Understanding and Using Activities

Learning Team

Overview

Activities capture every meaningful interaction between your firm and your clients or prospects. By logging calls, emails, and events directly in Practifi, you create a comprehensive engagement history that helps your team deliver personalized service and maintain strong client relationships. Activities are nested within Individual, Household, or Organization records, making it easy to see the full story of your relationship with each client at a glance.

This article explains how to create and manage activities in Practifi, including logging calls, creating events, and sending emails.

What Are Activities?
Logging Calls
- Logging General Calls
- Logging Client-Specific Calls
Creating Events
- Creating General Events
- Creating Client-Specific Events
Sending Emails
- Sending General Emails
- Sending Client-Specific Emails
Linking Activities to Other Records

What Are Activities?

Activities represent three types of interactions in Practifi:

Calls: Phone conversations or voicemail messages with clients, prospects, or team members
Events: Scheduled meetings, client reviews, webinars, or other calendar appointments
Emails: Electronic messages sent to or received from contacts

Each activity can be general (not linked to a specific record) or client-specific (linked to an Individual, Household, Organization, or related record, such as a service or process). Linking activities to client records ensures your team always has context about past interactions when preparing for meetings or following up on client needs.

Logging Calls

After speaking with a client on the phone, capture the conversation details in Practifi to maintain a complete record of your communication. This helps team members who weren’t on the call stay informed and provides valuable context for future interactions.

Logging General Calls

General calls are not linked to a specific record in Practifi. To log a general call:

Click the Global Actions icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
From the Global Actions menu, select Log a Call.
In the panel that appears in the lower-right corner, enter a Subject and Comment for the call.
Click Save to log the call.

A success message is displayed when the record is created. Click the X icon to close the message.

Logging Client-Specific Calls

Client-specific calls are linked directly to an Individual, Household, or Organization record. You can log these calls either from the Activities section of any Key Entity record or from the Global Actions menu (which requires manually designating the related record).

To log a client-specific call from the Key Entity record:

On the Key Entity record, click the Activities navigation icon.

2. Click the Log a Call tab.

3. Complete the following fields:

Subject: Enter a concise but descriptive title for the call, such as "Q1 portfolio review call" or "Retirement planning discussion."
Name: Select the specific contact(s) who participated in the call. For Individual records, this field defaults to the Individual's name. You can add additional names, including team members from your firm.
Comments: Enter your notes from the conversation, including topics discussed, action items, or important information shared by the client.
Related To: Link the call to the Individual, Household, or Organization. This field auto-populates with the record you're currently viewing.

4. Click Save.

A success message appears. Click the X icon to close the message. The new call log entry appears in the Activities timeline under the calendar month you logged it.

Creating Events

Events help you track scheduled client interactions, from one-on-one annual reviews to group seminars. Creating events in Practifi ensures your calendar stays synchronized with client records and provides visibility into upcoming engagements.

Creating General Events

General events appear on your Practifi calendar but are not linked to a specific client record. To create a general event:

Click the Global Actions icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
From the Global Actions menu, select New Event.
In the panel that appears in the lower-right corner, complete the following fields:
- Subject: Enter a descriptive title for the event
- Event Type: Select the appropriate event category
- Description: Provide additional details about the event
- Start Date/Time: Specify when the event begins
- End Date/Time: Specify when the event ends
Click Save to save the event.

Upon saving, a success message will be displayed. Click the X icon on the right to close the message. The event will appear on your Practifi calendar.

Creating Client-Specific Events

Client-specific events are linked to an Individual, Household, or Organization record and appear in both your calendar and the client's activity timeline. You can create these events from the Activities section of any Key Entity record or through the Global Actions menu (which requires manually designating the related record).

To create a client-specific event from the Key Entity record:

On the Key Entity record, click the Activities navigation icon.
Click the New Event tab.
Complete the following fields:
- Subject: Enter a concise but descriptive title that identifies the nature of the event, such as "Annual portfolio review" or "Estate planning consultation."
- Start and End Date/Time: Select the date and time for the event. Click in either field to open a calendar picker. To designate an all-day event or multi-day event, select the All-Day Event checkbox to remove the time selection.
- Name: Select the specific contact(s) who will attend the event. For Individual records, this field defaults to the Individual's name. You can add additional names, including team members from your firm.
- Related To: Link the event to the Individual, Household, or Organization. This field defaults to the record you're currently viewing.
- Assigned To: Select a team member from your firm to assign responsibility for this event.
- Location: Enter the location where the event will take place, whether a physical address, a video conferencing link, or a general description like "Conference Room B."
Click Save.

A success message appears. Click the X icon to close the message. The new event appears in the Activities timeline as an Upcoming & Overdue Activity and in your Practifi calendar.

Sending Emails

Sending emails through Practifi rather than your standard email client ensures that all client communication is captured in one place. This creates a complete record of your correspondence and makes it easy for any team member to catch up on past conversations.

Sending General Emails

General emails are not linked to a specific Client record. To send a general email:

Click the Global Actions icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
From the Global Actions menu, select Email.
In the panel that appears in the bottom-right corner, complete the following:
- Verify the From address
- Enter recipient email addresses in the To field
- Optionally, add Bcc addresses
- Enter your message subject and body
- Optionally, link the email to a Household record, if applicable
Click Send.

A success message displays. Click the X icon to close the message.

Sending Client-Specific Emails

Client-specific emails are linked directly to an Individual, Household, or Organization record, ensuring the correspondence appears in the client's activity history. To send a client-specific email:

On the Key Entity record, click the Activities navigation icon.
Click the Email tab.
Complete the email composition form:
- Sender and Recipient Information: Enter recipient email addresses. Email addresses are pulled from the record you're viewing, with options to add additional recipients, cc, or bcc addresses.
- Text Formatting Toolbar: Use the toolbar to modify font, text size, and formatting (bold, italic, underline). The toolbar also includes options for bulleted and numbered lists, as well as functionality to attach images or hyperlinks.
- Quick Text Button: Insert pre-saved phrases or templates to save time when composing common messages.
- Email Body: Enter your message content.
- Action Buttons: Use the action buttons to attach files, insert templates, preview your email, delete a draft, or move the email to a pop-out window for easier multitasking.
- Related To: Link the email to the Individual, Household, or Organization. This field automatically populates with the record you're viewing.
Click Send.

A success message appears. Click the X icon to close the message. The new email entry appears in the Activities timeline under the calendar month you sent it.

Linking Activities to Other Records

Two key fields (Name and Related To) connect activities to client records throughout Practifi. These fields, along with object-specific lookup fields such as Related Service, ensure that activities appear on the appropriate record pages and provide context for your client relationships.

Understanding the Name and Related To Fields

Name Field:

Links activities to one or more individuals
Searches the Contact object on the Salesforce platform
Because individuals are Person Accounts (a Salesforce feature combining Contact and Entity records), the contacts you see when searching correspond to the individuals you've created in Practifi

Related To Field:

Links activities to one record from multiple possible objects
Use the object selector icon to choose which object to search
Can be linked to:
- An individual's parent household or organization (select "Entities" from the object selector)
- Another related record such as an asset, deal, liability, process, or service
- Firm-level activities like campaigns or financial products

Please note: When you save an activity where the Related To field links to an individual who is a member of a household or organization, Practifi automatically replaces the Related To value with that individual’s parent household/organization. The link to the individual is moved to the Name field. Similarly, when linking to a related record (such as an asset), the Related To field will be replaced with that record’s parent entity, and the original link will be stored in the appropriate related lookup field (such as Related Asset/Liability).

Additional Related Lookup Fields

In addition to Name and Related To, Practifi includes object-specific lookup fields that capture links to specific record types:

Related Asset/Liability: Links to asset or liability records
Related Entity: Links to entity records
Related Division: Links to division records
Related Process: Links to process records
Related Service: Links to service records

These fields are not available during activity creation but may be automatically populated based on the value provided in the Related To field. Each field can contain only one record link, but multiple lookup fields can be populated on a single activity record.