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I'm looking for a way to trigger a Process Builder 'process' when a formula field updates.

In previous years, this wasn't possible, but I SWEAR that it was fixed a few months ago and you had to check off a combination of attributes ('fire only when relevant changes made/evaluate criteria multiple times'). I thought I ran into this problem before and I solved it.

Am I crazy? Is there no way to fire a process builder 'process' from a formula field update?

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    Formulas do not cause "record updates," and so generally can't fire anything (triggers, workflow rules, flows, outbound messages, etc). You can choose to recursively run workflow rules when a field update causes the record to change, but I'm not sure that helps you in this case. Perhaps you could elaborate on what this formula does, and what you're attempting to do?
    – sfdcfox
    Jul 1, 2015 at 21:57
  • Well, I was just trying to take the 'easy' way out, since it would be so easy (but life can't be easy right?). I'm just going to have a Flow trigger when a separate object is edited, and then do some lookups and pass some variables to edit the fields I want, in a different object. Thanks for confirming that formula Edits can't trigger anything! I now know what to do. Thanks!
    – RC82
    Jul 1, 2015 at 22:08

1 Answer 1

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You can't fire from a formula change, but there is strange path. Have a Workflow rules fire on EVERY change (every edit and where CreatedDate not blank). And have this do a field update of the formula field into text field (or number or date, whatever matches). On the field update check the box that it will re-fire workflow evaluations. Now you should be able to do your Process Builder (or other Workflow) off of the text field. Bit convoluted I'll admit, but it should work. Good luck.

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    Oh wow, that would work eh? Thanks Caleb, I'll keep this in mind next time! I ended up making a Process that launched an autoflow that triggered on a separate object being edited... long work around but worked. Your way would have been easier!
    – RC82
    Jul 2, 2015 at 18:14
  • I've tried this when a field update off an approval process is changing the formula result and it's not working. I can't get this process to run off of a field update. Jul 10, 2015 at 16:49
  • I don't know about the approval process, but the key is the small checkbox on the field update action that is "Re-evaluate Workflow Rules After Field Change " here's the help doco help.salesforce.com/apex/… Jul 10, 2015 at 17:08

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