Understanding Deliverables in Sentir

Learning Team

Overview

Deliverables help track entitlements that your firm provides to clients across your book of business. This article outlines key aspects of the Deliverable functionality to help give a broad understanding of the feature. For information on using Deliverables within your organization, please consult our Creating and Managing Deliverables in Sentir article.

How Deliverables Work
Deliverable Types
Schedule Fields
Assignment Settings
Fulfillment Settings
Activation Rules
Accessing Deliverable Records
Adjusting Deliverables for Specific Services
Deliverable Reporting
Deliverable FAQs

How Deliverables Work

The Deliverable functionality in your Sentir organization allows you to automatically generate a schedule of recurring client entitlements for advisors to deliver. This automation ensures that your service standards are consistently met across the firm's book of business, giving every client the level of attention your firm has committed to.

Once set up, each Service maintains a schedule of Deliverables, which are fulfilled by linking them to Tasks and Events. Over time, each Deliverable gathers a history of successful and unsuccessful fulfillment. This history forms the basis for meaningful reporting on client outcomes, such as identifying clients at risk of churning or flagging opportunities for add-on services.

For example, your firm has a new prospect, Ryan Beger, with an open Retirement Planning deal. Before you promote him to a Client, you'd ensure your firm's Deliverables are set up for his eventual Service Type. Once the Deliverables are created, they are attached to Ryan's required Services and become highly repeatable, with clear requirements for any team member at your firm servicing Ryan Beger's account.

Deliverable Types

A Deliverable Type is a template within your Sentir organization that represents the individual Deliverables attached to a specific Service Type. This means that each time a client has this Service Type, your team will be expected to fulfill these Deliverables. Deliverable Types are added within Service Types in the Settings app.

Before creating Deliverable Types, your firm should align on the Deliverable schedule you are committing to. Conducting these discussions as a business ensures that your Deliverable Types accurately reflect what clients are entitled to and sets a consistent standard across your team.

Schedule Fields

Within the Deliverable Type record, the fields in the Schedule section determine when the Deliverable is initially started, how often it occurs, and when it is due on an ongoing basis.

By setting the How often?, When should the first occurrence be?, and Calculate subsequent due dates from fields, the system calculates the Deliverable's due date. This calculated date is displayed in the Next Due Date field, giving your team members a clear understanding of when the client's Deliverable is due.

How Often?

The How often? field specifies how often a Deliverable must be completed. Select the option in the Frequency field that best reflects how often the client expects this Deliverable to be fulfilled. The options available in the Frequency field are as follows:

Monthly
Quarterly
Semi-annually
Annually
Biennial
Triennial
Every N years
Every N months

If you select one of the last two options, the Every how many years? or Every how many months? field is displayed. This is a number field that lets you specify the period length. For example, if you wanted to make a Deliverable due every six months, you would select Every N months from the How often? field and enter 6 in the Every how many months? field, as shown in the screenshot below.

When Should the First Occurrence Be?

The When should the first occurrence be? field sets the Next Due Date field when the Deliverable is created and works with the How often? field. This field indicates whether the Deliverable's first Next Due Date should be based on the Service's start date or on a calendar period. There are three options:

One cycle after the service starts
At the end of the calendar period the service starts in
On a specific day in the calendar period the service starts in

The One cycle after the service starts option in this field means that the Next Due Date will be calculated as the Service Start Date plus the interval length defined by the Deliverable Type's How often? field. This means that if you have set the Frequency field to Quarterly and the Service has a Start Date of July 15th, then the Deliverable's initial Next Due Date will be October 15th.

The At the end of the calendar period the service starts in option means that the Next Due Date will be calculated as the end date of the nearest calendar interval as defined by the Deliverable Type's How often? field. This means that if the frequency is set to Quarterly and the Service has a Start Date of July 15th, the Deliverable's initial Next Due Date will be September 30th, the last day of the third calendar quarter.

Selecting the On a specific day in the calendar period the service starts in option allows you to specify a date other than the last day of the time period specified in the How often? field. When you select this option, the When in the calendar period? and Day fields appear, allowing you to select either Specific day (a fixed numerical date within the period, e.g., the 15th day of the month), a Relative day (a day whose numerical date varies depending on when the period begins, e.g., the first business day of the month), or Last day (the final either calendar or business day within the How often? selection made). Fields will be rendered conditionally based on your selections.

For example, if you had a Deliverable for tax preparation that you wanted to be due every year on April 15th, you would configure the Scheduling section as follows:

When should the first occurrence be? : On a specific day in the calendar period the service starts in
When in the calendar period?: Specific day
Frequency: Annually
Month: April
Day: 15th

Calculate Subsequent Due Dates From

The Calculate subsequent due dates from field sets the Next Due Date for the Deliverable after it is fulfilled and, like the When should the first occurrence be? field, works in conjunction with the How often? field. The Calculate subsequent due dates from can be based on the due date of the completed Deliverable or the date the previous Deliverable was fulfilled.

The From the previous due date option for the Calculate subsequent due dates from field means that the Next Due Date for the new Deliverable will be calculated from the fulfilled Deliverable's Next Due Date plus the interval length defined by the Deliverable Type's How often? field. If the frequency is Quarterly, the Deliverable was fulfilled on July 15th, but its Next Due Date was September 30th. The updated Next Due Date for the Deliverable will be December 31st.

If the Calculate subsequent due dates from field is set to From the previous fulfillment date, the Next Due Date will be calculated as the date the Deliverable was fulfilled plus the interval length defined by the Deliverable Type's How often? field. For example, if the frequency is Quarterly and the Deliverable is fulfilled on July 15th, then the Deliverable's updated Next Due Date will be October 15th.

Assignment Settings

The Assign to field in the Assignment settings section determines who a Deliverable will be assigned to when it is added to a Service. The available options are:

Service Owner
Deliverable Type Owner
Entity Owner
Queue
Role
Business Role

The Assign to field also supports assigning a Deliverable to a queue rather than an individual user. To learn more, please see our Creating and Managing Deliverables in Sentir article.

Please note: If an Entity lacks a Servicing Team and the Assign to field is set to Role or Business Role, the Deliverable will be assigned to the owner of the related Service.

Fulfillment Settings

The Fulfillment Settings area of the Deliverable Type record controls which type of Activity record fulfills the Deliverable, whether the fulfillment date can be modified, and whether the Deliverable can become overdue.

Fulfillment Activities

Selecting the Automatically create a task to fulfill this deliverable? toggle enables the system to automatically create a dedicated Task to fulfill the Deliverable. When an end user opens that Task, the Deliverable automatically populates within the Marked for Fulfillment section of the Deliverables sidebar, reducing the manual steps required to record fulfillment.

When the Automatically create a task to fulfill this deliverable? toggle is selected, the What kind of task? and Can the fulfillment dates be changed? fields are enabled.

The What kind of task? picklist has three options:

Task Template - In the Which task should be created? field that appears, search for and select the Task Template you want to be created to fulfill the Deliverable.
Task within a Process - In the Which task should be created? field, you can search for and select the Process Task you want to fulfill the Deliverable. If you select this option, the parent Process will be created automatically. Completing the selected Task within the Process fulfills the Deliverable.
Reminder Task - Assigns a task to the owner of the Deliverable Type at the interval specified in the How many days before the due date will this task be created? field.

The How many days before the due date will this task be created? field is a numeric field that specifies how many days before the Deliverable's due date the fulfillment Task should be created.

Fulfillment Date

The Can the fulfillment dates be changed? field controls whether users can edit Fulfillment Dates for Deliverables on the Task or Event record that fulfills them. The Can the fulfillment dates be changed? picklist has the following options:

Yes, until the work item is completed (default) - This means the Fulfillment Date field can be modified as long as the Deliverable has an open status.
No, never - Selecting this option means the Fulfillment Date field will not be editable.
Yes, at any time - This means the Fulfillment Date can be edited for Deliverables that are marked for fulfillment and for Deliverables that have already been fulfilled, whether by a Task being marked as complete or by an Event taking place.

Due Date

The final setting in the Fulfillment Settings section determines what happens when a Deliverable is not fulfilled by its due date. The What if it isn't fulfilled in time? picklist has the following options:

Skip it and recalculate the next due date - Deliverables not fulfilled by the due date will be given the status Missed, and the next due date will be recalculated.
Keep it open as overdue - Deliverables not fulfilled by the due date can still be fulfilled. Deliverables fulfilled after the due date are marked as Fulfilled Late.

Please note: If you selected the Automatically create a task to fulfill this deliverable? toggle, the resulting Deliverables will have their activities automatically marked for fulfillment. This implies that they should be viewed as overdue rather than as missed. The What if it isn't fulfilled in time? field will be locked for editing and set to Keep it open as overdue.

End the Deliverable After N Fulfillment

If you want a Deliverable to be automatically marked as complete after it has been fulfilled a set number of times, toggle on the End the deliverable after N fulfillment field and enter a whole number. This setting is intended for Deliverables used to complete work for transactional services, such as tax preparation.

Activation Rules

Because not all clients need the same level of service, Activation Rules let your firm automatically tailor Deliverables to different client types. Sentir organizations can automatically activate Deliverables when specific criteria are met, eliminating the need for manual intervention when a client's profile changes. For example:

If Client Segment = Platinum, activate the Quarterly Review Deliverable
If Client Segment = Gold, activate the Semi-Annual Review Deliverable
If Client Segment = Silver or Bronze, activate the Annual Review Deliverable

System administrators can create one or more rules using the Activation Rules tab on Deliverable Type records. For more information on activation rules, please see our Creating and Managing Deliverables in Sentir article.

Accessing Deliverable Records

Deliverable records can be viewed on Service records, Work records, Client records, or from the Servicing & Pipeline page.

Service Records

On a Service record, select the Records tab and then select Deliverables in the left navigation rail to view Deliverable records. Select the deliverable's hyperlinked name to view the Deliverable record.

Work Records

From a Task or Event record, a Deliverable record will display in the Deliverables component on the right side of the record.

Client Records

On a Client record, select the Records tab and then select Deliverables in the left navigation rail to view Deliverable records. Select the deliverable's hyperlinked name to view the Deliverable record.

Servicing & Pipeline

Select the Servicing & Pipeline option from the Navigation Menu in your Sentir organization to view a list view of Deliverable records across your organization. Use the scope selector to modify the view of Deliverable records, e.g., changing All Deliverables to Active Deliverables.

Deliverable Record Page

On the Deliverable record page, the Details tab provides an overview of the Deliverable Type and displays the settings used to calculate the Next Due Date. The Dates & Reminders section on the Details tab contains everything you need to know about when a Deliverable was last fulfilled, when it's next due, and its reminder settings.

The Fulfillments tab on the Deliverable record contains a history of successful and unsuccessful fulfillment, providing a clear record of how the Deliverable has been managed over time in relation to the Client. The History tab includes fields that tend to only matter to system administrators, and it displays a list of changes made to fields on the Deliverable record itself. This tab is useful for investigating changes different users have made to the Deliverable.

Adjusting Deliverables for Specific Services

Users can modify the Deliverable record directly, if necessary, to give specific clients their agreed-upon entitlements. For example, changing the frequency of a check-in Deliverable from quarterly to monthly gives that client a higher standard of service than the default Deliverable Types template.

Users can also add new Deliverables to a Service through the New Deliverable button on their Service record. Creating records in this location is identical to creating Deliverable Types, but it applies exclusively to the Service in question. To enable the change to occur across multiple clients, it must be created as a Deliverable Type in your organization.

Deliverable Reporting

While every firm has different reporting goals surrounding Services and Deliverables, a set of sample reports is included with this feature to help teams start tracking Deliverable fulfillment performance right away. These reports can be accessed from the Deliverables reports folder in Analytics within your Sentir organization.

The sample reports available are as follows:

Fulfillment % by Service Type & AUM YTD
Fulfillment % by Division, Owner & Type YTD
Fulfillment % by Owner YTD
My Missed Deliverables by Client YTD

The first three sample reports present different ways to summarize fulfillment rates and are intended for managers seeking to track indicators of Deliverable performance over time. The last sample report, My Missed Deliverables by Client YTD, is intended for end users rather than managers and provides an overview of any Deliverables missed by the current user to support improvements in fulfillment rate. The charts in these sample reports include a reference line indicating a realistic target fulfillment rate. This has been set to 85%, but it can be easily adjusted in the Report Builder to suit your firm's needs.

Deliverable FAQs

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about Deliverables:

What happens when you delete an activity that has Deliverables?
The Deliverable (if not fulfilled) becomes active and can be fulfilled by other activities.
Deliverables that have already been fulfilled stay as is for tracking purposes. The previous fulfillment record is also retained.
What happens when Deliverables are associated with Services that have inactive stages such as Terminated, Canceled, Completed, Draft, or a blank stage?
The Deliverables will remain inactive as long as the associated Services remain inactive, even if the Deliverables' activation rules are met.
What happens when a Deliverable was initially active, but later becomes inactive (e.g., due to the activation rule becoming false)?
While in its active state, the Deliverable will be displayed in the Deliverables component on Task and Event records. Once it becomes inactive, it will no longer be visible in the Deliverables component. If an activity was previously associated with the inactive Deliverable, it remains open and is unlinked from that Deliverable.
When Deliverable Type settings within a Service Type are configured to have Automatically create a task to fulfill this deliverable? enabled, how are those activities created for the related Service records if they are backdated?
If the time between today and the Deliverable's due date is greater than or equal to the interval specified for the fulfillment activity, the activity is created X days before the anticipated due date. Otherwise, the activity is created immediately.
What is the effect of canceled Services on related Deliverables and activities?
Deliverables associated with the canceled Service are also canceled. If an activity was previously associated with the canceled Deliverable, it remains open and unlinked from the Deliverable.
What happens to ad hoc Tasks that are created to fulfill a Deliverable using the New Task action on the Deliverable record?
The Deliverable is not automatically marked for fulfillment on the ad hoc Task. The user needs to manually mark it for fulfillment using the plus icon in the Task record's side panel.
What is the effect of canceled Tasks on Deliverables?
When a task is canceled, all Deliverables previously marked for fulfillment will be moved to the Available for Fulfillment area of the Task and Event records. Deliverable Fulfillment records that were associated with these Deliverables and the canceled task will be retained and given a status of Task Canceled. Any pre-nominated Deliverables on the task before cancellation should also transition accordingly. These pre-nominated Deliverables will display a plus icon next to them, indicating their status is Active and that they are now available for fulfillment by other tasks, as applicable. When a task's status is Canceled, the plus icon will be unavailable for any Deliverable displayed in its Available for Fulfillment section, because canceled tasks cannot fulfill Deliverables.