Subflow
In Salesforce Flow Builder, a flow element that calls another flow as a reusable component within the current flow, passing input variables and receiving output variables, enabling modular flow design.
Definition
In Salesforce Flow Builder, a flow element that calls another flow as a reusable component within the current flow, passing input variables and receiving output variables, enabling modular flow design.
In plain English
“A Subflow in Salesforce Flow Builder is a flow element that calls another flow as a reusable component within the current flow. You pass input variables in and receive output variables back, enabling modular flow design where common logic is built once and reused.”
Worked example
Brookwell Capital builds a complex Lead-conversion Flow that handles many edge cases. Rather than putting all the logic in one giant Flow, the dev decomposes shared sections into Subflows. A "Validate Email Domain" Subflow is called from three different parent Flows; a "Send Welcome Email" Subflow is called from another two. When the welcome-email logic changes, the dev edits the Subflow once; all parent Flows pick up the change. Subflows are how Flow Builder supports modular, reusable automation - the equivalent of methods in Apex.
Why Subflow matters
In Salesforce Flow Builder, a Subflow is a flow element that calls another flow as a reusable component within the current flow, passing input variables and receiving output variables, enabling modular flow design. Subflows are how you build reusable logic that multiple flows can share, avoiding duplication.
Subflows are foundational to scalable flow architecture. Without them, common logic (like validation, enrichment, or notification patterns) would be duplicated in every flow that needs it. With subflows, the common logic is built once and called from many flows. Mature flow architectures use subflows extensively for reusable patterns, treating them as shared components in a flow library.
How organizations use Subflow
Built a library of reusable subflows for common patterns like validation and notification.
Uses subflows to avoid duplicating logic across their flow portfolio.
Treats subflow design as foundational to scalable flow architecture.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Subflow.
- Flow Element: SubflowSalesforce Help
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