| Some of the functionality described in this article is available as part of our Fiano release and will not be available if your Practifi instance is not upgraded to this release. |
Overview
Smart Notes is a comprehensive note composition and collaboration solution that replaces traditional notes in Practifi with a rich, template-driven experience. Smart Notes helps your firm maintain comprehensive client documentation that supports better client relationships by providing a centralized location for meeting notes, client interactions, and collaborative planning. You can create Smart Notes from scratch or use your firm's pre-built templates and content blocks to standardize documentation across your team.
Additionally, Practifi Intelligence subscribers have access to AI-powered content generation that dynamically incorporates information from relevant Client records. You can learn more in the article Creating and Using AI-Generated Smart Notes.
Smart Notes can also be generated automatically when Notetaker processes meeting summaries. For more information, see Using Notetaker. Additionally, if your organization uses Chat, your Practifi Administrator can grant the assistant access to Smart Note content when answering questions about a client relationship. For more information, see Enabling Chat.
This article shows you how to access and create Smart Notes in your Practifi organization.
- Understanding Smart Note Templates and Content Blocks
- Accessing Smart Notes
- Creating Smart Notes
- Using the Smart Note Editor
- Working with Smart Notes Categories
- Collaboration Features
- Saving Smart Notes
- Pinning Smart Notes
- Exporting Smart Notes as PDFs
- Reporting on Smart Notes
- Follow-up Assistant Integration
- Meeting Summaries from Notetaker
Understanding Smart Note Templates and Content Blocks
Before creating Smart Notes, it's helpful to understand the building blocks that make documentation faster and more consistent across your firm.
Templates provide reusable starting points for creating Smart Notes. When you create a Smart Note and select the Use a Template option, you can choose from templates created by administrators at your firm. Templates ensure your team captures consistent information across similar client interactions, whether it's an annual review, onboarding meeting, or portfolio discussion.
Content blocks are reusable components that can be embedded in Smart Note templates or added directly to a note in the Smart Note Editor. Like templates, content blocks are created and managed by Practifi Administrators within your organization. Content blocks enable you to add standardized content into a Smart Note, such as compliance disclaimers, common questions, or frequently used explanations. This reduces repetitive typing and ensures consistency in your client communications.
Please note: For guidance on creating and managing templates and content blocks, see our article on Creating and Using AI-Generated Smart Notes.
Accessing Smart Notes
Smart Notes are accessible from multiple locations in Practifi, with automatic associations based on where you create them. This flexibility allows your team to document client interactions from wherever they're working in the system.
Location |
How to Access |
Available Features |
| Navigation Menu |
Select Smart Notes from the Navigation Menu to access the global Smart Notes interface. Please note: If you don't see the Smart Notes option in the Navigation Menu, your Practifi Administrator might need to add it. For instruction on how to do this, see our article on Enabling Smart Notes. |
Four list views:
The New button in the upper-right corner allows you to create a new Smart Note and associate it with any Entity in your organization. |
| Entity Record Page: Overview Section |
Navigate to any Entity record page. The Smart Notes area is located in the right-hand column below the Noticeboard. |
Three icons:
Caret menu on each Smart Note preview:
|
| Entity Record Page: Documents Section |
Click the Documents navigation icon and select the Smart Notes tab. |
This centralized view helps you review all client documentation in one place. |
| Event Record Page |
Navigate to any Event record page. Click to expand the Notes section on the right-hand side of the Event record. |
Smart Notes created from Event pages are automatically linked to both the Event and its associated Entity, ensuring your meeting notes are connected to the right Client records. |
| Task/Call Record Page |
Click the Notes & Files tab on a Task page. |
Smart Notes can be created, edited, and managed directly from Task record pages. Smart Notes created from Tasks and logged Calls automatically roll up to the related Entity record. |
With our Blaufränksich release, we also made Smart Notes compatible with the Salesforce mobile app.
Please note: For existing Practifi organizations, administrators must manually add the Smart Notes component to Task Lightning pages. Contact your Practifi Administrator if you need Smart Notes added to your Task pages. For detailed configuration instructions, see Enabling Smart Notes.
Tasks and Calls
As of the Blaufränksich release, you can access and create Smart Notes from Task and Call records in Practifi.
For Tasks:
The Smart Notes component is available on Task record pages in two locations:
-
Notes & Files tab (full-size view) for detailed editing
-
Right sidebar in a collapsible Notes section for quick access
Please note: In existing Practifi organizations, administrators must manually add the Smart Notes component to Task record pages. For configuration instructions, see the Enabling Smart Notes article.
For Calls:
You can create Smart Notes from the same locations on Call records as shown above for Task records.
Additionally, when call automation is enabled in your organization's Smart Notes settings, descriptions from logged calls are automatically converted into Smart Notes. You can then add AI-generated content blocks to these notes to enrich call documentation with contextual client information.
For instructions on enabling call automation, see our Enabling Smart Notes article.
Creating Smart Notes
Creating a Smart Note is straightforward, whether you're starting from a blank canvas or using one of your firm's pre-built templates.
To create a new Smart Note:
- Click the New button or + icon from any of the Smart Notes locations described above. The Create Smart Note window opens.
- If you're creating the Smart Note from the global Smart Notes page, use the search bar to search for and select the entity you want to associate the note with.
- Select Start from Scratch or Use a Template.
If you select Start from Scratch, click Save & Open Editor to open the Smart Note Editor.
If you select Use a Template, click Continue.
On the next screen, you'll see your firm's templates listed on the left-hand side of the window. Select the template you want to use, then click Create. The Smart Note Editor opens, displaying the template's content.
Please note: If you don't see any templates listed, either your firm hasn't created any templates or they haven't been made available to you. You can click Back to return to the previous screen and select Start from Scratch.
Using the Smart Note Editor
Whether you're creating a Smart Note from scratch or using a template, you'll use the Smart Note Editor to write, format, and collaborate on your content. The editor provides a familiar word-processor-like experience optimized for wealth management documentation.
In the Smart Note Editor header, you'll find the following controls:
- Generate Suggestions Button: Provides AI-powered follow-up suggestions to help you identify next steps or actions based on your Smart Note content (available with Practifi Intelligence add-on).
- Capacity Indicator: Shows how much of the available content space you're using.
- Fullscreen Button: Expands the editor to use your entire screen.
- Save Button: Becomes enabled when you have unsaved changes, allowing you to save your Smart Note manually.
Please note: The Generate Suggestions button will only be available if your firm has enabled AI features in Practifi. AI-powered Smart Notes are part of our Practifi Intelligence add-on. To request access to this feature, please get in touch with your Client Success Manager or Practifi contact. Enabling AI in Smart Notes requires signing additional data processing agreements due to our AI provider partnership.
Formatting Options
Below the header is the main editing space where you write your Smart Note content. This area features a comprehensive formatting toolbar with standard text-editing options, including bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough. You can also add lists, tables, hyperlinks, and images.
Use the text style dropdown to apply different heading levels and formatting:
- Paragraph: Standard body text formatting
- Heading 1: Large heading for major sections
- Heading 2: Medium heading for subsections
- Heading 3: Smaller heading for detailed sections
All formatting options are applied using the toolbar buttons or by selecting text and choosing your desired formatting. In addition to the standard options, the formatting toolbar has the following controls:
- Undo: Reverse your last action or change
- Redo: Restore a change that you previously undid
- Blockquote: Format text as a quotation with special indentation and styling
- Text Color: Apply color to selected text from a standard set of options
- Bullet List: Create bulleted lists for unordered items
- Numbered List: Create numbered lists for sequential items or procedures
- Insert Table: Add a new table to your Smart Note
- Add or Remove Link: Highlight text and use the link icon to create clickable links to websites, documents, or other resources
Lists can be nested by clicking <TAB> to indent items, and you can switch between bulleted and numbered formats using the toolbar buttons.
When working within a table, additional options become available, including:
- Add or delete rows and columns
- Merge and split cells
- Toggle header row formatting
- Delete table
Adding Images
You can use the Insert Image icon to add visual content to your Smart Note. Images help make your Smart Notes more engaging and can be valuable for including charts, diagrams, or reference materials. When you click the Insert Image icon in the toolbar, the Insert Image window opens. There are two options:
Upload New: Upload a new image file directly from your computer.
- Supported formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, SVG
- Files are stored securely in Salesforce Files
- You'll see a preview of your uploaded image before inserting it
Choose From Existing: Select from images already uploaded to your organization.
- Browse all available image files in your organization
- Search by file name to quickly find specific images
- View thumbnails and file details to make the right choice
- Includes infinite scroll to handle large image libraries
Please note: All images are stored as Salesforce Files, meaning they're kept securely within your Salesforce organization. All standard Salesforce file security and sharing rules apply. Images uploaded for Smart Notes are available organization-wide for reuse. File storage counts toward your organization's data storage limits.
Once inserted, you can control how images are positioned within your text:
- Left alignment: Text wraps around the right side of the image
- Center alignment: The image is centered, with text positioned above and below
- Right alignment: Text wraps around the left side of the image
- No alignment: Image appears inline with your text
Adding Content Blocks
Content blocks are modular content pieces created by your firm's administrators. They contain pre-written content such as standard meeting agenda items, common questions, legal disclaimers, or frequently used language. You can insert content blocks anywhere in your Smart Note to save time and maintain consistency.
You can add a content block from the Smart Note Editor when starting a new line of text. When you click the <ENTER> key or click into a new line with your cursor, you'll see an Add Content Block pop-up.
- Click + Add Content Block to open the Add Content Block window.
-
In the Add Content Block window, you'll see a searchable list of content blocks in your organization. Select a content block to view a description and a preview of the content.
Please note: If you don't see any content blocks listed, it's either because your firm hasn't created any content blocks or they haven't been made available to you.
- Click the Add Content Block button to insert the content block at your current cursor position.
- You can edit the content block in the Smart Note Editor to replace placeholder text with your own content.
Working with Smart Notes Categories
Smart Notes supports categories to help you organize and quickly find Templates, Content Blocks, and Smart Notes. Your administrator creates and manages the categories available to your organization.
Assigning Categories
You can assign a category when creating a new Smart Note, Template, or Content Block by selecting from the Category picklist.
To update a Smart Note category after creation:
-
Click the caret on a Smart Note card and select Change Category.
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Click the Category badge in the Smart Note Editor to assign a category.
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Open the note from a list view and click the Edit button to update the category in the Smart Note Editor.
Please note: There is no inline quick-change option in list views. Clicking the Edit button opens the full Smart Note Editor.
Filtering by Categories
Category badges with colors appear on Smart Notes in all views. You can filter by category on the View All page for Entity records and in the Smart Notes utility bar component.
Filter behavior:
- All Categories shows all items, including uncategorized items.
- Selecting a specific category shows only items assigned to that category.
-
Filter selections do not persist between navigation.
Tips for Using Categories Effectively
- Understand your organization's category system: Check with your Practifi Administrator to understand what each category represents.
- Assign categories consistently: Use the same categories for similar types of content to maintain organization.
- Use category filters: Take advantage of category filtering to find the content you need quickly.
- Update as needed: Don't hesitate to recategorize Smart Notes as your work evolves.
Collaboration Features
Smart Notes includes several tools to help you collaborate with colleagues and ensure important information is shared effectively. These features support team-based client service by making it easy to involve the right people in client documentation.
@Mentions
Similar to existing Feed functionality, @mentions let you notify colleagues about important Smart Notes or specific content. To mention a colleague in a Smart Note, type @ and begin typing their name, then select their name from the suggestions that appear.
@mentioned users receive either email notifications, system notifications, or both, depending on their notification settings. For more information about notification settings, see Enabling Smart Notes.
Comments
With comments, you can add contextual feedback and discussion directly within your Smart Notes. This helps teams collaborate on client documentation without cluttering the main content. To add a comment in the Smart Note Editor:
- Select any text and click Comment in the pop-up that appears.
- In the Comments panel on the right, enter your comment and click Comment.
The comment appears as a highlighted section that colleagues can click to read.
Here are some things to know about comments:
- You can @mention colleagues within Smart Note comments.
- Users can reply to comments to create threaded discussions.
- Comments provide a way to ask questions, provide feedback, or discuss specific parts of your Smart Note without editing the main content.
- All comments include timestamps and author information for clear communication.
The commenting feature enables teams to collaborate on Smart Notes while keeping the main content clean and preserving a clear record of discussions and decisions.
Sharing and Access
Smart Notes follow standard Salesforce sharing rules with additional permission controls. This ensures that client information remains secure while enabling appropriate collaboration across the team.
Entity-based access rules ensure that client information remains secure:
- Smart Notes inherit the same access permissions as the entity (account) they're associated with.
- Users who can access an entity can view the Smart Notes associated with it.
- Event-related Smart Notes are accessible to users who have access to both the Event and its associated Entity.
- All users have full editing and commenting access to Smart Notes they create, regardless of additional permission settings.
For Smart Notes that users can see but didn't create themselves, Practifi Administrators can configure additional access controls:
- View Only: Users can read Smart Notes but cannot edit or comment on them.
- Comment: Users can read and add comments to Smart Notes, but cannot edit the content.
- Edit: Users can read, comment on, and edit Smart Notes created by others.
Please note: Administrators configure these permission levels and can apply them to individual users or groups, providing flexible control over collaboration while maintaining security. To learn more about setting Smart Note permissions, see our article on Enabling Smart Notes.
Saving Smart Notes
The Smart Note Editor does not automatically save your changes; you must save your work manually. The Save button becomes enabled whenever you make changes to your Smart Note and returns to its disabled state after the changes are successfully saved.
To protect your work from accidental loss, the Smart Note Editor tracks whether you have unsaved changes. You'll see a warning message if you try to close the editor with unsaved changes.
Smart Notes are limited to 32,768 characters. The Smart Note Editor includes built-in capacity monitoring to help you stay within system limits. A capacity indicator in the Smart Note Editor header shows how much of the available storage space you're using. The system monitors your content size in real time as you type. If you approach the size limit, you'll receive warnings to help you manage your content. The Save button becomes disabled if you exceed the maximum content size.
Pinning Smart Notes
As of the Blaufränksich release, you can pin important Smart Notes to keep them easily accessible at the top of Smart Notes lists on related records. This feature helps highlight critical notes for better visibility, even as new notes are created.
Using the Pin Action
The Pin action is available in the drop-down menu on Smart Notes cards in these locations:
- Entity level – Overview panel
- Entity level – Notes & Files side panel
- Utility bar
- Record level (Tasks, Calls, Events) – Meeting Digest and Notes & Files tabs
- Record level (Tasks, Calls, Events) – Right-hand pane under Notes
How Pinning Works
When you pin a note:
- The note appears at the top of the Smart Notes list on the relevant record.
- A pin icon is displayed next to the menu button for easy identification.
- When multiple notes are pinned, they're sorted with the most recently pinned note appearing first.
-
Pinning is context-specific and tracked per record type (Entity, Event, Task).
The pin action works as a toggle. After clicking Pin, the action changes to Unpin, letting you remove the pin when needed.
Considerations
- In the Recently Viewed section, pinned notes do not automatically appear at the top — the most recently viewed note appears first, regardless of pin status.
- For large Smart Note libraries (1,000+ notes), the page may need to be refreshed to display pin/unpin changes.
Exporting Smart Notes as PDFs
Smart Notes includes built-in PDF export functionality, allowing you to download any Smart Note as a professionally formatted PDF for external sharing, printing, or archiving. This makes it easy to share meeting summaries or documentation with clients while maintaining your firm's professional appearance.
PDFs maintain all Smart Note formatting, including bold, italic, headings, and lists. Tables are properly structured and spaced. Content blocks appear exactly as they do in the Smart Note.
Please note: Enabling the Export to PDF feature requires additional configuration. For instructions, see our article on Enabling Smart Notes.
You can export Smart Notes to PDF from the following locations:
- From an Entity or Event record, click the caret on any Smart Note card and select Export PDF.
- On the Smart Notes app page, select a Smart Note, then click the caret and select Export PDF.
A confirmation message appears, and the PDF is downloaded to your device. Smart Note PDFs are automatically named using the related entity's name and the Smart Note's title, making them easy to identify and organize in your Downloads folder.
Please note: PDF export is not available on mobile devices or in the Salesforce mobile app due to technical limitations. Neither mobile phones nor the Salesforce mobile app can generate or download PDFs. If you attempt to export on an unsupported device, you'll see a warning message explaining the limitation. The export system automatically detects your device type and will offer PDF export only when it's supported.
Image Limitation
Images are currently not supported in PDF exports. If you export a Smart Note that contains one or more images, they are removed from the exported PDF. The images remain in the actual Smart Note within Practifi.
- If the Smart Note contains text before and after the image(s), only the text is shown in the exported file.
- If the Smart Note contains only images, the PDF will be blank, except for the Smart Note title, "Created for," and "Created on" information.
Reporting on Smart Notes
We've created a report called Smart Notes Last 60 Days by Creator to help you track Smart Notes across your organization. This report helps administrators monitor adoption and usage patterns.
To launch this report:
- Use the Navigation Menu to select Reports.
- Under the Reports heading on the left-hand side of the screen, click Public Reports.
- Use the search field to search for Smart Notes.
- Select the Smart Notes Last 60 Days by Creator report to open it in the Report Viewer.
Text Truncation
Long text fields are truncated in the Report Viewer. In most cases, you cannot view the full content of Smart Notes in the standard report view.
To export the full text of Smart Notes:
-
In the Report Viewer, click the caret, then select Export.
- In the Export window, select Details Only.
- Click the Format drop-down and select Excel Format or Comma Delimited.
- Click Export. The file is downloaded to your device.
Follow-up Assistant Integration
Follow-up Assistant is an AI-powered feature that analyzes note content and suggests follow-up actions. We've built Follow-up Assistant functionality into the Smart Note Editor to make it even easier to identify next steps, create follow-up tasks, and ensure nothing important gets overlooked. This helps your team turn client conversations into actionable items without having to manually review notes for next steps.
Please note: Follow-up Assistant integration with Smart Notes is a part of our Practifi Intelligence add-on. To request access to this feature, please get in touch with your Client Success Manager or Practifi contact. Enabling AI in Smart Notes requires signing additional data processing agreements due to our AI provider partnership.
You can generate suggestions multiple times on the same Smart Note as you add content, rather than being limited to a single analysis. The system analyzes new content while maintaining context from previous sections, ensuring suggestions remain relevant and avoiding duplicates.
Generating Suggestions
Follow-Up Assistant uses intelligent content analysis to understand what you've written and suggest appropriate actions. To analyze your Smart Note, click the Generate Suggestions button in the header.
A confirmation message appears. After suggestions are generated, the button label will update to show X Suggestions, where X is the number of suggestions available. Click the Suggestions button to view the suggested action items in the Complete Follow-up window.
After you make changes to your Smart Note and save, you can click the Generate Suggestions button again. The system will focus on analyzing only the new content you've added while maintaining context from the previous sections. New suggestions are generated based on the additional content while avoiding duplicates from earlier analyses. Repeat this process as many times as needed as your Smart Note evolves.
This incremental approach is ideal for client meeting preparation: you might start with basic agenda items, then add portfolio analysis, and finally include discussion notes, generating relevant suggestions at each stage.
Managing Suggestions
When you click the Suggestions button (either Generate Suggestions or X Suggestions), the Complete Follow-up window opens, where you can review and manage all suggestions for your Smart Note:
- View all pending suggestions generated for the current Smart Note.
- Accept individual suggestions and turn them into actionable items.
- Decline suggestions that aren't relevant or needed.
- See the history of previously accepted and declined suggestions to provide context for new decisions.
The history feature is particularly valuable because it helps you avoid creating duplicate actions and provides context when similar suggestions appear from new content additions.
Content Requirements
There's no minimum content requirement to generate suggestions; however, the more detailed and substantive your Smart Note content, the more relevant and useful the suggestions will be. Brief notes may generate few or very general suggestions.
Meeting Summaries from Notetaker
As of the Fiano release, meeting summaries processed by Notetaker can be automatically stored as Smart Notes. When this option is enabled, a Smart Note is created upon completion of processing and linked to the meeting's related entity, whether a Household, Organization, or Individual. The Smart Note contains the full summary in formatted HTML, preserving the original structure and section headings. You can open it, annotate it, and use it as a working document alongside the rest of your notes.
Practifi Administrators can configure where meeting summaries are stored in Notetaker settings. To learn more, please see our Enabling Notetaker article.
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