Hello everyone,

It's hack day again!

A few months ago, we had one of our users present a case to us. She had set up a product module workflow rule that executed at the time of creation.This workflow also has a time-based action tied to the product sale end date. While this workflow worked perfectly on records that were added using the +Add Product option, she was unable to apply this workflow for records that were imported. I'm sure some of you would have run into this situation. If you were able to workaround it, awesome. Do share the tip/hack with your peers. I'm going to share a simple workflow that helps you trigger the workflow for Imported records.

Step 1: Create a Checkbox field from Setup->Modules and Fields->Select the module->Drag and Drop a Checkbox field.  Name it as “Imported records”.  Refer  this link to know more about adding custom fields in CRM’s module layout.

Step 2: Add a new column in your file called “Imported records” and give the value as ‘true’ for all the records you are importing.

Step 3: Follow this link to import data into CRM.

Note 1 : If your workflow is set to execute only “on Creation”, then go to Setup->Workflow rules->Select the workflow->Change the record action to “Edit” and save it.

Step 4: Select the module -> Open the smart filters from the left -> Filter by ‘Imported records is Selected’ and apply filter.

Step 5: This  lists all the records  you just imported. Now mass update this from ‘Selected’ to ‘Unselected’ to trigger the workflow. 

Note 2 : Now, revoke the changes made in the workflow from ‘Edit’ to ‘Create’ and save the workflow.

Eager to know how the imported records work partially with automation? 

If your workflow contains only “Tasks” as instant action, then  opt to select the workflow task in the Import page , provided all the imported records have the same task created.

If you want to look at all our hacks,please refer to this link that has all the hacks.