Flow Builder and Approval Process in Salesforce

Flow Builder is the interface where Flows can be designed and tested. The below screenshot shows the Flow builder screen, and the following table explains the highlighted elements of the builder.

Create a Flow

To create a Flow, Search for Flow in Quick Find Box in Setup Home; Click on Flows under Process Automation. On top of the list of Flows, click on “New Flow”. This launches a Flow Builder.

Routing a Flow

To control the execution order of the elements in a straight and/or a conditional path, each element should be connected to the next element through a connector. To set the connection of the elements, drag the node at the bottom of the source element onto the target element.

Remove Connectors from a Flow

Once the connection between two elements has been set, it cannot be changed. To make changes to the path a Flow takes, the connector needs to be deleted.

Salesforce Flows helps automation of updating the data. Flows help in the automation of creation, cloning and update of data. This data can reside within Salesforce or in an external system.

Don't forget to check out: An Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Flow Builder User Interface

Reading Data from External Systems

Within a Flow, data from external systems can be pulled using Platform events, external objects, Lightning components, Enhanced External Services, or Apex. The below table will help understand ways through which data can be accessed/updated in External systems.

Cloning Data using Flows

Create elements can also be used to Clone data. To clone a record data, copy the desired set of information of the original record (except ID) into a new record variable and, using the create element, create a new record entry in the system (assuming no conflict of unique value).

Updating Data using Flows

Records can be updated through either an Update Record element or the Update Record Quick Action (if configured). However, within the Update record element, there are different ways to update a record. The below table will explain.

Approval Process

Salesforce Approval Process is a set of automated processes that can be leveraged to set up business approvals within Salesforce. Salesforce allows users to submit records for approval on pre-defined criteria to approvers who are users in their Salesforce instance. Each approval process and its criteria are bound to a single object.

Components of Salesforce Approval Process

This section captures the various capabilities available with Salesforce Approval Processes and also prerequisites for configuring an approval process.

Approval Criteria: While configuring an approval process the Admin can specify criteria under which an approval process should be invoked. There are two ways to set the approval criteria:

Specify the conditions where criteria are met based on the defined logic.
Specify a formula that triggers the approval process when the formula evaluates to true.

Admins can also leave the entry criteria blank if it is required that all the records that are submitted should enter the approval process

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Approvers: In an approval step can be defined in three ways:

Manager Field of user record or any other hierarchal field.
Submitters can also choose manually the approver of that step.
The record can automatically be assigned a queue or set of users.

If the Admin selects to automatically assign the approvers, there are two further two ways in which the approval/rejection mechanism for a step can be defined :

Approve or reject based on the FIRST response.
Require UNANIMOUS approval from all selected approves. – All the approvers need to approve the record for it to be approved. If one of the approvers rejects it, the record is considered as Rejected. Any of the following can approve or reject a request.

Delegate Approvers: Admins can allow approvers to delegate the approval request to other users by selecting a checkbox when configuring approvers in an approval step. Approvers can also reassign the approval request to another user.

Approval History: Admins can add the Approval History to the related section of the object on which the approval process has been configured so that users are able to track the approval lifecycle. The related list captures the following details: