How to Use Salesforce Flow to Update an Account When an Opportunity is Closed

[@ericmauriello5359]

I love love love how you explain SF Flows.. so clear cut and helpful. Please keep making contact so us non-SF admins who have SF and are force to admin it, can have a fighting chance to get the value out of our SF system. Thanks!

[@Rotive]

Thanks, Eric! I appreciate the kind words and am glad you find the videos helpful. You're not the only accidental Salesforce admin out there. That's how most get started actually.

[@rajeshbhattad]

That's very helpful, Brian. Cheers!

[@Rotive]

Glad it was helpful, Rajesh!

[@KatieVanDruff]

You videos are so helpful - thank you. How do I add an automatic alert (email?) to a group of users when the Opportunity is Won to go along with the Account update?

[@AnnaSzabo]

I love this teaching style, Brian! Thank you. Subscribed and liked.

[@Rotive]

Thank you very much! We appreciate it.

[@dawnhingston2726]

this was such a big help to me thank you!!!

[@iviejo6444]

This was really helpful. Thank you 😊

[@Rotive]

You're so welcome!

[@sarahhagan6438]

Hi, Great video. I was wandering how to automate when a customer changes to a past customer? For example the opp is closed/won, the customer has a contract for 3 years, at the end of 3 years they discontinue the service, how do with set up an automation to change the Account Type to past customer? Our thought was to use a flow using contract=inactive. But what if they have 3 active contracts and only 1 changes to inactive. Then how would you set up a flow for that? Thanks! I love you videos :)

[@Rotive]

Hi Sarah, Thanks for the comment! There are a lot of different ways you could tackle this problem. If you're using the contract object like you suggest, you could trigger the flow when a Contract record is marked inactive and then use a Get Records element to get all Contract records related to the triggering record's Account where Active is True and the ID is not equal to the ID of the triggering record. Then you can use a decision element to see if the Get Records step found any Contract Records. If it did, that would mean there is another active Contract and perhaps you want the flow to just end. If it didn't find any Contract records, you can then proceed with updating the related account to be a Former Customer. Is that helpful?

[@sarahhagan6438]

@@Rotive Wow this is so detailed! Thanks so much we will try this out!

[@StevenOffutt]

I really like your videos. Each time I use one of them I get the exact help I need. It is so easy to follow along and learn from you! Thank you so much!!!

[@Rotive]

So glad to hear you’re finding the videos helpful. Are there any specific topics you’d like us to cover?

[@StevenOffutt]

@@Rotive Do you have anything on Validation rules and using the Functions vs. using the operators. Or How to write SOQL for tools like Salesforce Inspector.

[@Rotive]

@@StevenOffutt As a matter of fact, we do! We just released this free course on Validation Rules that also covers functions and operators. academy.rotive.io/courses/the-salesforce-validation-rules-crash-course-for-beginners We released this course a week ago. haha. Perfect timing.

[@StevenOffutt]

@@Rotive Amazing. Thank you so much, I signed up and will be working through this!

[@Rotive]

@@StevenOffutt That's great! Let us know what we can do to improve it.

[@shannaheyes]

Great video - I have a more complex flow that I need assistance with, is there a way you can assist me?

[@Rotive]

Hi Shanna, Thanks for watching our videos! We're only taking on Managed Service clients right now which might be more than you need if you're just looking for help with one flow. Can you tell me a little bit about the flow? Maybe it would make a good KZbin video. :D

[@AnnaSzabo]

@@Rotive This is so cool. I appreciate how you cherish your community here on KZbin, Brian. I sent you a LinkedIn connection request.

[@ReemHassan-py8ir]

Awesome! Very easy to follow! Can we update the account owner this way?

[@shanthik1167]

@reem Did you got a answer ? I have a scenario like this

[@Rotive]

Hi Reem and Shanthi, Absolutely. You'll just want to get the ID of the User you want to be the new owner, then you can update the Account record.

[@shanthik1167]

@@Rotive Thank you for the reply. Appreciate.Subscribed

[@onlyyenna]

So many good videos on this channel! Is this worth setting up before you start entering data into Salesforce?

[@Rotive]

Hey Enna, it probably depends on the state of your data. It is nice to have some of these rules in place when adding data so they can run and improve the data on import, but it's a best practice to have the data in the best possible shape before import. If your data is already in great shape and customers are marked as customers, you could create this automation after the import.

[@jamesbuggenhagen4936]

this is really helpful. However, what is the best way to relate the two records when using a screenflow instead of a record triggered flow?

[@Rotive]

It's very similar. You just need to have the user select the correct records in the screen flow or pass the ID of the record they were on when they initiated screenflow by created a text variable called recordId and setting it to "available for input".

[@jamesbuggenhagen4936]

@@Rotive ty so much. really helpful

[@JohnBorgen]

I would add an additional filter testing if the account is already set to Customer. Then, you wouldn't have to make unnecessary updates to the Account obj. It's probably a little nitpicky...it really just depends on the volume of closed won opportunities.

[@JohnBorgen]

Turns out this isn't as easy. You need to add a formula field to the Opportunity obj to pull the Customer Type from the Account record. Then it's available in the Opportunity record to use as another filter before triggering the flow.

[@Rotive]

I think that's a great addition to the automation! Thanks for sharing. It will certainly make it more efficient to make sure you're excluding Accounts that are already a customer. The formula field on the Account is a good solution. Formula fields are really useful for extending the filter on the trigger for Flows, because you're limited to just fields on that record in the Flow Builder. Great for Scheduled flows too. I've used formulas to mark a record as available for automation or not in order to help decrease the number of records it runs on.

[@sjsri-j7q]

I hope i'll get an answer. Question : What if i need to update 20 account fields with opportunity record values. In addition to that only fields with value only has to be updated (if any opportunity field has null value then no need to update the particular account field).

[@Rotive]

Hey there! This is an interesting question. You can certainly expand the flow to update more account fields based on opportunity fields. The question of only updating the Account field when the opportunity field is not Null is a little trickier. You could create a chain of decisions to check if each field is Null but that sounds like a lot of work.... Could you help me understand why there are so many fields to update based on Opportunity fields? Perhaps there is a better way to accomplish the business goal.

[@Devanathankj]

Team, Is it possible for us to update a multiple opportunity fields during opportunity creation from the primary contact mapped to opportunity using flows?

[@Rotive]

Hey Devanathan, it is. You could create a flow that updates an opportunity when it's created generally or create a screen flow that is triggered with a button that's placed on the contact record.

[@Devanathankj]

@@Rotive Thanks for the confirmation. Does Rotive have any tutorial video that I can use and replicate the action?

[@Rotive]

@@Devanathankj I think this video could help. It's more advanced than what you need, but I think it'll get you there. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nai2qIGDo72Zha8

[@premsingh-hj3gj]

What if we have more than one opportunities related to an account? One is closed won but the other one is still in let's say needs analysis. In this case the account should not change to customer. I need the account to change to customer only when all the account's related opportunities are closed won. How will you do it?

[@JohnBorgen]

That's definitely more involved. You have to write a loop in the flow to find all of the opportunities. Then test that all opportunities in the record set are Closed Won.

[@Rotive]

I agree with John on the approach. You could still have the Closed/Won opportunity trigger the flow and then include a Get Opportunities step that is looking an Opportunity that is still open. Then add a Decision step with the logic that if the previous Get step is empty proceed with the update and if it is not empty end. A little trickier for sure.

[@JohnWick-mz1eo]

@@Rotive i thinks the scenario seems confused... can you explain a bit more to only update when all its related opportunities are closed won

[@Rotive]

Hi Prem, we just made a video showing you how to check if any open opportunities exist before updating the related account. Hope it helps! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nn2zmpillLhonJY In the future, if you'd like us to prioritize your video ideas, please consider joining our channel membership. Click Join under the video to see more details. Thank you for watching!

[@DavidKarson]

I am confused about one thing. When you win an opportunity, the account doesn't automatically change from Prospect to Customer?

[@Rotive]

It does not. Being able to automate this yourself is nice if you have a different use case. For example, some companies use Opportunities to track trials or pilots. They might "win" a trial opportunity and not want to mark that prospect as a customer yet.

[@xxEmmaxxFabxx]

what if we wanted to update the contact status related to the account? with a custom field on contact named "status" and want to set it to "current client" when a opp is closed won?

[@Rotive]

Hey There, You can replace the update account step with an update step for the contact object where the Account ID is equal to the Opportunity's Account ID. Make sure you choose to update all contacts that fit that criteria. This will update all contacts related to the account.

[@xxEmmaxxFabxx]

@@Rotive Thank you Brian! This solved it perfectly for me. Out of curiosity, could this also be done using process builder? would it be just as effective?

[@Mychannel123-y5m]

what if there were multiple opportunities??

[@Rotive]

That's a good question. The logic in the Flow should follow your business logic. The question is when do you consider someone a customer or former customer. Most companies will consider someone a customer if they've made a purchase regardless if there are other lost opportunities associated with them.

[@vasundharabhele4770]

If you have many opportunities for a account then how??

[@Rotive]

When the first opportunity closes, they would become a customer. Help me understand the scenario you're thinking of and I'll do my best to give you a good answer.

[@Rotive]

Hey Vasundhara, please check out this video. I think it will answer your question. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nn2zmpillLhonJY