5 steps for Quick Actions to give a Screen Flow the record it started from

Starting a Screen Flow from a Quick Action is a scenario I’ve encountered a few times.

If you haven't already, I suspect you will come across this use case sooner rather than later.

Each time I’ve encountered it, I’ve needed the Flow to access the field values from the record it was started from. This is because this data usually informs the business process that the Flow is supporting.

Here are 5 steps you can take to give a Screen Flow all of the field values from the record a user is on when they click a Quick Action.

For the purpose of this example, I'm going to assume the Flow is being started from an Account, but you can easily customize these steps to any Object you are working with.

Step 1:

From your Screen Flow, click “New Resource” and fill in the screen as outlined below:

• Resource Type: Select "Variable". Each time the Flow is started, you want to give it the Account record it was started from. Since each Account is different, the data that goes into the variable will VARY (get it?). This is why "Variable" is the correct choice.
• API Name: Use "recordId". It must be in this format for the Quick Action to be able to give the Flow the record and all of its field values.
• Description: Should be meaningful so that other people looking at the Flow understand the purpose of the variable. The image below provides an example of a meaningful description for this use case.
• Data Type: Since the objective is for the Flow to have access to all of the field values from the Account it was started from, the type of data we need is "Record". Note - you will specify the Object below.
• Allow multiple values (collection): This should remain not selected as only the single record that the Flow is launched from will be stored in this variable.
• Object: For the purposes of this example, I’m working with the Account Object. You should select the Object that your Flow will be started from via a Quick Action.
• Available for input: This should be selected as we want the Account record that the Flow was started from to be “input” into this variable via a Quick Action.
• Available for output: This should remain not selected as the Account data that will be in this variable does not need to be sent to anything outside of the Flow when it is done.

Step 2:

Build the rest of the Flow logic that your use case requires and “Activate” it for testing.

For the purpose of this example, I've just created a single screen that will show field values from the Account that the Flow is launched from. I suspect your Flow will be more robust than this!

Step 3:

Go to Object Manager, select the Object you are working with and go to “Buttons, Links and Actions.”

Click “New Action” and complete the fields as outlined below:

• Object Name: This will automatically populate with the Object you are working with in Object Manager, so no action is required.
• Action Type: Select Flow. This is because we want our Quick Action to start a Flow.
• Flow: Select the name of the Flow you want the Quick Action to start.
• Standard Label Type: Leave this as --None--.
• Label: This is the name that people will see on the Quick Action, so make sure it accurately (and succinctly) describes the business process the Flow supports. A label that makes little sense is an easy way to drive down adoption of your new Flow!
• Name: This will automatically populate based on the "Label" entered. You should leave it as is or customize based on any practices your Org has for defining API names.
• Description: I wouldn’t recommend describing the purpose of your Flow in the Quick Action description as this should be in the description of your Flow. To that end, I add a simple note stating that the purpose of this Quick Action is to launch the specified Flow and the full purpose of the Flow can be found in its description.

Step 4:

Make the Quick Action visible, either through a Page Layout or a Dynamic Action on a Lightning Page.

If you use Page Layouts to display your Quick Actions, select "Mobile & Lightning Actions", find the name of the Quick Action and drag and drop it into the "Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions" section.

If you use Dynamic Actions to display your Quick Actions, make sure that the action is selected and has the correct visibility conditions.

You can do this by going to the appropriate Lightning Record page, clicking on the Highlights Panel component and clicking "Add Action." This will open the pane where you can select the Quick Action name and set any visibility conditions.

Step 5:

Test your Quick Action and Flow.

Firstly, verify that the Quick Action is visible.

Then verify that clicking the Quick Action opens the Flow and the rest of your logic works.

As you can see from the highlighted image below, my Flow screen is showing two fields from the Account record that the Flow was started from, meaning that the record and its field values were passed into the Flow successfully!

Happy Flow building!