Automation: Part 2
The Creation of 2 Records
Let’s get back to Flow automations! In a previous story, I wrote about a flow we built for Hawaii Literacy that performed 3 functions when a volunteer tutors submitted a monthly report. 1) Updates the Campaign Name field on the new Case submitted, 2) Creates a Volunteer Job record and 3) Creates a Volunteer Hours record. In this story, we’re going to review #2 & #3.
First, lets discuss 3 standard objects we reference in the Flow so we’re on the same page: Campaign, Volunteer Jobs and Volunteer Hours. A Campaign is how NPSP (non-profit success pack) tracks volunteering. And 2 things you want to know about a volunteer opportunity is it’s name (Volunteer Job) and the duration (Volunteer Hours). How silly would it be if you told a volunteer, “See you at that thing we planned,” and when they ask you how long they should plan on being there, you say, “oh, until we’re done.” No one will ever volunteer — NEVER! NUNCA! NOPE!
Campaign: For Hawaii Literacy, we standardized the Campaign Names by Month & Year because clean-organized data is like music to my ears!
A Volunteer Job is any event that needs to be reported and they’re organized within the Campaign month & year it was completed. Example 1 — when a tutor & student meet up for a tutoring session, make the Volunteer Job’s Name the Student name entered on the Monthly Report. Standardize the name formatting to keep it organized!
Example 2. We created a job within each campaign by typing in the name of the monthly meeting — Learner Council
Volunteer Hours is the time reported to complete the volunteer job. Let’s stick with the Learner Council job example. It’s a monthly meeting where we want to log the hours of each student that attended. Wow, this volunteer hours record is a 2-for-1! Not only are you logging the hours; you’re also taking attendance.
Now that you know how these 3 objects are related, let’s go back to making records: Volunteer Jobs and Hours records!
In the flow, we’re instructing the Keebler elves (remember them from the Automation 1 story?) to create a new Volunteer Job record within the Campaign and include the Volunteer Contact name so we know who volunteered whenever a new case is created. And while you’re at it, take the information from the new Case or other variables we created in the Flow and copy the values into the new fields of the Volunteer Job.
Immediately after that, the Flow instructs the Keebler elves to create a new Volunteer Hours record within the associated Volunteer Job and include the Volunteer Contact name so we know who tutored these hours. While you’re at it, change the Status to “completed” because we already know the volunteer job happened and check the box “Submitted Monthly Report.”
So when a volunteer tutor submits their monthly report, the Flow will create a Volunteer Job record:
and a Volunteer Hours record :
Flows ROCK because they automatically do all the work behind the scenes! Join me next week to discover how we use these 2 records in the Hawaii Literacy project.
Mahalo,
Lizette
