#1MinuteTip #SalesforceSpring21 Time Dependent Workflow in Workflow Rules or Scheduled Action in Process Builder is now available in Salesforce Flows as “Scheduled Path”. Add a scheduled path to your Record-Triggered Flow if you want part of the Flow to run at a dynamically scheduled time after the triggering event occurs. You can base the scheduled time on when the record is created or updated or on a field value.
References & Useful URLs
- Salesforce Spring ’21 Release Note Article – Run Part of a Record-Triggered Flow After the Triggering Event
I want to send the reminder to the contacts 48 hours, 24 hours and 9 am on the day of appointment. I am using Record triggered flow with Scheduled Paths. I am using 2 day and 1 day before appointment date for 48 and 24 hour scenario. For 9 am scenario, I tried using 0 day before appointment date but it sends our reminder at the time of appointment and not at 9 am. Is there any way I can add the scheduled path for 9 AM?
Hi Heena, you can either use the scheduled-triggered flow (rather than scheduled-path flow) to send the reminder at 9 AM or create a custom/date field and populate the time component with “9 AM”.
Wondering how I can configure this to run when a lead is created, I would like the scheduled path to begin running at 8:30 am Est
Hi Nelson, one option will be to use the scheduled-triggered flow to trigger the flow at the specified time.
With the scheduled path, it will be a bit more challenging as you will need to create a custom date/time field and populate it with the date that you want to execute and always set the time to 8:30 AM EST. You can then set the scheduled path to execute “0 minutes” after this custom date/time field.
Hi Asagarwal,
Thank you for your post. I have had searching the way to build with flows an user requirement that is built with the process builder but I have not been able to do it. I notice that the difference between scheduled paths (in flows) and scheduled actions (in processes) is that the scheduled actions can be executed, for example, after a series of conditions created on differents decision logic components. My requirement is:
if conditionA then
schedule an action 24 hrs after X date
else if condictionB then
schedule an action 48 hrs after Y date
Apparently Flows do not have the possibility to create the “else if” conditions like processes? Could you please help me with that?
Thanks!
Hi Eduardo, that’s an interesting scenario. I can think of two solutions to meet this requirement.
1. Create two flows with two different entry conditions and set the schedule path to execute after hours as per your requirement.
2. Create a custom date/time field on the object and populate it with the date/time when you would like to execute it. For example, for condition A, the custom field will be populated with “today + 24 hours” and for condition B, the field will be populated with “today + 48 hours”. Then you can create one Flow with scheduled path and set it to execute ‘0’ minutes after the custom date/time field.
I think this is technically possible, but you will need to test it out.
Regards,
Ashish
In regards to Eduardo’s dilemma, can we have one flow, put all the different entry conditions as OR statements, create multiple paths, and then add Decision elements to each path? Is that overkill? I have many scheduled actions for cases that have different entry criteria’s and I’m not sure if I should build one flow with many paths, or multiple record-trigger flows.
Hi Sony, I don’t think there can be a straightforward answer to this – that is whether to create one flow with multiple paths or have separate flows. But here are my thoughts.
If the no. of paths go beyond 3-4 in a single flow, I will try to split the flow to keep it simple, easy to understand and manage. For splitting the flow, I will look for a logical breakpoint. Liked breaking it based on the record type, business process, division/department or any other parameter.
Hello Sir,
Thank you for your articles on Salesforce. I had a question related to https://www.asagarwal.com/schedule-path-in-salesforce-flows/ post of yours.
Does this statement hold true for these scheduled path Action also?
Will the pending actions in the queue ALWAYS trigger?
No. Time-dependent actions remain in the Workflow Queue until processed or the rule criteria for the Workflow Rule are evaluated as “false.” If a record no longer matches the rule criteria when the rule is evaluated, Salesforce removes the time-dependent actions queued for that record.
https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=000325723&type=1
Regards,
Pratigya
Hi Pratigya, yes this holds true for scheduled path action also. If the condition is no longer true, the action will not be executed.
When do you suggest to use a schedule triggered flow vs. a record triggered flow with scheduled paths?
Hi Allan,
If you need the automation to run months/days/hours/minutes before or after a date/timestamp field on the object, then scheduled path will be the option to go for. For example, post a reminder chatter message to opportunity owner, 24 hours before the opportunity close date to update the opportunity.
Scheduled Triggered Flow can be used to run automations at predefined intervals. Like close all cases older than days every morning at 0300 Hrs.
In some cases, either of the two options can be used. If you have a specific use case, please mention that here and I will let you know which one will be a better option.