Have you ever wished you could update Salesforce without leaving Slack? Okay, maybe you haven’t had this thought as an admin who lives and breathes Salesforce, but I bet you’ve heard this request from your users.
As admins, we play a vital role in ensuring our users get the most out of the platform and that our business processes run smoothly and efficiently. But we also want to deliver this dream experience to our users, keeping them working where they’re already collaborating while Salesforce quietly stays up to date in the background.
Let’s take the conversation to Slack (where many of our work conversations begin). My guess is that’s where your users spend most of their collaboration time—in threads and huddles. Users love Slack for its friendly interface and the ability to quickly connect with teammates and data all in one place. So, why not bring your project management updates to Slack as well?
Whether you’re supporting a small nonprofit or a large enterprise corporation, managing projects related to your CRM is a core part of your role. These projects can range from simple tasks like setting up a ticketing system using Salesforce Cases for user requests and troubleshooting, to more complex initiatives like large-scale implementation projects. By connecting Salesforce with Slack, you can automate your project management responsibilities and tackle a common challenge: keeping data synchronized across different platforms without the need for manual data entry or complex custom development. Imagine your project approvals, status updates, and comments from Slack all sync to Salesforce in real time—no more chasing down details across tabs or juggling copy/paste chaos. It’s the dream to provide this experience to our users!
Now that you know what’s possible, let’s take a look at how one small automation can have a big impact on your daily workflow.
We teamed up with Mike Reynolds, Senior Technical Product Marketing Manager at Slack, for a little inspiration to help admins manage projects in Slack. In under 5 minutes, Mike goes through the steps to have any updates made to the project tracker in Slack automatically update Salesforce on our behalf. Let’s see how he does it!
Now that you’ve seen it, I bet you want to build this in your own Slack workspace! Let’s break down the steps that Mike took to set up the workflow.
As admins, we love to start in Salesforce so let’s head to Setup. First, create an autolaunched flow that can be triggered by an external application—in this case, Slack. As you saw in Mike’s video, the flow doesn’t have to be overly complex—just a few steps with your variables set to “available for input” so Slack can pass data into Salesforce. In the demo, Mike’s flow updates a custom object called Kit Request by its number, setting a new approval status and adding comments. As Salesforce Admins, you can customize the objects and flow to meet your specific needs and business naming conventions.
Next, head over to Slack and navigate to Automations. From there, start a new workflow.
Select When a list item is updated as the trigger for your Slack workflow. You’ll need to specify which Slack list to monitor and which specific fields (such as “Approval Status” and “Comments”) will trigger the workflow when users make changes.
Add a step to your Slack workflow and search for “Run a Flow”. Since you’ve already connected Slack to Salesforce, you can select the autolaunched flow you created earlier.
The Slack workflow will automatically detect the available-for-input variables from your Salesforce flow. Map the corresponding fields from the Slack list to these Salesforce variables. This ensures that when a value is updated in Slack, it’s sent to the correct field in Salesforce. This is why it was so important to make our flow variables available for input!
Finally, give your Slack workflow a name and description, set the necessary permissions, and publish it. Just like that, you’re live! Whenever a user changes one of the specified fields in your Slack list, the corresponding Salesforce record will be updated automatically. That’s what we call a mic drop 🎤.
This Salesforce and Slack interface not only streamlines your workflow but also enhances user satisfaction by providing a seamless experience right where they’re most active. Get ready to transform your project management and data synchronization efforts.
As a Salesforce Admin, you’re already well-versed in building flows in Salesforce. In fact, you might even be what we like to call a Flownatic. Building the flow is the most challenging part of setting up this connection, so for you, this is a breeze with major productivity gains! The Slack Workflow Builder, on the other hand, is intuitive and no-code, making it easy to set up this powerful interface for your users with just a few steps. Here are the key benefits for your organization.
Teams can manage tasks directly in Slack, where they are already collaborating, without having to switch to a different application. This reduces friction and makes project management feel more natural and integrated into users’ daily workflow. Buh-bye tab switching.
Critical data, such as a project’s approval status or comments, can be instantly updated in Salesforce. This eliminates the risk of outdated information and ensures that the system of record is always accurate. Music to an admin’s ears.
By automating the data transfer, administrators and team members save time that would have been spent on manual data entry and status updates. This allows them to focus on other high-value tasks, like clearing out that feature backlog.
This powerful connection between Slack and Salesforce empowers admins to build more efficient and interconnected business processes. By leveraging Slack’s collaborative environment and Salesforce’s robust data management, you can create seamless experiences that drive productivity and ensure data integrity—plus, it brings a lot of joy to your users. Try this workflow in your own org and see how much time—and tab switching—you save.
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