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All About Process Builder: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1045126
Process Builder is a Sales automation tool that can make your life as a PatronManager Certified Administrator easier. Note that Salesforce plans to retire Process Builder soon, and is replacing it with another tool called Flow. You can still create Processes today, and some of the concepts (and testing requirements!) are similar to Flow.
When used correctly, Salesforce automation can help you perform all sorts of actions behind the scenes. Like what, you ask? How about bringing Contact information up to the Account level? How about creating new prospective Donations based on changes to the Account or Contact record? We're talking power!
But with great power comes great responsibility. When used incorrectly, Process Builder (and Flow) can and will break essential functions of PatronManager. That’s why you must always test your automation in a Sandbox first, before bringing it over to your production account.
In this article, we’ll give you the lowdown on:
- How, what, when, and why to test the Processes you build
- What Process Builder can do
- How to become a Process Builder pro
- Process examples
- Troubleshooting Process Builder
- How (and why) to document your customizations in PatronManager
Let’s get crackin’!
Process Builder and Flow fall under Salesforce Administration and are therefore outside the scope of PatronManager support services. If you have questions or need assistance, reach out in the Client Community or reference Salesforce's resources.
To help set you up for success, we’ve put guidelines together to help you avoid interfering with PatronManager functionality, corrupting your data, and to prevent negative impacts to your customizations due to PatronManager product upgrades.
Sandbox? Production account? What do you mean?
A Sandbox is just what it sounds like; it's a playground for you to test changes to your PatronManager account without actually affecting your real data. Your production account is where your real data lives, and is where you sell tickets and process donations.
If you're diving in to Process Builder, use a Sandbox to both learn the tool and test the Processes you build in the future. You can learn how to set up a Sandbox in this Help Tab article.
But first: words of caution, and how to test your Processes
Process Builder is truly fantastic and completely yours to own. You'll need to exercise caution and test out each Process you build in a Sandbox before you deploy it in your production account. The power - and the responsibility - are in your hands.
So how do you make sure your Processes are safe?
Test, test, test
Got an idea for a new Process? Build it in a Sandbox first, then run through these tasks (again, in your Sandbox) to make sure everything is working properly:
- Sell a ticket via PatronManager Box Office
- Create and fulfill a subscription
- Buy a ticket online
- Qualify the ticket order you just created, creating a new Contact
- Buy and qualify another ticket order, but qualify to an existing Contact
- Create a donation record
- Create an online donation record
- Qualify the donation record you just created, creating a new Contact
- Create and qualify another donation, but qualify to an existing Contact
- Sign up for your mailing list online
- Qualify the Contact you just created by signing up for the mailing list
- Create a new Contact with a new Account
Untested Processes can break PatronManager's ability to sell tickets and take donations.
- Test each new Process in a Sandbox before bringing it into your production account
- Test all your Processes in that Sandbox after each new PatronManager release
- Once you move your Process over to production, test it there, as well
How do I test transactions in my Sandbox?
Great question! If your Sandbox is set up with Bluefin Payment Gateway Settings, you can use this test card:
- Card type: Visa
- Number: 4124939999999990
- Expiration: 12/2025
- Code: 123
You don't even have to refund the transaction when you're done!
How do I test transactions in my production account?
What card you use for test transactions is up to you; if you're comfortable with using your own, do so. If not, you can ask the top brass at your organization to get a credit card for you to use for testing.
Either way, you'll refund the transactions immediately after making sure everything is working correctly. Pro tip: we recommend setting ticket price levels to relatively small dollar amounts.
What can Process Builder do?
Process Builder is very versatile, allowing you to set triggers that update fields and create records automatically - even when that trigger is on a related record! Here's some examples:
| Scenario | Example |
|---|---|
| Create a task when a record fits [X] criteria. |
Your Development Director wants to call the donor if a new donation is over $500. |
| Send an email when a record fits [X] criteria. |
Your Board Chair (who doesn't use PatronManager) wants an email if a Contact is marked as Deceased. |
| Update a field on a record when a different field on that same record fits [X] criteria. | When a Contact has the Board Member Status of "Current", the VIP checkbox should be automatically checked. |
| Update a field on a record when a something changes on a related record. | The Phone field on the Contact should always reflect the Phone field on the Account level. |
| Update an Account field when a related Donation fits [X] criteria. |
Set the custom field Prospect Status to "Soliciting" if a Major Gift record related to that Account is created. |
| Update a Contact field when a related Donation fits [X] criteria. |
Set the Email Status field to "Opt-Out" if a Major Gift record related to that Contact is created. |
| Create a new record when a record fits [X] criteria. |
If the custom field Prospect Status is set to "Soliciting", a Major Gift record related to that Account is created. |
| Create a Chatter post on a record when the record fits [X] criteria. |
Post to the "Showtime!" Chatter Group when an Account with an active Major Gift record buys a ticket to an upcoming show. |
How to become a Process Builder pro
Ready to get started? We've got you covered:
- Start with this amazing Trailhead project - you'll create your first Process!
- For reference, here's Salesforce's article on Process Builder. More specifically, you might find these links useful:
- Create a Process - a good reference for the steps you'll take when making a new Process, with more detailed information for each step
- Setting Values in the Process Builder - an essential piece of knowledge for building a Process, you'll use it every step of the way
- There are a great many articles and help videos out there, and we encourage you to search around! Personally, we're partial to Automation Champion.
Got any specific examples of Process Builder I can look at?
You betcha! Here are three very different ways you can use Process Builder to power up PatronManager. While we won't go into details on how to build these Processes, we do encourage you to try to build them for yourself in your Sandbox:
Do you ever mark the "Do Not Mail" checkbox on an Account, and then think, "Well, that means no one should send mail to any Contact living on this Account?" Process builder can help you do that!
The Object
The Action Criteria
The Action
If you've ever run a report based on Campaign Members, you might have wanted to see the Account information from the Contact related to the Campaign Member - after all, fields like Account Amount Donated in the Last Fiscal Year are pretty important. Once you add an Account lookup field to the Campaign Member object, this Process will fill that field in automatically, allowing you to report on the Account information.
Heads up if you're using PatronChimp! You'll need to be sure to exclude Campaign Members from MailChimp Campaigns, or you'll cause a bunch of errors.
Many companies offer matched donations to their employees - but not every donor remembers that. Add the Company field to your online donation form, and you can build a Process that will create a Matching Gift record when a donation comes in with that field filled in.
You'll need to add a "Matching Company (from Online Form)" to the Opportunity object before creating this Process, but then you can follow the screenshots below:
The Object
The Action Criteria (Single Donation)
The Action (Single Donation)
The Donation Name formula:
[Opportunity].PatronDonate__Donor__c.FirstName&" "&[Opportunity].PatronDonate__Donor__c.LastName&" "&[Opportunity].Matching_Company_from_Online_Form__c&" Matching Gift "&TEXT([Opportunity].CloseDate)
The Action Criteria (Recurring Donation)
The Action (Recurring Donation)
The Donation Name formula:
[Opportunity].PatronDonate__Donor__c.FirstName&" "&[Opportunity].PatronDonate__Donor__c.LastName&" "&[Opportunity].Matching_Company_from_Online_Form__c&" Matching Gift "&TEXT([Opportunity].CloseDate)
Troubleshooting Process Builder
Using Process Builder is tricky! While you're free to use Process Builder, our Client Support team may not be able to help you fix a broken Process (but we will take a look and offer guidance as we’re able).
If you run into some error messages while working in your Sandbox, or you're finding your Process just isn't firing, look through your process again. Remember that you'll need to tell Process Builder exactly what you want to do, and exactly when you want to do it - leaving any gaps, or assuming the system will know what you mean will likely result in a broken Process. We can't list out every possible error, but we recommend:
- Think about your process systematically - what are you trying to do? How do you translate that into specific actions and triggers?
- Cut your Process into the smaller, specific pieces that make up the larger whole.
- Slowly add those pieces back in to your Process to find out which aspect is causing an issue.
- Can you make the action happen if you change the trigger?
- Can you make the trigger work if you change the action?
- Can you perform a similar set of triggers and actions on a different object?
Still running into trouble? We recommend diving into Salesforce's article, Troubleshooting Processes. If you're not finding what you're looking for there, the Salesforce Success Community is always abuzz with Process Builder discussion.
Additionally, we do have a couple pieces of advice, and common issues you might run into:
If you see this error:
CANNOT_EXECUTE_FLOW_TRIGGER, The record couldn't be saved because it failed to trigger a flowwhile working in PatronManager, it means a Process you've built is causing a problem. And here's the tough part of this cookie: the error can pop up anywhere in the system. For example, it might pop up when creating a new Donation, even if the only Process you've built is related to Accounts, and has nothing to do with Donations.
If you're using PatronChimp, you'll need to take extra caution when building Processes that look at Campaigns or Campaign Members. Be sure to exclude any MailChimp-related Campaigns or Campaign Members from your Process triggers; to do so, follow this criteria path:
Campaign Member > Campaign ID > Record Type ID > Record Type Name
then use "Does Not Equal", "String", and then type in "MailChimp". When you're done, it'll look like this:
Using a Lookup ID in your criteria? If you find the Process isn't firing, try changing the 15-digit ID to the 18-digit ID. If you're using 18-digit, try 15-digit.
When you're using Process Builder in conjunction with a report to make updates (like in the Campaign Members example above), there's a 2,000-record limit. If you try to use too large of a report, you'll run into error messages - try splitting the report into smaller batches instead!
Documenting Your Customizations
Documenting customizations is essential; an institutional memory surrounding PatronManager will save everyone loads of time and energy, especially when dealing with automation!
Keeping track of your changes will help current and future staff understand how to use your processes, and how to further customize PatronManager from an educated perspective.
We highly recommend following the guidelines in this article, called (you guessed it) How (and Why) to Document Your Customizations in PatronManager, so you can keep track of the changes you make, why you made them, and what they do in PatronManager.