| Some of the functionality described in this article is available in our Fiano release and will not be available if your Practifi instance is not upgraded to this release. |
Overview
Practifi is about managing your network so that you can engage with them in the best way possible, given who they are and the work your firm does for them. People don't stay the same over the time your firm knows them. Instead, they grow and change over time, as does your understanding of them. Practifi is designed to handle those changes gracefully, allowing teams to move records through the client lifecycle. This article breaks down the different types of Key Entities available within Practifi and how to use these records to keep your firm's view of each relationship accurate as it evolves. If you have any questions about Households, Organizations, and Individuals, please reach out to your CSM.
- Key Entities
- Creating an Individual
- Using Topics
- Promote to Prospect
- Promote to Client
- Creating a Household
- Considerations
Please note: As of the Blaufränkisch release, you can create entities using the Create an Entity wizard. For more information, please see the Creating Entities Using the Create an Entity Wizard article.
Key Entities
People in Practifi can be grouped in three ways:
- An Organization comprised of employees, with an optional primary contact
- A Household with a primary contact, with an optional partner and dependents
- An Individual who isn't grouped with other people at all
Collectively, these records are referred to as Key Entities and can change from record type if needed, as your understanding of the entity changes. For example, you may initially have an Individual record, but then discover they are part of a larger company that wants to do business with your firm. This record would then need to be transformed from an Individual to an Organization within your firm.
When managing related entities together, such as a multi-generational family or a complex business structure, you can combine Households, Organizations, and Individuals into a Group. Groups provide a consolidated view of all member entities in one place, without changing how those individual entities work. For more information, see the Understanding and Using Groups article.
Creating an Individual
When you first meet someone, you rarely learn their entire life story. You might only know from a business card who they are and why they're interested in your firm. There might still be a lot left to learn about someone like this, but thankfully, you'll always have enough to begin capturing them in Practifi. To capture this information, use the Create an Individual Global Action to capture whatever you know about them so far in a clean and simple form:
Once you save the record, you'll see a success notification and can go straight to it.
This record isn't fully formed yet, but it provides a space to capture the basic contact information your firm may have. This Individual record exists only as a person and not yet as a Client or Prospect. This means the record's side panel will have fewer navigation sections than those available on a Prospect or Client record. There's still plenty to do on this record, though. You can add extra contact details or personal information, track activities and ad hoc tasks, define relationships between them and other entities, and make posts or comments on the record Feed.
Using Topics
Once you've learned a bit about this Individual, you'll capture this information in their record without promoting them to a Client or a Prospect. For example, you already know more about Simon, so you enter his address and basic details, such as his marital and employment status, on his Individual record.
To help make a record easier to find within the firm's organization, topics can be assigned to it. Topics within Practifi are used to categorize Households, Organizations, and Individual records in an unstructured, ad hoc way. These can be used to categorize someone you met at a recent function as a "Potential Lead" or flag an individual who loves baseball by attaching "Baseball fan" to their record. Topics can be of any value, but they do not affect the records themselves. This means they do not affect where you view records in Practifi or how they are displayed within your organization. The list of topics you've assigned appears as a column in the Directory, meaning you can use it to search and filter records in various ways. For more information about topics, please consult our Understanding and Using Topics & Definitions article.
Promote to Prospect
Let's quickly go over what's happened here as part of the wizard. Simon now has a Client Stage of "Prospect," which appears below his name in the side panel record header. This is a definition that's been applied to the record, and it causes some other changes beyond appearing in the header:
- Simon will now appear as a prospect in record tables found on the Directory and Pipeline app pages.
- The Pipeline and Processes & Tasks navigation sections have become available; you can see the Pipeline section above.
- The Servicing Team accordion section in the side panel has become available; you can see the open section, where two team members have been assigned to Simon.
A definition is a more formal way of classifying records that directly affects where you find them in the system and what you see when you open their record page. Currently, the definitions available in Practifi are Prospect, Lost Prospect, Client, and Lost Client, which are all based on Client Stage. Definitions such as Influencer also exist based on the Influencer Segment. For more information about definitions, please consult our Understanding and Using Topics & Definitions article.
In addition to the definition applied, a Deal record has also been created for Simon, which you can see in his Pipeline section above. A Deal represents an opportunity to win business from a Prospect or Client and is always related to a type of service your firm offers. In this example, Simon's interested in having his $1.15m in investments managed by the firm, so the service selected is "Investment Management."
Promote to Client
Deals proceed through a sales cycle with stages to mark key points of the Deal's progress with your firm. Practifi ships with a set of predefined stages that can be customized. Deals are ultimately closed and marked as either won or lost. Once you've reached the closure point in the sales cycle, you'll update the Stage field on the Deal record. This can be done either by marking the stages as complete up to the Closed Won stage by clicking the Mark Stage as Complete button on the Deal or selecting the Promote to Client button from the Action Menu.
For example, you've had an initial consultation with Simon, and he signs later this week. This means you can close his Investment Management deal with your firm and promote him to Client status.
Selecting either action will allow you to proceed; however, in the case of "Promote to Client," you'll need to select the Deal you wish to close as part of the promotion process. Once completed, Simon's definition changes from Prospect to Client, which introduces a series of changes:
- Simon will now appear as a Client in the page views found on the Directory and Clients pages.
- The Financials navigation section is available in the record side panel.
- The Pipeline option in the entity side panel transforms to Services & Pipeline.
- The Overview option gains a Key Record tab, which consolidates important records across multiple sections into one location.
The Deal has also been updated to include a Stage of Closed Won and is linked to a Service record that tracks the ongoing service agreement you have with the Client.
Creating a Household
After discovering more about your Individual entity, you may find that they have a spouse or dependent, meaning you can convert their record to a Household entity. A Household lets you view the primary contact, spouse, and any potential dependents in one place, making it easier to see the bigger picture of your firm's business.
For example, you've been talking to Simon and have learned he has a wife named Roberta. To transform this record, you select the Add to new Household button from the Action Menu on their record side panel.
This option will then allow you to create the "Taylor, Simon and Roberta" Household, make Simon the primary contact, and add Roberta as his partner, all in one step. If you want to reassign the Deals, Services, Tasks, Activities, and Topics that have already been given to the "Simon Taylor" Individual record, you can do so by selecting the Yes, move them to the household option for the "Do you want to move this person's definitions - such as client, prospect, and influencer - as well as related records to their new household?" question in the wizard.
Once you make your way through the wizard, you'll end up with a complete Client Household record with all the key records accessible from the Overview section.
If you discover that there are more people in Simon and Roberta's immediate family over the course of your relationship with them, you can always head back to the action menu as you did before by selecting the newly available Add Household Member action from the Actions Menu on the record side panel.
Considerations
There are important considerations around Household, Organization, and Individual records.
- Organizations behave similarly to households, except they have employees instead of dependents and don't have partners.
- Lost Prospect and Lost Client are also available as Client Stages and have dedicated Mark as Lost Prospect and Mark as Lost Client actions available when the stage is either Prospect or Client, respectively. Selecting the Mark as Lost Client action will also terminate active Services and close any open Deals or Tasks.
- The Change Stage action lets you switch entities between Prospect, Lost Prospect, Client, Lost Client, or unqualified (left blank) for the Client Stage field. It's useful if you've defined an entity incorrectly. However, keep in mind that it won't perform the automation found in other actions, such as Promote to Prospect.
- Groups are containers, not traditional client entities. They do not progress through lifecycle stages and cannot be promoted to prospects or converted to clients. Each entity can belong to only one Group at a time. For more information, see the Understanding and Using Groups article.
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