Salesforce Flow Orchestration
Salesforce Flow Orchestration enables administrators to create multi-user, multi-step automated processes that can pause and wait for approvals, external data, or assigned work before continuing.
Definition
Salesforce Flow Orchestration enables administrators to create multi-user, multi-step automated processes that can pause and wait for approvals, external data, or assigned work before continuing. It organizes flows into sequential or parallel steps grouped by stages, providing visibility into long-running business processes. As of February 2026, Flow Orchestration became a standard Flow type available without requiring an add-on license.
In plain English
“Salesforce Flow Orchestration creates multi-user, multi-step automated processes that can pause and wait for approvals, external data, or assigned work. It organizes flows into sequential or parallel steps grouped by stages. As of February 2026, it became a standard Flow type without needing an add-on license.”
Worked example
At their company, the Salesforce admin at FreshStart Inc. leverages Salesforce Flow Orchestration to automate a multi-step process that previously required three different people to complete manually. Salesforce Flow Orchestration now handles the entire sequence in seconds, sending notifications at each step and logging every action for audit purposes.
Why Salesforce Flow Orchestration matters
Salesforce Flow Orchestration enables administrators to create multi-user, multi-step automated processes that can pause and wait for approvals, external data, or assigned work before continuing. It organizes flows into sequential or parallel steps grouped by stages, providing visibility into long-running business processes. As of February 2026, Flow Orchestration became a standard Flow type available without requiring an add-on license.
Flow Orchestration addresses a gap that standard flows can't fill: long-running processes that span multiple users, multiple days, and multiple steps with human interaction between them. Standard flows run in a single transaction; orchestrations coordinate work across time and people. Mature process automation uses orchestrations for processes like employee onboarding, deal desk approvals, and multi-step review workflows where coordination across people and time matters.
How to set up Salesforce Flow Orchestration
Salesforce Flow Orchestration coordinates multiple Flows + manual approval steps + external waits into a single multi-stage business process — "customer onboarding: send welcome email, wait for completed setup form, schedule onboarding call, train customer success team, complete." Provides visibility into long-running cross-team workflows. As of Spring '26, Orchestration became a standard Flow type without needing an add-on.
- Open Setup → Flows → New Flow → Orchestration
Modern orgs have Orchestration as a Flow type. Older orgs may need the Orchestration license — confirm availability.
- Set Orchestration trigger
Record-Triggered (fires on object changes) or Autolaunched (called explicitly). Most orchestrations are record-triggered.
- Define Stages
Each Stage is a phase of the orchestration — "Discovery," "Configuration," "Go-Live." Stages run sequentially.
- Within each Stage: define Steps
Steps run in parallel within the same stage. Each Step is a sub-flow / approval / wait condition.
- For approval Steps: configure Interactive Step
Assigns work to a user via the Work Guide on a record. User sees a guided UI prompt to do the step.
- For automation Steps: configure Background Step
Calls an Autolaunched Flow that does work without user interaction.
- Connect Stages with conditions for advancement
Each Stage advances when its Steps complete (or branch conditions are met).
- Save and Activate
Active orchestrations queue when triggers fire. Inactive orchestrations don't queue.
- Monitor in-flight orchestrations
Setup → Orchestrations → see currently-running processes, their stage, who has open work.
Record-Triggered / Autolaunched.
Sequential phases.
Parallel work units.
User-driven vs automated.
User-facing prompt UI on records.
- Orchestrations are higher-level than Flows. A Flow does work; an Orchestration coordinates Flows. Don't try to model multi-team handoffs as a single Flow — use Orchestration.
- Interactive Steps create work for users. Without good Work Guide configuration, users see opaque prompts and don't know what to do — invest in clear guidance text.
- Stuck orchestrations accumulate. A user assigned an Interactive Step who leaves the company blocks the orchestration from advancing — monitor for stuck instances and reassign.
How organizations use Salesforce Flow Orchestration
Uses Flow Orchestration for multi-step deal desk approval processes spanning multiple days and approvers.
Built employee onboarding orchestrations that coordinate tasks across HR, IT, and management.
Treats orchestrations as the tool for processes too complex for single-transaction flows.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Salesforce Flow Orchestration.
- FlowSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is Flow Orchestration?
Q2. How does it differ from standard flows?
Q3. Does it require a special license?
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