Salesforce Workflow and Process Builder Retirement: What You Need to Know

Guided Sky
Dec 22, 2025
3 min read

If you're a Salesforce admin, operations leader, or business stakeholder, you've likely heard that Salesforce is retiring Workflow Rules and Process Builder. This change marks an important shift in how automation works in your Salesforce org—and understanding what it means for your business is critical.

In this post, we'll break down what's changing, what's not, and why now is the time to take action.

What Are Workflow Rules and Process Builder?

For years, Workflow Rules and Process Builder have been the go-to tools for automating business processes in Salesforce. They've helped organisations send email alerts, update fields, create tasks, and trigger other actions based on specific criteria,

all without writing code.

While these tools have served admins well, they were built on older technology and have limitations in flexibility, scalability, and functionality.

Why Is Salesforce Moving Away from These Tools?

Salesforce is consolidating its automation capabilities into a single, more powerful platform: Salesforce Flow. Flow is more robust, easier to maintain, and offers significantly more functionality than Workflow Rules and Process Builder combined.

By retiring legacy automation tools, Salesforce is streamlining its platform and ensuring customers have access to the best and most modern automation capabilities available.

What's Changing... and What's Not

Here's the good news: existing Workflow Rules and Process Builders are not being switched off. Your current automations will continue to run as they do today.

However, there's an important catch: you will no longer be able to edit or fix Workflow Rules or Process Builders if something breaks.

This means:

If a workflow stops working due to a field change, object update, or integration issue, you won't be able to modify it to resolve the problem.
If business requirements change and you need to update an automation, you'll be unable to make those changes using the legacy tools.
Salesforce will no longer provide support for issues related to Workflow Rules or Process Builder.

In short, these tools will become read-only relics in your org... functional until they're not, and then you're stuck.

The Risks of Leaving Legacy Automations in Place

Continuing to rely on Workflow Rules and Process Builder exposes your organization to several significant risks:

Loss of Control: When an automation fails or needs updating, you'll have no way to fix it. This can lead to critical business processes breaking down without a clear path to resolution.

Inability to Respond to Change: Business needs evolve. New fields are added, processes are refined, and integrations change. Without the ability to edit your automations, you'll be unable to adapt.

Operational Disruption: A single broken workflow can impact everything from sales processes to customer communications. The longer you wait to migrate, the greater the chance of unexpected downtime.

Lack of Salesforce Support: If you encounter issues with legacy automations, Salesforce will no longer assist. You'll be on your own to troubleshoot and resolve problems, or face the reality that they can't be fixed.

The Solution: Migrate to Salesforce Flow

The path forward is clear: migrate your automations to Salesforce Flow.

Flow is Salesforce's strategic automation tool for the future. It offers a unified, visual interface for building automations that are more powerful, maintainable, and scalable than anything possible with Workflow Rules or Process Builder.

By moving to Flow, you:

Maintain full control: If an automation breaks or needs updating, you'll be able to edit and fix it immediately.
Stay supported by Salesforce: Flow is actively maintained and supported, ensuring you have access to help when you need it.
Keep your org aligned with best practices: Flow represents the current and future direction of Salesforce automation, keeping your org modern and optimised.
Unlock advanced capabilities: Flow supports complex logic, screen flows, integrations, and much more, giving you tools to build smarter, more efficient processes.

Take Action Now

The time to act is before issues arise, not after. Waiting until a critical workflow breaks is a risk no organisation should take.

Here's what we recommend:

Audit your current automations: Identify all active Workflow Rules and Process Builders in your org.
Prioritise based on business impact: Focus first on automations that support critical processes.
Develop a migration plan: Map out a timeline and resources needed to move your automations to Flow.
Test thoroughly: Ensure migrated Flows work as expected before deactivating legacy automations.

"Don't wait for a problem to force your hand. Proactively migrating to Flow ensures your business operations remain smooth, supported, and

future-ready."

Need help with your migration? Our team specializes in helping organisations transition seamlessly from legacy automations to Salesforce Flow. Contact us today to discuss your migration strategy and ensure your Salesforce org is prepared for the future.