Field updates are legacy, so the right move is to recreate the behavior in a record-triggered Flow rather than build a new workflow rule. Here is the practical path for a same-record field update, the most common case.
- Open the existing rule
From Setup, find Workflow Rules and open the rule whose field update you want to replace. Note its evaluation criteria, the field it sets, and the value it writes.
- Run the Migrate to Flow tool
From Setup, enter Migrate to Flow in Quick Find, open it, select the workflow rule, and run the conversion. Salesforce generates a record-triggered Flow that mirrors the rule's field updates and email alerts.
- Review the generated Flow
Open the new Flow in Flow Builder. Confirm the entry conditions match the old criteria and that the Update element writes the correct field and value on the triggering record.
- Test before cutover
Save and debug the Flow, or test in a sandbox, to confirm it sets the field exactly as the workflow rule did across create and update scenarios.
- Deactivate the rule, activate the Flow
Once the Flow behaves correctly, deactivate the original workflow rule and activate the Flow so the same record is never updated by both.
Run the Flow on create, on update, or on both, matching when the old rule evaluated. Fast field changes belong in a before-save Flow.
For same-record field changes, a before-save record-triggered Flow sets the value without a second DML, the fastest equivalent of a field update.
Recreate the workflow rule criteria as the Flow's entry conditions so the value is only set when it should be.
- You cannot create new workflow rules since Winter '23, so do not try to rebuild a field update as a workflow action. Build it in Flow.
- A before-save Flow that sets a same-record field is much faster than the old after-save field update and avoids a second round of triggers.
- The Migrate to Flow tool handles same-record field updates and email alerts well, but review cross-object field updates by hand because their object support was always narrow.
- If multiple legacy rules touched one object, consolidate them into one record-triggered Flow so the order of field changes stays predictable.