How to set up the “Update Referral when linking Opportunity” Flow

1. Flow configuration

This Flow goes hand in hand with the “Update Referral from Opportunity” Flow, but it covers a very special use case: when a Referral is linked to an existing Opportunity. It has to be a special case because when you do the linking, the Opportunity record doesn't change. However, the Referral record changes. So, it cannot be the same Flow because it's triggered from a different object.

It's a very simple Flow. 

It starts every time a Referral record gets the Opportunity field updated and not blank.

All it does is assign Opportunity fields on the right to Referral fields on the left. 

Most likely, you will want this list to be the same as in the “Update Referral From Opportunity” Flow. But maybe, in this case, you will want something different. 

This flow as well can be activated as is.

2. When the Flow gets triggered

Now, let’s take a closer look at when exactly this Flow is invoked because it is not as obvious as with most of our other Flows.

We need a Referral without an Opportunity. It does not matter if it is an Incoming or Outgoing one; it works the same. If there is no Opportunity, then you have the option to link to an existing one (or create a new one, but we are only talking about linking now).

So on this Referral, the Close Date is December 20, 2022, and you should link it to an Opportunity with a different Close Date. 

After linking, you will see that the Close Date has changed because it's going to be pulled from the Opportunity to this Referral.

So after clicking on the Link button, you will get the chance to update some Referral fields because some values have been pulled into this modal using default mapping.

But after you click Save, that is when this Flow kicks in.

And it overwrites the Close Date (and the Sales Stage, which are the same in this example) to match the ones from the Opportunity.