Salesforce Flow Orchestrator - Implementation Details & Use Case Demonstration

Flow Orchestrator is considered as the future of Salesforce Automation. In this blog let us see the basics of flow orchestrator and a detailed Implementation example.

1. What is Flow Orchestrator

It helps to automate/orchestrate complex business operations, which involves multiple steps, multiple users from multiple departments. You can also sequence these operations. The core building block of flow orchestrator is flow itself. Assigned users access their part of the orchestration through a single Lightning page component.

2. When this can be used

Below are some use cases where you will be able to use Flow Orchestrator:

• Advanced Approval Process
• New employee onboarding process where you need interaction/approval from multiple departments
• Interactive update to a record where we need input from multiple people

3. How to Create Flow Orchestrator

From set up, Flow->New Flow->Select All+Templates->Flow Orchestrator

4. Types of Flow Orchestrator

Like you can see in the above diagram, there are 2 types of flow orchestrators:

1. Autolaunched Orchestration

An auto launched orchestration is triggered manually using our REST API or an Apex class

and must be linked to a specific record ID in order to be displayed on a record page in Salesforce.

2. Record-Triggered Orchestration

A record-triggered orchestration is triggered when a new record is created, updated, or deleted in

Salesforce. You can trigger before or after the record is saved.

5. Building Blocks of Flow Orchestrator

6. Flow Orchestrator Anatomy

1. Element

Each element represents an action that can be executed. Orchestrations use Stage and Decision elements.

2. Connector

Defines an available path that the orchestration can take at run time

3. Stage

Consists of one or more steps

4. Resource

Represents a value that we can refer through Stage, step or decision

7. Steps Cycle

8. Advantages

9. Current Limits and Considerations

• The feature is still in Beta
• Currently, each step can be assigned to a specific user mentioning a username. A lookup field or role cannot be mentioned as the assignee.
• See other limits below:

10. Implementation Use Case

Let us see how we can automate a complex approval process scenario using Flow Orchestrator.

Step 1: Opportunity Approval Process

Create a simple approval process in Opportunity with just 2 steps and no approval action. Because we are going to perform all actions as part of flow orchestrator.

As you can see step 1 will be assigned to Sales manager user and second step to my own user.

Steps 2 : Create Flow Orchestrator

As mentioned before create a new flow orchestrator of type record-Triggered Orchestrator.

Do the initial Object selection and criteria set up:

As per our criteria this Flow Orchestrator should be executed when Opportunity stage is Value Proposition.

Step 3: Automatically Submit for Approval

For this follow below steps:

1. Create a new stage "Submit for Approval" as shown below:

2. Add Step for Submit for Approval

Inside the stage click on + symbol and add a background step as shown below:

In this you can see I have selected an existing flow which actually does Submit for approval, and passing current opportunity id as a parameter to the flow.

The flow looks like below:

which call the submit for approval action. 

3. Add Decision - Amount<10K

The decision box looks like below and add 2 stages based on the decision outcome:

4.Step 4 - Add Auto Reject Stage and Step

Stage

Step 1 - Reject Opportunity

Here you can see we are calling a flow  - Opportunity Rejection Action - autolaunched flow- passing record id as a paramter. Flow looks like below:

This calls an Apex Action, which actually does rejection operation:

Step 2 - Display Rejection massage

You can see a second step added to the rejection stage:

Notice the entry criteria - this steps will be executed when previous step will be completed. This step again calling another interactive flow which displays a rejection message to the user. The message can be passed as a paramter to the user.

Screen flow to display message

Step 5 - Approval Action 1 - Check for Duplicates

As a default outcome, if opportunity is not rejected, we have a new Stage for Approval Actions, which is a 2 step stage as shown below:

Stage:

Step 1 - Find Duplicate Opportunities

As per the Opportunity approval process, now Opportunty will be assigned to Sales Manager for approval. So he will be getting a screen where duplicate opportunity records will be listed.

Logic to find out Duplicate records  - Open Opportunities under same Account which has same products added.

This one again calling a screen flow which lists duplicates opportunities if any, and user can either approve or reject the opportunity based on duplicate deals.

We have seen the apex class details already.

Step 2 - Verify Discount and Approve/Reject Opportunity

If the opportunity is getting approved, based on the approval process, this will be assigned to second user.

And he will be seeing doscount amount on screen and will be getting 3 options:

1. Confirm value and approve

2. Update value and approve

3. Reject

Step looks like below:

This step call a screen flow - Update Discount. The flow details are shown below:

If user is approving the approval process is also marked as Complete.

Steps 6 - Add Flow Orchestrator to Opportunity PageLayout

Edit Opportunity Page in App Builder and from components section drag and drop work guide. This is the section where all flow orchestrator actions for a particular user will be displayed.

Demo

Watch this demo to see Flow Orchestrator in Action.

When an action is assigned to a user, he will be receiving an automated notification like shown below:

Reference

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.orchestrator_flow_orchestrator.htm&type=5