How to Guide: Process Builder - Click & Create!

Taking a break from Process Builder for a quick chore

Best Practice: Sandbox First!

Before I start in Production, I am building this process in a Sandbox.  I used CopyStorm/Restore to populate the sandbox with a few dozen accounts along with their related opportunities, contacts, tasks, products, etc.  I also restored email templates, so that I could use some that had already been created instead of starting from scratch. 

• Having a rich test data set will allow me to test each step of my process with production data, without touching the actual production org.  If you do not have the option to populate sandboxes in this way, you can always manually create test data or use data loader (Time consuming!)

I created the first node to associate any open tasks from the account to a new opportunity then tested this node to make sure that it was working the way I liked. 
(Simply activate the process, test, then clone the process to start back where you left off.)






When you are creating a process, test each step as you go! I’ve made the mistake of creating an elaborate process, but never testing.  I found a mistake after activation, but had a very hard time finding the issue.  Testing teach step as it is created is away to avoid making silly errors.





We are not going to walk through every step of this 10 node process, but I’ll share two of the trickier steps.  If you are working on a process and get stuck, Trailhead Baby would love to hear your story!  

How to Close Tasks:
Getting steps in the correct order was the most difficult part of closing tasks prior to creating new ones.  The “close task” nodes for each step had to be placed prior to the “create new task” nodes.  For example, this action closes any open tasks when an opportunity is changed to status “invoiced.”

The action of opening new tasks for the invoiced opportunity is the next node. 

Creating Tasks:
From an initial glance, creating a task record is not difficult - simply create a record of the type “task.”  There are a few gotchas in task creation that you may find helpful.  These come from questions that Trailhead Baby has been asked many times!  

A task is like a household chore.  Go clean may be a good thing to say, but it will rarely yield the desired results. Who cleans?  Where to clean? When? What to clean? When creating a task, make sure that you ask all of these questions and answer them within your process. 

• Avoid hard coded dates!  If you need a task to be due 7 days from today, use a formula: TODAY()+7.   You can also use a more complicated formula.  For my invoice follow up task, I wanted the invoice follow up task to occur at one of two times:  If a purchase order was received with an anticipated pay date, 7 days after that date.  If the purchase was being made with a credit card or via a method that did not include a purchase order, the anticipated pay date field would be null, so I needed the task to occur 7 days after the anticipated close date.  
• Assign & Relate the Task!  This is the “who” and the “where” of our chore.  A task must be assigned to somebody - typically a field reference such as the opportunity owner vs. a hard coded user.  Where?  A task must be tied to an object such as the account or opportunity.  
• Not necessary necessities! When creating a “task” action, only a few fields are added by default: Assigned to ID, Priority, and Status.  Technically, you could set up a task with just these values, but the task wouldn’t answer our critical questions of who-where-when-what.  Add the fields that you need! I always have a task subject- the “what” plus a NameID for an extended “who.”  This gives the task owner enough information to complete the task without digging through the account to find out what to do.  With process automation, the fewer clicks a user needs the better!  Our example creates a task for the opportunity owner to contact the main contact on the opportunity regarding invoice payment. 

All done!  I’m off to eat more macaroni and cheese!