Introducing Practifi Apps and General Navigation

Overview

Welcome to Practifi, the business management platform powering growing financial advice firms around the world! The topics in this article will help you gain a broad understanding of how the system works so that you can put it to work for your firm.

• Understanding Role-Based Apps
• Using the Navigation Bar

Understanding Role-Based Apps

Advice firms are made up of people who are all performing different and vital roles. Whether they manage assets, book appointments, or ensure everything the firm does is compliant, each user has different information needs. One common thread among these roles is the need to have fast access to all the information they care most about.

Practifi enables a personalized experience through our role-based apps, ensuring users can access the most relevant information quickly and efficiently. Out of the box, Practifi provides users with a suite of apps designed to cater to some commonly found roles in a firm – like Advisor, Management, Client Service, Compliance and Marketing (the Marketing app requires the Practifi Promote add-on to use) – however, the firm can create additional apps as-needed to give every team member the best tools for the job.

Practifi apps differ from each other in a few ways:

• Each app's home page has a collection of tiles that surface key metrics, alongside charts of various types, such as line, column, bar and donut. This means advisors see charts that visualize their pipeline, for example, while client service representatives see others that focus on engaging existing clients regularly.

• Navigation items - the pages users can access vary between each app. For example, only the Management app contains a page with all the divisions in a firm, and only the Marketing app contains a page with lists of active and inactive marketing campaigns.

• Pages shared between apps may contain varied record table filters accessed from the teal table viewer menu on the page. For example, the Clients page in the Advisor app contains the "My Clients and "My Division's Clients" record tables, while the same page in the Management app contains the "All Clients" table instead of "My Clients."
• Tiles, charts and record tables shared between apps may contain different record visibility settings. Each of the Advisor, Management and Client Service apps contains a chart that groups clients based on the number of days since they were last contacted, but the Advisor and Client Service apps only include clients if they either own the record or are the nominated advisor or client service representative on the servicing team. In contrast, the Management app shows all the clients across the division.

Each Practifi user has an app assigned to them that best suits their role; additional apps can be assigned by a system administrator. If users need to switch between apps, they can do so from the App Launcher  available in the top-left corner of the screen.

Using the Navigation Bar

When first logging into Practifi, users will land on the app's home page. Below is an example that is taken from the Advisor app. The home page is covered in more detail in the Understanding the Home Page article, but for now, the focus is on global navigation, which appears at the top and bottom of every page in the chosen app:

Here's a rundown of what to look out for in global navigation:

1. The App Launcher is where users can shift between the Practifi apps they have available and access any other apps the firm has installed from the Salesforce AppExchange. Clicking the App Launcher icon reveals a drop-down menu with a list of apps and a search bar. The search bar isn't necessary for day-to-day system usage, but if there is ever a need to find a page that isn't accessible from the navigation menu, users can find it by searching here.

2. Workspace tabs line the top of the page, displaying clients' names, prospects, reports and other records currently open. Keep multiple workspace tabs open at one time and easily click between them to view different records without loading a new browser tab. Google Chrome users can install Salesforce's Lightning Extension to allow any Practifi URLs accessed on the computer to open new workspaces within the existing browser tab.

3. The search bar is where users can search to find a specific record they’re looking for. Recently viewed records appear as suggestions when typing and will provide the full set of search results when submitting the search; the search results page allows filtering by using the left side panel. To learn more about how the search works and best practices for using the search results page, look at Salesforce's related help section.

4. The Favorites menu provides an easy shortcut to the records, reports, and dashboards team members look at most often. When reviewing these records, they can be added to favorites by clicking the star icon to access them from this menu later quickly. Once starred, favorites are found anywhere in Practifi and the Salesforce app, available for iOS and Android.

5. The Global Actions menu contains shortcuts as well, but for creating records rather than opening them. Create tasks, events, households and other records from this menu. Multiple global actions can also be used at once: they appear as collapsible containers docked along the bottom of the screen. They can be collapsed, expanded and maximized as needed.

6. Use the navigation menu to access the app’s navigation items, such as Clients, Tasks, or Calendar. Users can view the list of available items by clicking the drop-down arrow. The menu itself behaves similarly to a workspace tab: selecting it takes the user to the page currently selected.

7. In the utility bar at the bottom of the screen, two pop-up components are available on every page:

   • Tools & Resources contains shortcuts for closing all open workspace tabs, as well as handy links to news sources in the advice industry and articles in our knowledge base. System administrators can customize these, so be sure to send any suggestions their way.
   • History surfaces a list of recently accessed records so that it's always easy to retrace steps or pick up from the most recent project.