Understanding and Using Groups

Learning Team

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

Groups are a powerful entity type in Practifi that brings together related Households, Organizations, and Individuals into a single, unified view. Whether you're managing an extended family's finances, overseeing a business partnership, coordinating a center of influence network, or handling multi-generational wealth planning, Groups help you see the complete picture at a glance.

This article explains what Groups are, how they differ from other entity types, how to create and manage them, and how administrators can configure Group functionality for their organizations.

What Groups Are and Why They Matter
How Groups Differ From Other Entities
What Groups Do and Don't Do
Creating a Group
The Group Record Page
- Using the Members Section
  - The Hierarchy Tab
  - The List Tab
- Filtering With the Scope Selector
Managing Group Members
Configuring Groups
Tips for Working With Groups

What Groups Are and Why They Matter

A Group is a container that connects multiple related entities. Instead of viewing Households, Organizations, and Individuals in isolation, Groups let you see them as one cohesive unit with combined metrics, shared history, and streamlined workflows.

Groups are useful for:

Extended families: Link multiple Households together to track multigenerational relationships and combined household wealth.
Business partnerships: Group partner Households or Organizations to see aggregate metrics and shared activity.
Center of influence networks: Organize connections and prospects tied to a single center of influence.
Affinity groups: Create groups around shared interests, memberships, or demographics.
Multi-generational wealth planning: Bring together Households and Organizations that span generations for comprehensive family wealth management.

How Groups Differ From Other Entities

Groups work differently from Households and Organizations in a few key ways:

Attribute	Groups	Households/Organizations
Lifecycle stage	No lifecycle stage field	Have a lifecycle stage
Data composition	Combined data from member entities	Stand-alone data
Can contain	Households, Organizations, Individuals (no Groups within Groups)	Contacts
Membership	Each entity can belong to only one Group	N/A

What Groups Do and Don't Do

Groups do:

Provide a consolidated view of all members' combined data, relationships, and activity.
Let you filter across member entities using the scope selector.
Display member Households, Organizations, and Individuals (and their underlying members) in a structured hierarchy.
Aggregate key metrics like total AUM and combined member counts.

Groups don't:

Support bulk actions on Group members. You manage individual member entities separately, which maintains data integrity.
Progress through lifecycle stages. They simply organize existing entities.
Support being promoted to prospects, converted to clients, or having financials created directly for them.

Creating a Group

To create a Group using the Key Entity wizard:

Click the Global Actions icon (the + icon).
From the Global Actions menu, select Create an Entity.
In the Create an Entity wizard, select Group as the entity type. The lifecycle stage options are grayed out because Group records do not move through these stages.
Click Next.
On the following screen, enter a name for the Group.
Optionally, you can change the owner and related division for the Group.
Search for entities by name and check their boxes to add them to the Group. Selected entities appear below the search field.
Entities that already belong to a Group have a blue icon to the right of their name. If you select an entity that already belongs to a Group, you'll be asked if you want to change their membership.
When you're done adding members, click Next.
On the following screen, you can add topics, an influencer segment, and other definitions to the group. Make any selections you want, then click Next.
The success screen displays a summary of what was created. Click Go to Entity to view the new Group record or Create Another Entity to reset the wizard and create another record.

The Group Record Page

Once you've created a Group, you'll see a Group record page with the following sections:

Overview: A high-level summary of the Group, including members, Noticeboard posts, Smart Notes, open tasks and processes, and active services.
Members: The entities that belong to the Group, viewable as a hierarchy diagram or a list.
Financials: All assets and liabilities across Group members displayed in one list, with automatic AUM roll-ups.
Services & Pipeline: Combined view of services and deals for all members.
Processes & Tasks: Work items across all member entities.
Relationships: A list view of relationships between member entities and other Practifi entities.
Documents: All Smart Notes, traditional notes, and files related to Group members in one location.
Feed: A Chatter feed showing posts from all member records.
Activities: A tabbed view of calls, emails, and events across the entire Group.

Using the Members Section

To view the Members section of a Group record, click the Members navigation icon in the record side panel.

The Members section shows all entities in your Group with two viewing options: Hierarchy and List.

The Hierarchy Tab

The Hierarchy tab displays an interactive diagram of the Group's structure. The Group appears at the top, with member entities below it and their members beneath them.

Here are some of the ways you can interact with the Hierarchy diagram:

Use the controls to zoom, toggle between vertical and horizontal layouts, refresh the view, and switch to full-screen mode.
Download the diagram to your computer as a PNG.
Click on any entity or member in the diagram to open their record in a new tab.

Please note: Practifi Administrators can customize the information that appears in the hierarchy diagram. See our article on Configuring Entity Management Settings.

The List Tab

The List tab shows a simple list view of all members. Click the name of an entity to open their record in a new tab.

Filtering With the Scope Selector

The scope selector lets you filter the view to focus on specific Group members. This is especially useful when working with large Groups—you can narrow your focus to just the entities you're interested in without losing the broader Group context.

The scope selector appears in the record side panel as a Currently Showing: heading. The default view is All Entities.

To filter using the scope selector:

In the record side panel, click on All Entities.
In the drop-down, uncheck the boxes for the entities you want to exclude from the view.
Click Apply to update the display.
The side panel updates to show the number of entities being displayed.

To reset the view to display all entities, click on the scope selector badge, check the All Values box, then click Apply.

Managing Group Members

Adding Members

You can add members to a Group after initial creation from the Group record page or from an Entity record page:

From the Group record page:
- In the record side panel, click the Actions menu and select Manage Members.
- In the Members section, click the Manage Members button.
From an Entity record page: Click the Actions menu in the record side panel and select Add to Group.

Removing members

To remove a member from a Group, click Manage Members in the record side panel or the Manage Members button in the Members section. In the Manage Members window, do one of the following:

Click the X to the right of the member's name
Uncheck the box for the member you want to remove

Click the Save button at the bottom of the window to save your changes.

The member entity is removed from the Group, but it remains in Practifi.

Viewing membership

An entity's Group membership is displayed in its record side panel. You can click the Group name to open the Group record in a new tab.

Transferring between groups

Entities can only belong to one Group. To move an entity to a different Group, add it to the new Group in the Manage Members window. If the entity already belongs to another Group, Practifi will notify you and move it to the new Group upon confirmation.

Configuring Groups

Practifi Administrators can enable or disable Groups organization-wide through Entity Management settings. When Groups are disabled, existing Groups continue to function normally, but users cannot create new Groups in the Create an Entity wizard.

Administrators can also configure which fields are displayed for entities and members in the Group Hierarchy diagram. To learn more, see our article on Configuring Entity Management Settings.

Tips for Working With Groups

Use Groups to organize around business logic, not just data structure. Think about the relationships and workflows your team uses every day.
Keep Group membership up to date as your client relationships evolve.
Use the scope selector to zoom in on specific members when you need detailed work without losing sight of the full Group context.
Check the Group Hierarchy view to understand the structure of complex Groups at a glance.
Remember that bulk actions don't apply to Groups; manage each member individually to maintain data quality and control.