Use this link to share with your colleagues:
Understanding Workflow Part 1: Choosing an object: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/829728
Workflow is an older version of automation that Salesforce is phasing out. These instructions are still available to you for updating existing Workflows, but new automation should be built with Process Builder or Flow.
Workflow rules are used in PatronManager to automate updates or notifications and optimize efficiency! There are four main parts of a workflow rule:
- Object ("what")
- Evaluation Criteria ("when")
- Rule Criteria ("why")
- Actions ("what now?")
This article will look at the first part of a workflow rule: the object.
Workflow falls under Salesforce Administration and is 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.
What is an object?
Salesforce provides a powerful database structure made up of objects. These objects define different sets of data, and objects relate to each other so you can reference related data in reporting and automation. Some examples of objects are Contacts, Accounts, Ticket Orders, and Donations. To you, these are types of records in your system, but more broadly, objects provide structure for storing data, and functionality for using that data to make good business decisions.
Each workflow rule applies to a single object
When you create a workflow rule, the first step is selecting the object to which the rule will apply. Workflow rules are defined with a single if/then statement, and their rule criteria and actions are limited to information on a record or its parent. When considering which object to choose for a workflow, you should ask yourself two questions:
1. What action am I trying to trigger?
Actions are defined in the final stage of setting up a workflow, but they are usually the first thing that is decided when a user decides to create a workflow. The action is what helps improve the work - it is the automation!
For example: I want to be notified when a patron becomes a major donor (the criteria for which is the amount they have donated this FY is greater than or equal to $5,000).
2. What record does the qualifying criteria for this action live on?
It is common for the qualifying criteria to be explained in the answer to question #1: "I want to be notified when a patron becomes a major donor." In this example, the major donor label is applied to accounts who have donated $5,000+ in the current fiscal year. We know there is a rollup summary field on the Account object for Amount Donated This FY, which is what we'll use in our rule criteria, so the object we need to base our rule off of is the Account.
What is a Record?
A record is a single instances of an object. For example, Ginger Rogers is a Contact record.
Other considerations:
If the object that you select for a workflow rule is the child in a Master-Detail relationship, you can access a record's parent record. That means, in your rule criteria and in your field updates, you could target fields on a parent record. Two examples of Master-Detail relationships in PatronManager are:
- Ticket Orders (parent) & Ticket Order Items (child)
- Account (parent) & Donations (child)
For Lookup relationships (more common connections between objects in PatronManager), you can also target fields on another object in your rule criteria! Any Field Update actions, however, will only look at fields on the object that the workflow is based on, not the related object record's fields.