Creating and Managing Service Types

Please note: This content is intended for Practifi System Administrators and is technical in nature. The steps described in this article may not be able to be completed without System Administrator permissions. Please discuss your integration installation plans with your Practifi Customer Support Team for their assistance.

Overview

Service Types define the distinct categories of work your firm performs for clients — from investment management and financial planning to tax preparation and insurance review. By configuring Service Types that reflect your firm’s actual service model, you give advisors and operations staff a consistent, structured way to track client engagements, manage pipeline activity, and report on the services your firm delivers.

Practifi is packaged with standard Service Types included, and administrators can create additional ones to capture the full range of services your firm provides. As of the Pinot Blanc release in July 2024, Service Type records include settings that, when enabled, affect how Deals, Services, and Deliverables operate in your Practifi organization. This article covers creating new Service Types, managing existing ones, and understanding the implications of each available setting.

For more information on how Services and Deals work, please consult our Understanding Services and Deals article.

• Creating New Service Types
• Managing Service Types
• Understanding Service Type Settings
  • Available In
    • New Service Button
    • Promote to Prospect Workflow
    • Promote to Client Workflow
    • Potential Service Field
    • Create an Entity Wizard
  • When a Deal Is Won
    • Add to Existing Service (If Available)
    • Create a New Service
    • Let the User Decide
  • Complete Automatically with Deliverables
  • Default Asset-Based Service

Creating New Service Types

Before proceeding, please note that Practifi triggers can automatically create Services when certain Asset types are created. Manually creating Services for Entities that already have asset-based Services might lead to duplicates. For a detailed breakdown, please see our Understanding Triggers article and view the Asset/Liability trigger explainer.

Practifi Administrators can create Service Type records in the Settings app:

1. Click the App Launcher and select Settings.
   
   
    
2. In the Settings app, click the Navigation menu and select Service Types.
   
   
   
    
3. On the Service Types page, click the New button. A new tab opens.
   
   
    
4. On the New Category screen, enter the following information:
   • Category Name (required) - Enter a name for the Service Type. Users will see this name when creating new Deals or new Services for prospects or clients.
   • Short Name - Enter an abbreviated version of the Service Type's name if the name is lengthy. This field is not required for Service Type creation.
   • Related To - Set this picklist to Service Type.
   • Active - Check this box if you want the Service Type to be available immediately upon saving.
   • Description - Enter a short explanation of the service being provided. This will be visible to end users in the New Deal and New Service workflows and on Deal and Service records.
   • Code (required) - We recommend entering a value that begins with SERV followed by a descriptive abbreviation of the service. For example, an Investment Management service could have the code SERVINVESTMGMT. This value is used in business rules and must be unique from other Service Types.
   • Group/Group Code - These are optional fields used to group Service Types. If you intend to associate this Service Type with assets marked as Under Advice, enter Asset-Based in the Group field.
   • Default asset-based service? - When an asset is marked as Under Advice, the system automatically generates an asset-based Service for the associated Entity. Check this box if you want the Service Type you're creating to be used as the default Service in this scenario.
      
     • Please note: If you select this option, the Group field will automatically be set to "Asset-Based". A validation rule will prevent you from saving the Service Type if the Group field contains an invalid value. For more information about this setting see the Default Asset-Based Service section below.
   • Order - Enter a whole number to determine the placement of this Service Type in the list of available options in the New Deal and New Service workflows. If your organization has multiple asset-based services, use the Order field to specify which one will be used for creating the service on the Entity. If this field is left blank or contains duplicate values across multiple Service Types, then priority will be given to the most recently modified Service Type for Service creation on an Entity.
   • Available in (required) - This field determines where the Service Type will be available to end users. Select New Deal action, New Service action or New Deal and New Service actions. For more on the implications of this setting, see the Understanding Service Type Settings section below.
   • When a Deal is won - This field appears conditionally when the Available in field is set to New Deal Action or New Deal and New Service actions. The default value is Add to existing Service (if available). The other options are Create a new Service or Let the user decide. See more on this setting in the Understanding Service Type Settings section below.
   • Complete automatically with Deliverables - Check this box if you want the Service's status to be automatically updated to Complete when all its related Deliverables are completed. This setting is intended for transactional rather than ongoing services. For more on the implications of this setting, see the Understanding Service Type Settings section below.
   • Deal Record Type/Service Record Type - These fields appear when the Related To field is set to Service Type. The Record Type fields are used only if your organization is enabling custom stages for Deals and Services. For more information, please see our Creating Custom Stages for Deals and Services article.
   • Fee Information - The fields in the Fee Information section are to be filled out only if you are configuring an asset-based service.
     
     
      
5. Click Save to finalize the creation of the new Service Type. To create another Service Type, click Save and New to begin the creation process again.

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Managing Service Types

In addition to creating new Service Types, you can also edit or deactivate existing ones on the Service Types page in the Settings app. Keeping Service Types accurate and up to date helps ensure that advisors are working with options that reflect your firm's current service model.

To get started, follow these steps for both editing and deactivating:

1. Click the App Launcher and select Settings.
   
   
    
2. In the Settings app, click the Navigation menu and select Service Types.
   
   
    
3. On the Service Types page, click the hyperlinked name of the Service Type you want to edit. The Service Type record opens in a new tab.
   
   
    
4. On the Service Type record page, click the Edit button.
   
   
    

From here, follow the steps for either Editing an Existing Service Type or Deactivating a Service Type below.

Editing an Existing Service Type

5. Make the desired changes in the edit window, then click Save. 

   

6. To apply your changes to active Services, click the Sync with Services button.  

   

   Please note: If the Deliverable Type's Initial Calculation Basis is set to Based on Service Start Date and you are syncing with existing Services, today's date will be used to calculate the Next Due Date of the initial Deliverable, with the Frequency length added to it. If you modified the Frequency settings of a Deliverable Type, a picklist appears in the Sync with Services window allowing you to choose how to recalculate the Next Due Date for existing Deliverables. If the Last Fulfillment Date is missing, today's date will be used to calculate the Next Due Date.

Deactivating a Service Type

5. In the edit window, uncheck the Active checkbox.

6. Click Save to finalize this change. 

   

7. On the Service Type record page, click the Sync with Services button. Deactivated Service Types will no longer appear as an option in the Service Type picklist, but may continue to display on records where that Service Type was already selected. 

   
    

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Understanding Service Type Settings

Some of the settings on Service Type records significantly affect how Deals, Services, and Deliverables operate in your Practifi organization. Understanding these settings before enabling them helps ensure your configuration accurately reflects the way your firm works with clients.

Available In

The Available in setting determines how end users will be able to initiate services of that type in your Practifi organization. This setting has the following options:

• New Deal action
• New Service action
• New Deal and New Service actions

This setting gives you the flexibility to align Practifi's workflows with your firm's actual business processes. For service categories that always begin with a prospect in the pipeline, you may want to restrict availability to the New Deal action. For service categories added directly to existing client relationships — without a sales stage — you may prefer the New Service action, or both.

Choosing "New Service action" or "New Deal and New Service actions" enables a New Service button on Client records, changes how users progress through the Promote to Prospect and Promote to Client workflows, and controls which Service Types are available in the Create an Entity wizard when creating a client household.

Please note: For existing Service Types, the Available in field is set to New Deal action, as this is the default behavior for Services.

New Service Button

If an active Service Type has its Available in setting configured to New Service action or New Deal and New Service actions, end users will see a New Service button in the Services & Pipeline section of Client records. This allows users to create a Service directly for a client without first creating a Deal, which can be a useful shortcut for ongoing service relationships where a formal pipeline stage is not needed.


Please note: Only Service Types made available in the New Service action will be available for selection in the New Service workflow.

Promote to Prospect Workflow

If a Service Type's Available In setting is configured to New Service action and a user selects that Service Type in the Promote to Prospect workflow, a message will inform them that a Deal will not be created. The Service Type is saved in the Potential Service field on the Entity record and will be suggested when and if the prospect is promoted to a client.

If an active Service Type in your organization has its Available in setting configured to New Deal or New Service actions, and a user chooses that Service Type in the Promote to Prospect workflow, they will be asked whether they want to create a Deal.

If the user chooses not to create a Deal, the Service Type is still saved as the Potential Service on the prospect record, and it will appear as a suggestion in the Promote to Client workflow.


 

If all Service Types in your organization are configured for the New Service action, the Promote to Prospect workflow will not create Deals. Users will select a Service Type as usual, be informed that no Deal is being created, and the selected Service Type is saved as the prospect's Potential Service for pipeline reporting purposes.

Promote to Client Workflow

If an active Service Type in your organization has its Available in setting configured to New Service action or New Deal and New Service actions, the Promote to Client workflow will present the option to close one or more Deals for the prospect or create a new Service.

• If users choose to close existing Deal(s) and create Service(s), they are presented with the option to close a single Deal in the prospect’s pipeline or multiple Deals (if available) and create corresponding Services.
• If users choose not to close existing Deal(s), they can select a Service Type and create a standalone Service.

If a user goes through the Promote to Client workflow and there are no existing Deals to close, they will be notified that no Deals will be closed. Instead, a new Service record is created as part of the promotion process. Users can create multiple Services simultaneously during this action. The Service Type value saved in the Potential Service field during the Promote to Prospect action will be the default selection to create a new Service record.

Potential Service Field

The Potential Service field was added to the Entity object with the Pinot Blanc release. This is a lookup field to the Service Type (Category) object. The Potential Service field serves as a reference to the Service a prospect is interested in. Additionally, this field is utilized to prefill the Promote to Client action. It also facilitates retaining the Service Type name the prospect is interested in for pipeline reporting. The Potential Service field is populated with the Service Type selected during the Promote to Prospect action.

The Potential Service field is located in the Overview section on the Basics tab, in the Key Measures section, below the Potential Annual Revenue field, on a Prospect record page. If the user hasn’t selected a Service Type during the Promote to Prospect action, the Potential Service field remains blank. This allows users to manually input a Service Type value later.

Logic for populating the Potential Service field:

• If there are open Deals on the Entity, regardless of the client stage, the following criteria are applied:
  • If all open Deals have Annual Revenue populated, the ST with the highest value is selected.
  • If one or more Deals lack Annual Revenue but have AUM populated, the Service Type with the highest AUM is chosen.
  • If none of the Deals have AUM, the Service Type with the highest Annual Revenue is selected.
  • If none of the Deals have Annual Revenue, the Service Type that was most recently updated is chosen.

Create an Entity Wizard

The Create an Entity wizard gives your team a guided way to create new entity records in Practifi, including client households. As part of this workflow, users are prompted to select a Service Type, which drives how the new entity's Services are set up from the start. Getting this right at the point of entity creation means fewer corrections downstream and a cleaner record from day one.

The Service Types available for selection in the Create an Entity wizard follow the same rules as the New Service action. When creating an entity with the Client Stage set to Prospect, only Service Types with their Available in setting configured to "New Deal action" or "New Deal and New Service actions" will appear. When creating an entity with the Client Stage set to Client, only Service Types with their Available in setting configured to "New Service action" or "New Deal and New Service actions" will appear.

If Service Types are not appearing when creating prospects and/or clients in the wizard, review each Service Type record's Available in setting and confirm that the relevant types are set to "New Deal action", "New Service action", or "New Deal and New Service actions".

Please note: Changing a Service Type's Available in setting will also affect its behavior in the New Service button on Client records, the Promote to Prospect workflow, and the Promote to Client workflow. Review the Available In section above to understand the full impact before making changes.

When a Deal Is Won

The When a Deal is Won setting, which appears conditionally when the Available In setting is set to New Deal action or New Deal and New Service actions, controls what happens when a Deal is marked as Closed Won. This setting has the following options:

• Add to existing Service (if available)
• Create a new Service
• Let the user decide

Please note: These options apply only when the Mark As Closed Won action is used on a single Deal. For mass actions, the default option, Add to existing Service (if available), will be applied.

Add to Existing Service (If Available)

Choose this option if you want to associate all closed Deals with a single Service record. If an Entity has an existing Service and a Deal with the same Service Type that is marked as Closed Won, the Deal will be merged into the existing Service. If the Entity does not have an existing Service of that type, a new Service is created.

Create a New Service

Choose this option if you want a new Service record to be created every time a Deal is closed. A new Duplicate Service will be created regardless of whether the Entity already has an active Service of the same type.

Let the User Decide

Choose this option if you want to give the end user a choice of actions when using the Mark as Closed Won action. The user will be asked if they want to add the Deal to an existing Service or create a new Service.

Complete Automatically with Deliverables

This setting is intended for transactional services — such as tax preparation or account onboarding — rather than ongoing services like investment management. When enabled, a Service's status is automatically updated to Complete once all of its related Deliverables have been completed or canceled.

This works in conjunction with the Complete after X fulfillments setting at the Deliverable Type level, which allows Deliverables to be automatically marked as complete after being fulfilled a set number of times. Together, these settings can significantly reduce the manual effort required to close out transactional engagements, so your team can stay focused on client work rather than administrative follow-up.

Whenever a Deliverable’s status is updated to Completed or Canceled, and this setting is enabled, the system checks all other Deliverables related to the same Service. If every Deliverable has been completed or canceled, the Service’s stage is set to Completed.

• If this occurs as part of a single-record Complete Deliverable or Cancel Deliverable action, the user who invoked the action receives a system notification informing them that their action has completed the related Service.
• If this occurs as part of a Complete Deliverable or Cancel Deliverable mass action, a system notification informs them of the number of services that were automatically completed because they have no more active Deliverables.

You should not enable this setting if you don't want this type of automation to occur for the Service Type.

Default Asset-Based Service

When an Asset record is marked as Under Advice, Practifi can automatically generate and associate an asset-based Service for the related Entity. The Default Asset-Based Service setting allows you to designate which Service Type is used in this scenario, helping ensure that asset-based Services are created consistently and without manual intervention.

Please note the following about the Default Asset-Based Service setting:

• The Default Asset-Based Service? checkbox requires the Group field to be set to Asset-Based. A validation rule prevents saving invalid configurations.
• A trigger automatically sets the Group field to Asset-Based if the checkbox is enabled.
• Default Service Priority: If multiple Service Types qualify, priority is given to the one with the Default Asset-Based Service? setting enabled and the lowest Order value.
• Fallback Criteria: If no default exists or there are duplicates, the most recently modified Service Type is selected.
• If an Asset-Based Service already exists for the entity, the asset is linked to it. Otherwise, a new service is created and appropriately associated with it.
• Existing Service Types with the Default Asset-Based Service? checkbox enabled that do not have a value in the Group field will be updated to Asset-Based to align with the validation rules.

When an Asset record is marked as Under Advice, the system selects and associates an asset-based Service using the following logic:

If no existing asset-based Service exists:

The system looks for Service Types where Group is set to Asset-Based and the Default Asset-Based Service? checkbox is enabled. Selection priority is given first to the Service Type with the lowest Order field value. If the Order field is tied or blank, the system uses the most recent Last Modified Date. If no default exists, the same logic is applied to all asset-based Service Types. A new Service is then created, and the asset is associated with it.

If an asset-based Service already exists:

• If one Service exists, the asset is linked to that Service.
• If multiple Services exist, the asset is linked to the most recently modified Service.

In both cases, the Asset record’s Service field is populated, and the Service record’s Assets tab displays the linked asset.

Please note: The above logic applies only to new records created after the Pinot Meunier upgrade. Existing records will remain unchanged.