As of Spring '22:

• Formulas CAN be used in trigger conditions on before save flow triggers

• Formulas CAN be used in trigger conditions in after save flow triggers

• Formulas CAN be used in decisions in before save flow triggers IF the Resource uses the Prior Value (eg {!$Record__Prior.IsActive__c}). But you can NOT use formula values from the newly changed record.

• Formulas CAN be used in decisions in after save flow triggers

• Formulas CAN be used as the source value in Assignment Updates in before save flow triggers IF the Value uses the Prior Value (eg {!$Record__Prior.IsActive__c}). But you can NOT use formula values from the newly changed record.

• Formulas CAN be used as the source value Update records elements in after save flow triggers

Example Formulas

My example object is a Contract object (but a Custom object)

IsActive__c

OR( ISPICKVAL(Status__c ,"Active"),
ISPICKVAL(Status__c,"Re-Contracting"))

IsClient__c

OR(ISPICKVAL(Account__r.Type,"Client"),
Account__r.NumActiveContracts__c > 0)

(NumActiveContracts__c is a DLRS that counts the No. of Active Contracts on the Account).

Flow Examples

Formulas in Trigger Conditions

• Works for Before or After

• We can use a formula like IsActive__c to run this Flow only when the Contract is Active.

• Needs to be tested if it works on a Before-Save Flow when the Contract becomes newly Active.

• Needs to be tested how it works with only when a record is updated…

• Needs to be tested to create a record as Active

• Suggested Naming Contract-BeforeCreateUpdate-IsActive

Formulas in Decisions

In Before-Save Flows use $Record__Prior

In After-Save Flows use $Record

Using $Record in Before-Save Flows gives this error

Gotchas:

• The Before-Save Decision will be false when the record is newly Active as the $Record_Prior is the value from before the record was edited.

• So in this case, do an After-Save Flow to run only on a Newly Activated record to set the required values on activation, then this flow will run in all other cases.

Assignments

In Before-Save Flows use $Record__Prior

If IsClient__c = true then add the special condition, otherwise blank.

In After-Save Flows use $Record

Using $Record in Before-Save Flows gives this error

Gotchas:

• The Before-Save Update will NOT be correct if the record is Newly Activated… this will lead to data integrity issues.

• So in this case, do an After-Save Flow to run only on a Newly Activated record to set the required values on activation, then this flow will run in all other cases.

Formulas in Updates

Again it’s a bit fat no from Before-Save Flows.

Formula Templates

Not Changed

{!$Record.Field__c} = {!$Record__Prior.Field__c}

IsChanged

{!$Record.Field__c} <> {!$Record__Prior.Field__c}

IsChanged and Was Blank

AND(NOT(ISBLANK({!$Record.Field__c})),ISBLANK({!$Record__Prior.Field__c}))

It seems weird to use IS in Prior context, not WAS.