Overview
Households, Organizations, and Individuals in Practifi use two methods to categorize their records: topics and definitions. This article outlines what topics and definitions are and how to add these to your firm's entity records, giving your team a consistent way to organize relationships and surface the right records quickly.
What Are Topics and Definitions?
Topics within Practifi are used to categorize Households, Organizations, and Individual records in an unstructured, ad hoc way. For example, these can be used to categorize someone you met at a recent function as a "Potential Lead" or flag that a client you're often in contact with loves baseball by attaching "Baseball fan" to their record. Topics can take any value, giving your team a flexible way to capture context that matters to your relationships. Still, they do not have any other effect on the records themselves. This means they do not affect where you view records in Practifi or how they are displayed in your organization.
Definitions are used to categorize records in a structured way within your organization. For example, categorize your "Potential Lead" record as a Prospect once you've qualified them for business with your organization. The available definitions are predefined and cannot be customized. This is what allows definitions to drive changes within the system, with each one affecting where you find records in your app and what displays when they are opened.
Please note: For teams looking to restrict the tags your firm's users can select, we recommend creating structured record tags using Other Definitions rather than Topics.
Topics
Adding Topics
Topics are added to Household, Organization, and Individual records by navigating to the Topics section in the record side panel.
To add a topic, click the Search topics... search bar in the Topics section of the record side panel and begin typing the topic name that you would like to add. Topic suggestions will display as you type, based on topics that other team members of your firm have created on other records. Select one of these from the drop-down menu if applicable, or hit Enter to add what you've already typed as a new topic within your organization.
Please note: Topics added are compiled within a Topic field on the Key Entity record. This field has a limit of 255 characters. Records with many topics added, or topics with too many characters, may experience topics over this character limit not being included in the Topic field. This can cause these records not to appear in search results when searching for these topics within your organization. It is recommended that added topic names be kept short and as accurate as possible to ensure proper search results.
Viewing Topics
Once the topic is assigned to the record, it will appear alongside other topics as badges beneath the search bar in the Topics section of the record side panel.
Topics are also visible when viewing record tables on your Directory, Clients, Pipeline, and Influence app pages. You can narrow results on these pages by using the Topics filters to see records flagged with a specific topic. If you are looking for a specific topic, the table's search feature supports topic searches.
When searching for a specific topic, the global search bar at the top of the Practifi page lets you search by topic name. Type the topic's name into this search bar, and then select the topic result from the drop-down menu.
Selecting a topic from the global search bar opens a dedicated page that displays all records assigned to that topic.
Added topics are compiled in a Topic field on the Key Entity record. This field has a limit of 255 characters. Records with many topics added, or topics with too many characters, may experience topics over this character limit not being included in the Topic field. This can cause these records not to appear in search results when searching for these topics within your organization. It is recommended that added topic names be kept short and as accurate as possible to ensure proper search results.
Definitions
A record will need to be assigned a definition to take advantage of features built for specific relationship types, such as managing client assets. Definitions are based on two factors: Client Stage or Influencer Segment.
Client Stage, which is set to either Prospect, Client, Lost Prospect, or Lost Client, captures the stage of the relationship between the entity and your firm. If the record is a client, their Client Segment, for example, Platinum Client, will display on their record. For prospect records, the Client Stage will display with either Prospect or Lost Prospect as the value.
Influencer Segment, which can be set to Standard, Important, or Critical, captures the level of influence a client or prospect has with your firm, helping your team prioritize attention where it matters most. These will also display alongside the Client Stage on the record side panel.
Adding Client Stages
Client Stage is added to a client or prospect record using the Promote to Prospect and Promote to Client actions within the Actions menu on the record side panel. Upon promotion to prospect status, the Household, Organization, or Individual will be assigned the Prospect Client Stage by default.
To change the prospect's Client Stage, click the Actions menu on the record side panel again and select either the Promote to Client or Mark as Lost Prospect action.
If the record is promoted to a client, the Client Stage of Client will be added to the record by the system after the promotion questions are completed. When the prospect is marked as a Lost Prospect, their Client Stage will change to Lost Prospect.
When a client no longer has business with your firm, mark them as a Lost Client by clicking the Actions menu in the side panel of their Household, Organization, or Individual record again, then selecting Mark as Lost Client from the drop-down menu.
After completing the prompted questions, the system will automatically assign the Client Stage of Lost Client to the record.
Adding Influencer Segments
Click the Actions menu on the record side panel and select Add Influencer Segment from the drop-down menu to add an Influencer Segment to a record.
When this option is selected, a pop-up will display where you will select the Influencer Segment to attach to the Household, Organization, or Individual. Once added, the Influencer Segment will appear alongside the Client Segment in the record's side panel.
To change an Influencer Segment after one has been added, click the Actions menu and select Change Influencer Segment from the drop-down menu. This option will have you select an Influencer Segment from the drop-down menu, similar to adding the segment for the first time. Upon saving, the record will reflect this change.
To remove an Influencer Segment, click the Actions menu and select Remove Influencer Segment from the drop-down menu. This will remove only the Influencer Segment from the record and will not impact the Client Stage information.
Adding Other Definitions
The Other Definitions option on your firm's Key Entity records allows you to set an additional piece of information when defining your Key Entity as a Prospect or Client. This is especially helpful when you need to designate a Prospect or Client as an Accountant, Attorney, Broker-Dealer, or other provider type. The values selected in the Other Definitions field display alongside the record's other definitions in record tables and on the record page header.
To add an Other Definition, navigate to the Key Entity record, click the Actions menu, and select Manage Other Definitions from the drop-down menu. This will display a pop-up menu with the following default options:
- Accountant
- Attorney
- Broker
- Broker Dealer
- Custodian
- Insurance Agent
- Insurance Company
- Lending Institution
- Personal Banker
- Solicitor
Your firm's System Administrator can modify these options to add or remove options to suit your firm's needs. Records can be filtered by their Other Definition values within the Directory, making it quick to surface your Key Entity providers in your organization.
Viewing Definitions
Definition values, meaning both Client Stage and Influencer Segment, appear when searching for Households, Organizations, and Individuals on pages such as Directory, Clients, and Influence. These values appear in the Definitions column and can be filtered by Client Segment to narrow the results.
Definitions will also be displayed below the entity's name in the record header on the side panel of the record page. You can locate information about when a record was entered into a specific Client Stage in the Stage History section under the Basics tab in the record's Overview.
Record Visibility and Page Layout
Below is a summary of how Client Stages and Influencer Segments affect record visibility and page layout, so you can see at a glance what each definition unlocks for the record:
Client Stage
| No stage | Prospect | Lost Prospect | Client | Lost Client | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visible in app pages | Directory | Directory, Pipeline | Directory, Pipeline | Directory, Clients | Directory, Clients |
| Navigation items on the record page | Overview, Activities, Relationships, Feed | Overview, Activities, Pipeline, Processes & Tasks, Relationships, Feed | Overview, Activities, Pipeline, Processes & Tasks, Relationships, Feed | Overview, Activities, Financials, Services & Pipeline, Processes & Tasks, Relationships, Feed | Overview, Activities, Financials, Services & Pipeline, Processes & Tasks, Relationships, Feed |
| Available actions on the record page | Promote to Prospect | Promote to Client, Mark as Lost Prospect, Change Stage | Change Stage | Mark as Lost Client, Change Stage | Change Stage |
Influencer Segment
| No segment | Any segment | |
|---|---|---|
| Visible in app pages | Directory | Directory, Influence |
| Navigation items on the record page | Existing items based on Client Stage | Existing items based on Client Stage, plus Influence |
| Available actions on the record page | Add Influencer Segment | Change Influencer Segment, Remove Influencer Segment |
Definition Action Availability
Availability of Definition Actions depends on the values in the Client Stage, Influencer Segment, and Type fields. The impact these have on action availability is summarized below:
Client Stage
| No value | Prospect | Client | Lost Prospect | Lost Client | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change Stage | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Promote to Prospect | ✔ | ||||
| Promote to Client | ✔ | ||||
| Mark as Lost Prospect | ✔ | ||||
| Mark as Lost Client | ✔ |
Influencer Segment
| No value | Standard | Important | Critical | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add Influencer Segment | ✔ | |||
| Change Influencer Segment | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Remove Influencer Segment | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Type
| Household | Organization | Individual | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add Household Member | ✔ | ||
| Add Organization Member | ✔ | ||
| Add to Household | ✔ (if they're not a client, prospect, or influencer) | ||
| Add to Organization | ✔ (if they're not a client, prospect, or influencer) | ||
| Add to new Household | ✔ (if they're a client, prospect, or influencer) | ||
| Add to new Organization | ✔ (if they're a client, prospect, or influencer) |
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