or performing a series of chained actions based on the triggering record, after-save flows are the best bet.

Order of Execution

Understanding the sequence in which these flows operate concerning other processes is crucial. Typically, before save flows execute first, followed by before save triggers, after save triggers, and finally, after save flows.

Also Read – Salesforce Order of Execution: A Complete Guide

Recommendations for Migration

As Salesforce pivots more towards flow-based automation, it’s recommended to start transitioning from Workflow Rules and Process Builder to record-triggered flows. Before save flows might seem more limited, but their speed offers a significant advantage for straightforward operations. On the other hand, after-save flows, with their expansive capabilities, can replace intricate processes designed using Process Builder.

Conclusion

Selecting between before-save and after-save record-triggered flows essentially boils down to your specific automation requirements; for quick field updates, before-save flows are your go-to, while for broader automation involving other records or more intricate actions, after-save flows are more appropriate. With Salesforce’s continued push towards flows, understanding the nuances of these automation tools is essential for efficient and effective business processes.

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