Formula in Workflow Rule not triggering when it should

Question

I have a workflow rule that should be creating a Task when someone creates a new opportunity with an amount over $500. But for some reason it isn't triggering (yes, I checked to make sure it's active). What is the easiest way to diagnose why it isn't firing? Can you test formulas on objects in the developer console?

Answer 1

Open the Developer Console, change the default Log Levels (Debug > Change Log Levels... > Add/Change > Workflow=FINEST), then perform an operation (insert/update/whatever).

You'll see a new log, that will contain lines like this:

15:36:02.2 (398764976)|WF_RULE_EVAL_BEGIN|Workflow
15:36:02.2 (398983642)|WF_CRITERIA_BEGIN|[Client: demo 0011T00002Pndvj]|Sleeper|01Q50000000Vbn6|ON_CREATE_ONLY|0
15:36:02.2 (399204257)|WF_FORMULA|Formula:ENCODED:[treatNullAsNull]TRUE|Values:
15:36:02.2 (399217206)|WF_CRITERIA_END|true
15:36:02.2 (399248294)|WF_CRITERIA_BEGIN|[Client: demo 0011T00002Pndvj]|test|01Q50000000ANNk|ON_CREATE_OR_TRIGGERING_UPDATE|0
15:36:02.2 (404759899)|WF_RULE_FILTER|[Client : Account Name not equal to ]
15:36:02.2 (404799829)|WF_RULE_EVAL_VALUE|demo
15:36:02.2 (404811979)|WF_CRITERIA_END|true
15:36:02.2 (405486758)|WF_SPOOL_ACTION_BEGIN|Workflow
15:36:02.2 (405877275)|WF_FIELD_UPDATE|[Client: demo 0011T00002Pndvj]|Field:Client: Account Number|Value:12345|Id=04Y50000000PwIf|CurrentRule:test (Id=01Q50000000ANNk)
15:36:02.2 (405913719)|WF_ACTION| Field Update: 1;
15:36:02.2 (405922278)|WF_RULE_EVAL_END

This will show you all the rules, including the filter (WF_RULE_FILTER), the values (WF_RULE_EVAL_VALUE), and the result (WF_CRITERIA_END), plus the actions executed (WF_ACTION). This will help you identify the issue with your configuration.

You can also just run an execute anonymous script (Debug > Open Execute Anonymous Window), and run some code directly, such as:

Account a = new Account(Name='Test');
insert a;
Opportunity o = new Opportunity(StageName='Prospecting',AccountId=a.Id,CloseDate=Date.today());
insert o;

There's a checkbox at the bottom to automatically open the log after execution. Keep in mind that this is a live execution environment, so you'll need to clean up the records you create/update afterwards.