How do I check if a record exists before one is created in Process Builder?

Question

I've have a process that creates an Account when a new application (PPA_Equipment_Request) is submitted. The auto created Account works quite well but does not look to the Account object FIRST to see if a record already exists before a new one is created. This is quite problematic as we can have multiple applications over time for with the same Account name.

My current evaluation criteria look to see if field "Department Name" is populated on the PPA_Equipment_Request object. If true, it creates the new Account - setting Department Name as the Account Name.

How do I modify this to check and see if the Account exists before I create one?

Answer 1

You don't. Namely, Process Builder of itself is not powerful enough to perform this sort of check. Instead, you can create a headless flow (a flow with no screens) that accepts the appropriate input criteria and either creates an account or returns the existing account, and updates the records as appropriate. Alternatively, you can use an Invocable Method, but this requires writing Apex code.