Understanding and Using Deliverables in Sentir

Learning Team

Overview

Deliverables give your firm a structured way to track the service commitments it has made to clients across the book of business: what you promised, when it is next due, and whether it actually happened. Each Deliverable has its own schedule and builds a history of successful and unsuccessful fulfillment over time, giving your firm visibility into whether service standards are being met.

This article explains what a Deliverable is, how it differs from a Deliverable Fulfillment, where to find both on a client's record, and what you can do to them. For information on configuring Deliverable Types for your firm, please consult our Creating and Managing Deliverables in Sentir article.

Please note: Access to Deliverables is controlled by permissions. If you cannot see Deliverables or Deliverable Fulfillments on a client's record, ask your firm's system administrator to check your Deliverables User access in the Settings app, under Access Management.

Understanding Deliverables and Deliverable Fulfillments
Where to Find Deliverables
- Other Places Deliverables Appear
Understanding Statuses and Outcomes
Fulfilling Deliverables
Marking a Fulfillment as an Exception
Canceling Deliverables
- Understanding Cancellation Behavior for Fulfillment Activities
  - System-Managed vs. User-Managed Tasks
  - Detailed Cancellation Behavior
Completing Deliverables
Reactivating Deliverables
Executing an Activation Rule
Understanding Permissions and Access
Considerations

Understanding Deliverables and Deliverable Fulfillments

Deliverables involve two related records, and knowing which one you are looking at makes everything else easier to follow.

Record	What it represents
Deliverable	The ongoing commitment itself. There is one Deliverable record for each service commitment your firm has made to a client, and it carries a schedule, a status, an owner, and a Next Due Date. A Deliverable recurs.
Deliverable Fulfillment	A single occurrence of that commitment. There is one Deliverable Fulfillment record for each due date, and it carries the Outcome that records whether the occurrence was completed on time, completed late, missed, or excepted. This is the reporting layer.

For example, a Quarterly Review commitment on the Ashford household's Wealth Management Service is one Deliverable. Each quarter that the review comes due produces a Deliverable Fulfillment, and each of those records whether the review happened on time, happened late, was missed, or was excepted for a legitimate reason.

Deliverables are created from Deliverable Types, which your firm's system administrator configures on Service Types. Deliverables are then added to client records automatically when the associated Service is added, so in the normal course of work you review and manage Deliverables rather than create them.

Please note: Tasks are not Deliverables. A Task may be the work item created to fulfill an occurrence of a Deliverable, but it is a related work item, not the commitment itself. This is why the Deliverable actions described in this article do not appear on Task records, and why you should look for Deliverables under the Servicing heading rather than under Work.

Where to Find Deliverables

Deliverables appear in four main places, each suited to a different question.

Surface	Where it is	What it is for
Deliverables	Client record, Records tab, under the Servicing heading	Viewing and managing one client's commitments
Deliverable Fulfillments	Client record, Records tab, under the Servicing heading	Tracking whether individual occurrences were completed, missed, or excepted
Servicing & Pipeline	Front Office Navigation Menu	Viewing Deliverables across multiple clients
Deliverable record	Opened from any of the above	Seeing the full history and related work for a single Deliverable

To review a client's Deliverables:

Open the Client record and click the Records tab.
In the vertical navigation rail, under the Servicing heading, select the Deliverables option. The Deliverables attached to the client's active Services are displayed.
To review individual occurrences instead, select the Deliverable Fulfillments option under the same heading.
Click a Deliverable Name from either list to open the Deliverable or Deliverable Fulfillment record for viewing or editing.

To review Deliverables across more than one client, use Servicing & Pipeline in the Front Office Navigation Menu. Deliverable lists support the standard view options, and the Calendar view is a natural fit for working through upcoming due dates.

Please note: There is no firm-wide Deliverable Fulfillments view. Fulfillments are reviewed one client at a time from the Records tab. Deliverables themselves can be reviewed across clients from Servicing & Pipeline.

Other Places Deliverables Appear

Deliverables also surface alongside your day-to-day work:

Task and Event record sidebars. Both include a Deliverables component, where fulfillment is recorded. On a Task record, the sidebar holds Checklist, Deliverables, and the Feed section; on an Event record, it holds Deliverables and the Feed section.
The Timeline tab. Timeline carries a Deliverables filter with Canceled, Fulfilled, Missed, and Upcoming & Overdue subfilters. Task entries in the timeline also show their related Deliverables inline.
The Servicing Team component. On a client record, this component shows each team member's live count of open Deliverables alongside their overdue Tasks.
The Back Office home page. A Deliverables work-item row breaks your Deliverables down by state: Open, Due Soon, Overdue, Completed, and Canceled.

Understanding Statuses and Outcomes

A Deliverable carries a status that describes where the commitment stands. Each Deliverable Fulfillment carries an outcome that describes how one occurrence went.

The Status field on a Deliverable has the following values:

Status	What it means
Active	The commitment is live and generating occurrences. It is available for fulfillment on Tasks and Events.
Marked for Fulfillment	A Task or Event has been marked to fulfill the current occurrence, either by the nightly job or by a user.
Completed	The commitment is complete, either because a user completed it or because the configured number of fulfillments has been reached.
Canceled	A user canceled the Deliverable, or the Service it belongs to was canceled.
Inactive	An activation rule evaluated as false. The Deliverable behaves the same way as a Completed or Canceled one.

You may also see a Draft status on Deliverable Types. Draft is a Deliverable Type status only, not a Deliverable status, and Types in Draft are not added to new Services.

The Outcome field on a Deliverable Fulfillment has four values: Fulfilled On Time, Fulfilled Late, Missed, and Excepted.

A few behaviors follow from these that are worth knowing:

What happens when an occurrence is not fulfilled in time depends on configuration. Your firm's system administrator sets it to either skip and recalculate the next due date, recording the outcome as Missed, or keep it open as overdue, leaving the occurrence fulfillable and recording the outcome as Fulfilled Late when it is met. Where a fulfillment Task is created automatically, keeping it open as overdue is the only available behavior.
Deliverables can complete themselves. If a Deliverable is configured to complete after a set number of fulfillments, only fulfillments with an outcome of Fulfilled On Time or Fulfilled Late count towards the total. When the count is reached, and the status is Marked for Fulfillment, the status changes to Completed.
A status can change overnight. Activation rules are evaluated by a job that runs nightly, so a Deliverable's status can change without anyone touching it.

Fulfilling Deliverables

Fulfillment is recorded from the Task or Event that did the work, which keeps the record of what you delivered tied to the work that delivered it. You do this in the Deliverables component in the sidebar of the Task or Event record.

Open the Task or Event record that fulfilled the commitment. On a Client record, you can find recent work items on the Timeline tab, or under the Work heading in the vertical navigation rail on the Records tab.

Please note: Depending on how your firm has set up Deliverables, a dedicated Task may be created to fulfill a given Deliverable.
In the sidebar, expand the Deliverables component. Every Deliverable this work item can fulfill is listed there with its due date.
Click the Mark for Fulfillment circle to the left of the Deliverable that this Task or Event fulfilled. The circle outline bolds, and the Update Fulfillment Date and Remove icons appear on the row.

Please note: A single Task or Event may fulfill multiple Deliverables. If this is the case, click the circle beside each Deliverable that the Task or Event fulfilled.
Marking a Deliverable sets its status to Marked for Fulfillment. On a Task, the Deliverable is fulfilled when the Task is marked complete. On an Event, it is fulfilled when the Event takes place.

Please note: If your firm's system administrator designated a Task to fulfill a specific Deliverable, that Deliverable is already marked when you open the Task. The Deliverable is fulfilled when that Task is marked complete.
To record the fulfillment against a different date, click the Update Fulfillment Date icon on the Deliverable's row.
To clear a mark you no longer want, click the Remove icon on the Deliverable's row.
To open the Deliverable itself and view its schedule, past fulfillments, and related work, click the Deliverable's name in the component.

Marking a Fulfillment as an Exception

Sometimes a commitment is genuinely missed for a legitimate reason, such as a client being unavailable. Marking that occurrence as an exception keeps your firm's reporting honest: the occurrence is recorded as Excepted rather than counting against you as Missed.

Open the Client record and click the Records tab.
In the vertical navigation rail, under the Servicing heading, select the Deliverable Fulfillments option.
Click the caret on the row for the fulfillment you want to except, then select Mark as Exception. To update several fulfillments together, select them in the list first.

Please note: If you don't see a caret at the end of each row, the vertical navigation rail is taking up the space the row actions need. Click Hide Views in the Deliverable Fulfillments component header to collapse the rail and bring the carets into view.
In the window that opens, select an Excepted By user and enter an Exception Reason, then confirm. The fulfillment's Outcome is set to Excepted.

Mark as Exception is also available directly on the Deliverable. Open the Deliverable record, click the Fulfillments tab, then click the caret on the row for the fulfillment you want to except.

Please note: Mark as Exception appears on every fulfillment, including those that were already fulfilled on time. The action is intended only for occurrences that were missed or late, so check the fulfillment's outcome before you use it.

Please note: Marking a fulfillment as an exception requires the Manage Exceptions permission. If you do not have it, the action does not appear. Contact your firm's system administrator if you need it.

Canceling Deliverables

Canceling a Deliverable ends an ongoing commitment that is no longer needed, keeping the client's active service schedule accurate and reportable. Canceling sets the Deliverable's status to Canceled, and the following things happen:

The Deliverable no longer appears on Task and Event records as available for fulfillment.
The Next Due Date field is cleared, and recalculation stops.
No further fulfillment activities are created.

You can include the Status field when reporting on Deliverable fulfillment.

Two other actions cancel Deliverables for you. Canceling a Service cancels the Deliverables related to it, and marking a client as lost with the Mark As Lost Client action deactivates that client's Deliverables.

To cancel an individual Deliverable:

Open the Client record and click the Records tab.
In the vertical navigation rail, under the Servicing heading, select the Deliverables option.
Click the caret on the row for the Deliverable you want to cancel, then select Cancel Deliverable.
In the window that opens, confirm that you want to cancel the Deliverable.

To cancel several Deliverables at once, select the checkboxes next to them in the list, click the Cancel Deliverables button at the top of the list, and confirm in the window that opens.

These actions are also available from Servicing & Pipeline views and on the Deliverable record itself, where Complete Deliverable is a button in the button row, and Cancel Deliverable sits under the caret at the end of the button row.

Please note: Cancel Deliverable and Complete Deliverable appear only while the Deliverable's status is Active. Once it is Completed or Canceled, the option becomes Reactivate Deliverable instead. If you cannot find the action you expect, check that you are looking at a Deliverable record rather than a Task.

Please note: Canceled Tasks display Deliverables in their sidebar, but the Deliverables cannot be marked, because a canceled Task cannot fulfill a Deliverable. If a Task that was created automatically as a fulfillment activity is canceled, its Deliverable can be marked on another Task or Event instead.

Understanding Cancellation Behavior for Fulfillment Activities

When you cancel a Deliverable that has fulfillment activities attached, what happens to those Tasks depends on whether the system created them or you linked them yourself. Knowing the difference helps you anticipate what will be left in your task list afterward.

System-Managed vs. User-Managed Tasks

The distinction is drawn between two kinds of Tasks:

Pre-nominated tasks are system-managed fulfillment activities created automatically from Deliverable Type settings. These are typically auto-created reminder tasks or process tasks. Because users may not remember these Tasks exist, canceling the Deliverable also cancels the system-managed Task, which prevents orphaned Task records that no longer make sense.

Manually linked tasks are user-managed activities that you mark against a Deliverable yourself from the Deliverables component in the Task or Event sidebar. Because you chose that Task, it is assumed you are aware of it and may still need it for other work, so canceling the Deliverable does not cancel the Task. The link is removed instead. If you no longer need the Task, you can cancel or close it yourself.

Detailed Cancellation Behavior

The three scenarios you are most likely to meet are:

Deliverable with a single, pre-nominated task: If the task is the Deliverable's pre-nominated fulfillment activity and it is only linked to that Deliverable, canceling the Deliverable will also cancel the task. This applies to automatically created tasks. What matters is that the system pre-nominated the task.
Deliverable with a single, manually linked task: If you manually marked a task against the Deliverable from the Deliverables component, canceling the Deliverable does not cancel the task; the task is just unlinked from that Deliverable and stays open.
One Task linked to multiple Deliverables: If a task, whether pre-nominated or manual, is linked to several Deliverables and you cancel one of those Deliverables, the task stays open because the other active Deliverables still need it. The task is detached from the canceled Deliverable. Only when a task is exclusively linked to the canceled Deliverable, with no other active Deliverables, will the pre-nominated task be canceled automatically.

Completing Deliverables

Completing a Deliverable closes out a commitment that has run its course. The difference between completing and canceling is the status applied: completing sets the status to Completed, and canceling sets it to Canceled. The downstream effects are the same ones listed in Canceling Deliverables above, and the reporting value of the distinction is that you can tell a commitment that finished from one that was called off.

To complete a Deliverable, follow the steps in Canceling Deliverables and select Complete Deliverable instead. To complete several at once, select the checkboxes beside them and click the Complete Deliverables button at the top of the list, then confirm in the window that opens.

Reactivating Deliverables

If you want to restore one or more completed or canceled Deliverables, you can reactivate them. Reactivate Deliverable is available on Deliverable records, and as a row action or mass action for Deliverables with a status of Completed or Canceled. It changes the status back to Active. Attempting to reactivate a Deliverable that is already Active results in an error.

Please note: Reactivating a Deliverable makes it available for fulfillment on Tasks and Events again, starts it generating fulfillment activities if that is enabled, and recalculates its Next Due Date using the calculation method set when it was created. If that method was based on the Service's start date, today's date is used instead.

Alternatively, you can set the due date yourself using the Next Due Date field in the Reactivate Deliverables window.

Executing an Activation Rule

Activation rules are normally evaluated overnight. If you need a rule applied to a single Deliverable straight away rather than waiting for the nightly job, open the Deliverable record, click the caret at the end of the button row, then select Execute Activation Rule.

Understanding Permissions and Access

If a Deliverables option or action is not where this article says it should be, the usual cause is a permission rather than a defect. Three permissions govern Deliverables:

Permission	What it grants
Deliverables User	Access to Deliverables and Deliverable Fulfillments. Without it, both options are hidden from the vertical navigation rail, along with their actions.
Manage Deliverable Settings	Configuring Deliverable Types and Deliverable settings.
Manage Exceptions	The Mark as Exception action.

If you are missing one of these, contact your firm's system administrator, who can review your access in the Settings app under Access Management.

Considerations

Please keep the following in mind when working with Deliverables:

Some changes happen overnight. Activation rules are evaluated by a nightly job, so a Deliverable's status may change between one day and the next without anyone editing it. Fulfillment activities such as process tasks, task templates, and reminder tasks are also created by scheduled jobs rather than immediately, so a Task you expect may not appear until the next run.
Whether you can change a fulfillment date is configured, not personal. Your firm's system administrator sets one of three behaviors for each Deliverable: the fulfillment date can be changed until the work item is completed, which is the default; it can never be changed; or it can be changed at any time. If the Update Fulfillment Date icon is missing or the date will not save, this setting is the reason.
Events fulfill Deliverables on a daily schedule. A scheduled job runs each morning and fulfills the Deliverables attached to Events due that day. An Event created later in the day is not picked up by that morning's run, so its Deliverables are not fulfilled until after the Event's end time. Opening the Event record after its end time refreshes the page and completes the fulfillment.
Fulfilling much earlier or later than the due date shifts the schedule. Where the next due date is calculated from the fulfillment date, fulfilling well ahead of or well behind schedule resets the cycle to that date, so subsequent due dates may not fall at the intervals you expect. For longer frequencies, an occurrence can be skipped entirely.