Using the Create an Entity Wizard

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 

The Create an Entity wizard streamlines the process of bringing new clients and prospects into Practifi. What previously required navigating multiple separate actions (creating a Household, promoting to a prospect, and then promoting to a client) now happens in a single, guided experience. The wizard walks you through entity creation with clear progress indicators, smart defaults, and built-in promotion flows, ensuring you capture the right information while saving significant time.

This consolidated approach means fewer clicks, less context switching, and reduced risk of incomplete entity setup. Instead of creating an entity and then returning later for promotions, you complete everything in a single, focused session. The result is cleaner data, faster onboarding, and more time available for client-facing work.

This article explains how to use the Create an Entity wizard to create Households, Organizations, Individuals, and Groups.

Please note: The Create an Entity wizard replaces the need to run the Add to New Household, Promote to Prospect, and Promote to Client actions sequentially. Existing entities created before this feature continue to function as before.

• How It Works
• Launching the Wizard
• Select Entity Type and Lifecycle Stage
  • Choosing an Entity Type
  • Choosing a Lifecycle Stage
  • Moving Forward
• Enter Entity Details and Members
  • For Households
  • For Organizations
  • For Individuals
  • Using the Add Menu
  • Working with Members
    • Primary Member
    • Adding More Members
  • Household Name Generation
• Add Topics and Definitions
  • Topics
  • Definitions
• Complete Promotion Flows
  • What Are Promotion Flows?
  • Completing Flow Screens
• The Success Screen
  • What You'll See
  • Your Options
• Tips for Efficient Entity Creation

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How It Works

Before diving into the steps, it helps to understand a few things about the wizard's design. These design choices directly support faster, more accurate entity creation.

The wizard adapts to your choices. The entity type you select determines which fields you see — each type has its own relevant set of information to capture. The lifecycle stage you select (e.g., Prospect or Client) determines whether you'll complete promotion flows within the wizard. This intelligent adaptation means you never wade through irrelevant fields or steps.

Not all available fields appear at once. The wizard shows essential fields by default and makes additional fields available through an Add menu. This keeps the form focused while still allowing you to capture whatever information you need. When you want to add something like a phone number or address, you can click one of the Add options. This progressive disclosure approach reduces cognitive load and speeds up common workflows while maintaining flexibility for complex cases.

Your administrator controls which entity types are available. Using Entity Management settings, your Practifi Administrator can control which entity types appear in the wizard and configure which fields are shown for each type. If you don't see an entity type or field you expect, reach out to your administrator. For more information, see Entity Management Settings.

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Launching the Wizard

The Create an Entity wizard is available as a global action, meaning you can access it from anywhere in Practifi without first navigating to a specific record. This availability eliminates the need to plan your navigation path or leave your current work context.

To launch the Create an Entity wizard:

1. Click the Global Actions icon (the + icon).

   

2. From the Global Actions menu, select Create an Entity.

   

3. The Create an Entity wizard opens in a new window with the first step displayed.

   

Please note: For organizations created before the Blaufränkisch release, the Create an Entity option must be added to the Global Actions menu. If you don't see this option, reach out to your Practifi Administrator.

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Select Entity Type and Lifecycle Stage

The first screen establishes what kind of entity you're creating and where it falls in your client lifecycle. These two choices shape your entire journey through the wizard, determining which fields you'll see and which promotion flows you'll complete.

Choosing an Entity Type

Select from the entity types available in your organization, displayed as visual cards. Depending on your administrator's configuration, you may see up to four options:

Entity Type	Description	When to Use
Household	A family or group of related individuals	Creating a client family, a couple, or any group of people who share a financial relationship
Organization	A business, firm, institution, or other collective entity	Creating a corporate client, trust, foundation, or business entity
Individual	A single person not associated with a household	Creating a standalone person account when household relationships don't apply
Group	A container that organizes related Households, Organizations, and Individuals into a unified view	Creating a top-level structure for a multi-generational family, a complex ownership arrangement, or any situation where you need a consolidated view across multiple entities

Click a card to select it. A checkmark appears on your selection.

Please note: The entity types available in your wizard depend on your organization's configuration. Administrators can enable or disable entity types through Entity Management settings. If you don't see an expected entity type, reach out to your Practifi Administrator. For more information, see Entity Management Settings.

Choosing a Lifecycle Stage

After selecting an entity type, choose the lifecycle stage that represents where this entity is in your relationship. The available stages are drawn from your organization's Client Stage picklist, which typically includes options such as Prospect and Client.

Your selection here determines whether you'll see promotion flow screens later. Selecting Client means you'll complete the full promotion process (Promote to Prospect and Promote to Client) all within this wizard session. This choice lets you decide upfront whether you're doing a quick entity capture or a complete client onboarding.

Please note: Groups do not move through lifecycle stages, so these options are disabled when you select Group as the entity type. For more information, see Understanding and Using Groups.

Moving Forward

After making both selections:

• The progress indicator appears at the bottom of the wizard, showing all the steps in your journey.
• The Next button becomes active.
• Click Next to proceed to entity details.

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Enter Entity Details and Members

The second screen captures the core information about your entity. What you see depends on the entity type you selected. This targeted approach means you only fill out fields that pertain to the entity you're creating.

For Households

When creating a Household, you'll see:

• Name (required) — Generates automatically from the member names you enter. We'll cover this in the Working with Members section below. You can click the pencil icon to edit the name if desired.
• Owner (required) — The user who owns this entity record. This field defaults to the running user, but you can click the X icon and select a different user in your organization.
• Related Division (required) — Appears if your organization uses divisions. Your primary division is selected by default.
• Add menu — Displays additional available fields for the entity. Click the hyperlinked name of a field to add it to the wizard.

For Organizations

When creating an Organization, you'll see:

• Name (required) — Enter the organization's name.
• Owner (required) — The user who owns this entity record. This field defaults to the running user, but you can click the X icon and select a different user in your organization.
• Related Division (required) — Appears if your organization uses divisions. Your primary division is selected by default.
• Add menu — Displays additional available fields for the entity. Click the hyperlinked name of a field to add it to the wizard.

For Individuals

When creating an Individual, you'll see:

• Salutation (optional) — Options vary based on your organization's preferences.
• First Name and Last Name — Both fields are required.
• Owner (required) — The user who owns this entity record. This field defaults to the running user, but you can click the X icon and select a different user in your organization.
• Related Division (required) — Appears if your organization uses divisions. Your primary division is selected by default.
• Add menu — Displays additional available fields for the entity. Click the hyperlinked name of a field to add it to the wizard.

Using the Add Menu

The wizard doesn't show every possible field at once. Instead, required fields appear by default, and additional fields are available through the Add menu. This design supports both speed (for basic entity creation) and comprehensiveness (when you need to capture detailed information).

To add a field:

1. Look for the Add row, which displays available fields as hyperlinks (e.g., "Birthdate • Description • Preferred Name • Preferred Phone").

2. Click the hyperlinked name of the field you want.

   

3. The field or field group appears in your form, ready for input.

   

4. If you add a field by mistake, click the trash can icon to remove it.

   

Working with Members

For Households and Organizations, the Members section appears below the entity fields. Members are the people (Contact records) who belong to this entity. Getting member information right during initial creation leads to better data quality and less cleanup later.

Primary Member

Every Household and Organization includes a Primary Member card by default. This represents the main point of contact and cannot be removed. The Primary Member card is expanded when you first see it, showing:

• Salutation (optional)
• First Name and Last Name (required)
• An Add menu for additional member fields, like email, phone, and contact methods (optional)

Adding More Members

To add additional members to a Household or Organization:

1. Click the Add drop-down menu.

   

2. Select a relationship type from the dropdown (e.g., Spouse/Partner, Dependent, Employee).

   

3. A new member card appears for you to complete.

   

Each member card can be expanded or collapsed by clicking the caret next to their name. Additional members have a trash can icon you can click to remove them.

Household Name Generation

For Households, the name updates automatically as you enter member information. Your organization's settings determine the format used for auto-generated names. Common formats include:

• One member: "Smith, John."
• Primary + Spouse: "Smith, John & Jane."

Please note: Your administrator configures the logic for generating the Household name. Contact your Practifi Administrator if you have questions about how names are generated in your organization.

This automatic generation ensures consistent naming across your database, making it easier to search and report on households.

To use a custom name instead:

1. Click the pencil icon next to the Name field.

   

2. Enter your preferred household name.

3. Click the Save icon.

   

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Add Topics and Definitions

The third screen in the wizard captures classification information that helps organize your entities for reporting and service delivery. While these fields are optional, taking time to complete them during initial creation makes your entities immediately useful for segmentation and targeted communications. To learn more, see Understanding and Using Topics and Definitions.

Topics

Topics are tags that help categorize what matters to this entity — anything from "Dog Owner" to "Red Wine Lover" to "Chicago Cubs fan". You can use these tags to filter your client list by interests.

To add topics:

1. Start typing in the Topics field to search existing topics.

   

2. Select a result, or create a new topic if needed.

   

3. Selected topics appear below the search field. Click the X to the right of a topic name to remove it.

   

Definitions

Definitions classify entities for business purposes. Depending on your selections, you may see:

• Client Segment — Appears when creating Clients. Categorizes the client tier (e.g., Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze). These segments can drive service model assignment, fee structures, and resource allocation.
• Influencer Segment — Identifies centers of influence, referral sources, or other influential relationships. Tracking your firm's influencers helps you nurture referral networks and measure their impact.
• Other Definitions — Multi-select checkboxes for additional classifications, such as Attorney or Personal Banker.

These definitions help with reporting and may trigger specific workflows. For example, your organization might meet more frequently with Platinum clients or send special gifts to influencers.

Please note: All fields on this screen are optional. You can proceed without selecting anything — definitions and topics can always be added later from the entity record. If you need to change something from an earlier screen, click Previous to go back. Your information is preserved, so you can make adjustments and continue.

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Complete Promotion Flows

If you selected a lifecycle stage that requires promotion (like Client), you'll complete an additional screen after the Topics and Definitions step. This integrated approach eliminates the common problem of creating entities but forgetting to complete their promotions, which can leave Client or Prospect records in incomplete states.

What Are Promotion Flows?

Promotion flows are the same: Promote to Prospect and Promote to Client actions that exist on Entity records in Practifi. The wizard embeds them directly, so you can complete everything in one session rather than creating the entity and then taking additional steps to promote it.

Each promotion typically captures compliance information, assigns a deal or service, creates initial work items, and updates the entity's lifecycle stage. Completing these flows immediately ensures the entity is fully operational and ready for client service activities.

Completing Flow Screens

The Promote to Prospect or Promote to Client flow appears as its own step in the progress indicator.

1. Select a deal or service.
2. Optionally, change the date when the entity became a prospect or client.

3. Click Promote.

   

4. A success message is displayed. Click Next.

   

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The Success Screen

After completing all steps, the success screen confirms your entity was created. This screen provides a quick summary and immediate access to common next actions, letting you continue your work without interruption.

What You'll See

The success screen displays a summary of what was created:

• Entity name — The name of your new entity
• Members — Who's included (for Households and Organizations)
• Definitions — Classifications you applied
• Topics — Topics you assigned
• Owner — Who owns the record

Your Options

Button	What It Does
Go to Entity	Opens the new entity's record page — use this to continue working with the entity
Create Another Entity	Resets the wizard so you can immediately create another entity
Close	Closes the wizard and returns you to where you started

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Tips for Efficient Entity Creation

Use the Add options for additional information. The wizard shows essential fields by default. If you need to capture additional details like phone numbers or addresses, they're readily available in the Add menu, but you don't have to select them if they're not needed.

Let household names generate automatically. The auto-generated format follows your organization's configured naming convention and updates as you add or modify members. Only override it if you have a specific naming need. Consistency in household naming makes search and reporting much more reliable.

Complete everything in one session when possible. The wizard's main benefit is that it consolidates entity creation and promotion into a single workflow. If you select Client as your lifecycle stage, plan to complete the promotion flows rather than leaving them for later. This ensures your new clients are immediately ready for service delivery.

Use Create Another Entity for batch entry. If you're entering multiple new entities, the Create Another Entity button resets the wizard without closing it, saving you the step of relaunching from the Global Actions menu. This streamlined approach is ideal for creating multiple Client or Prospect records in one sitting.