Schedule Triggered Flow Considerations in Salesforce

Salesforce’s schedule-triggered flows offer a powerful way to automate tasks based on specific timings and frequencies. To fully leverage their capabilities, it’s essential to understand their distinct considerations and nuances.  

In this blog, you will learn:

• A brief overview of Schedule-Triggered Flow in Salesforce.
• Important points to keep in mind when setting up and using schedule-triggered flows.
• Tips to ensure your flows run smoothly and efficiently.

With these insights, you’ll be better equipped to utilize schedule-triggered flows to their maximum potential, enhancing your Salesforce experience and productivity. Let’s dive in!

What is a Schedule-Triggered Flow?

A schedule-triggered flow is a type of Salesforce flow that initiates based on a predefined schedule. Unlike other flows that might be triggered by a record change or a manual action, these flows run at set times and intervals.

Key Considerations for Schedule-Triggered Flows in Salesforce

1. Initiation: A schedule-triggered flow is strictly time-bound. It starts only at its designated time and frequency. Manual launches or triggers from other events are not possible.
2. Start Time: The time set for the flow to start is always in accordance with the default time zone of the Salesforce org.
3. Permissions: To activate a flow with a trigger, the ‘View All Data’ permission is mandatory.
4. Flow Interviews: There’s a cap on how many schedule-triggered flow interviews can be conducted in a day. The maximum is either 250,000 or a figure derived by multiplying the number of user licenses in your org by 200, whichever number is higher. It’s crucial to monitor this, especially if your flow runs on batches of records.
5. Scheduled Jobs: Deleting a scheduled flow from the ‘Scheduled Jobs’ page in Setup will cancel all its future runs. To resume, you’d need to deactivate and then reactivate the flow.
6. User: The ‘Automated Process’ user is responsible for running these flows.
7. Apex Code: If your flow needs to invoke Apex code, ensure the ‘Require User Access to Apex Classes Invoked by Flow’ update is not enabled. Activating this update can cause the flow to fail when calling Apex.
8. Callouts: A unique aspect of schedule-triggered flows is their ability to make callouts. However, this is only possible after a ‘Wait’ element has been executed.
9. Update Records Element: If you’re using the $Record global variable in an ‘Update Records’ element, it’s advisable to enable the ‘Filter inaccessible fields from flow requests’ in the process automation settings of your org.
10. Filter Logic: While defining multiple filters, the default logic is usually ‘AND’. But, if multiple filters use the same field with the equals operator, they combine using ‘OR’.
11. Flow Types: It’s worth noting that screen flows cannot be referenced from an autolaunched flow.
12. Apex Transactions: If an asynchronous flow invokes synchronous Apex transactions, they will count towards the synchronous per-transaction Apex limits.

Also Read – Schedule-Triggered Flows To Automate Tasks in Salesforce

Tips for Optimizing Schedule-Triggered Flows

• To momentarily pause a flow, insert a ‘Wait’ element. This becomes particularly beneficial when initiating callouts or interfacing with external entities.
• Always monitor the volume of records processed by your flow. Using debug logs and tracking the SCHEDULED_FLOW_DETAIL event can help in this regard.

Summing Up

Schedule-triggered flows in Salesforce are a powerful tool that can significantly enhance automation and streamline processes. By understanding their unique behaviors and considerations, you can harness their full potential and optimize your Salesforce operations. As the Salesforce landscape advances, maintaining connections with a network of dedicated professionals becomes valuable.

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