[SalesForce] Incrementing number field with formula in workflow

I have the following requirement

  1. Send an email when a record is created to the assigned user(field in the record).
  2. Starting from the 3rd day from the day the record was created start sending emails to the assigned user for one week.

I was thinking of using workflow to achieve this. The plan(design) was to two workflows to achieve the result.

First workflow is fired when the record is created using ISNEW() rule
criteria. This WF will have one email trigger.It will also have time
dependent email action(after 3days) of an email trigger and a field
update(a hidden number field called timeTriggerCheck incremented by
one).

The second WF to have rule criteria of ISCHANGED(timeTriggerCheck) and
ISVAL(timeTriggerCheck)<= 9.

However i don't see any way to update the hidden number by one every day via WF formula. Nor do i see any way to check if the value of the number field is less than 10.

Can the requirement be fulfilled using Workflows in the above way. I do feel one workaround would be to keep only the first WF and keep all time based email trigger under it. Something in the following order:

3 days after rule trigger date

4 days after rule trigger date

…

9 days after rule trigger date

However the number of such days might increase and hence it seems quite inappropriate to manually create such records.

Best Answer

This is what I did to get this tested and working:

  1. Field Delay__c on account. Default value = 0 you can alter in increment formula

enter image description here 2. Field Send_On__c (dateTime) formula as createddate + Delay__c

enter image description here

  1. WFR ON Account, eval criteria Created and subsequently edited, criteria CreatedDate NOT EQUAL (leave third field blank) and Delay__c <= 9 3a. Immediate Actions - WF Field Update to increment Delay formula. In this example if 0 add 3 days, otherwise add 1.

enter image description here

3b Email alert to send email of your choosing 3c Time triggered 0 days from Send_On__c as the trigger 3d - Time triggered actions is the same as exist in the immediate actions

enter image description here

Feel free to rename fields as needed. You could also simply adjust the formula to increment times triggered to add 2 if the value is 0, then 1 otherwise. All up to you.

What this does is:

  1. Record Created, immediate action happens, sends email, increments counter. Now Send_On__c = next day + 3 if insert and next day when TBWFR fires.

  2. Next Send On day, time triggered fires, increments counter, sends email, and resets itself to the next day to fire

To test:

  1. Create record - You will get email
  2. Review TBWF queue. - You will see an entry for tomorrow
  3. Increment counter manually to 2 to simulate tomorrows run
  4. Review TBWF queue. - You will see an entry for 2 days for now

On insert the TBWF Queue should should something similar to:

enter image description here

And the account fields will be

enter image description here

Now, change the Delay to 4 and refresh the TBW Queue logs and it should be

enter image description here

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