Salesforce Flow validation rules are essential for ensuring data accuracy and consistency in automated workflows. By setting specific conditions that data must meet before it is saved or processed within a flow, these rules prevent erroneous or incomplete information from moving forward in the workflow. For instance, you might create a validation rule that requires certain fields, such as phone, email and address, to be filled out or ensures that a value falls within a specified range before the flow can continue. This not only enforces data quality standards but also helps avoid downstream errors that could disrupt business processes or lead to poor decision-making. With flow validation rules, Salesforce admins can maintain control over data integrity while enhancing user experience by proactively catching errors.

Below are a few popular flow validation rules I used in my projects

Name

Standard length for Name Fields is 40 for First Name, 20 for Middle Name and 80 for Last Name.

First Name

Error message:

Your entry needs to be shorter than 40 characters.

Validation rule:

LEN({!First_Name})<=40

Social Security Number (USA)

Error message:

Please enter 9 digits for the SSN field.

Validation rule (this rule allows for dashes):

OR( 

REGEX( {!Social_Security_Number} , "[0-9X\-]{11}"), 

REGEX( {!Social_Security_Number} , "[0-9]{9}") 

) 

Address

Standard length for address fields are 256 for Street Address and 80 for City. The ZIP (Postal) code can be in XXXXX or in XXXXX-XXXX format (USA).

State Code

Error message example:

Please enter a State Code consisting of two capital letters.

Validation rule:

NOT( 

 AND( 

   NOT(ISBLANK({!State})), 

   OR( 

      LEN( {!State}) <> 2, 

      NOT(CONTAINS({!State}, UPPER({!State}))) 

    ) 

 ) 

) 

ZIP (Postal) Code (USA)

Error message example:

ZIP code needs to be in XXXXX or in XXXXX-XXXX format.

Validation rule:

REGEX({!MailingZIP} , "\d{5}(-\d{4})?")

Revenue

Error message example:

Your entry needs to be shorter than 16 digits.

Validation rule (Currency upper limit):

{!Revenue}<10000000000000000

Email

Error message example:

Please enter a valid email address.

Validation rule:

REGEX({!Email_Address},"[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}")

Phone number

Error message example:

Please enter a 10 digit phone number.

Validation rule:

AND( 

LEN({!Mobile_Phone})=10, 

NOT(REGEX({!Mobile_Phone} ,"^[a-z A-Z]*$")))