Are Validation Rules Dead in Salesforce?

 

With the growing dominance of Salesforce Flows being used on nearly every object in fast-paced orgs, one question comes to mind: Are validation rules on objects becoming obsolete?

If you've ever built flows that span multiple objects, you've likely encountered the dreaded flow error when trying to update a record. While there are workarounds—such as the one I demonstrated in this video—this situation makes you wonder: Is there still a need for validation rules when flows are handling so much of the heavy lifting?

Flows provide powerful tools to control user actions, including decisions, error messages, and on-screen guidance. You can even prevent users from performing specific actions using decision elements and screen-based errors within a flow. But what about simpler use cases, like straightforward record updates? Should Salesforce offer an option to disable or ignore validation rules in flows?

One common issue arises when flows trigger other flows that update records across different objects, often resulting in flow errors due to validation rules. While you can often resolve these conflicts with some fine-tuning of both the flow and the validation rules, it’s not always possible to avoid them entirely. This is where my Video provides a practical workaround.

However, the larger question remains: Are validation rules becoming irrelevant?

Personally, I think there’s still a place for validation rules, but maybe they need to evolve. For instance, instead of being tied to the object itself, perhaps validation rules could move to the record page layout, only triggering when the user interacts directly with that page. As Salesforce continues its shift away from Classic and evolves toward a more dynamic user experience, it might be time to reconsider how some of these older features function and update them for modern use cases.