Understanding Deliverables

Follow

Overview

Deliverables help track entitlements that your firm provides to clients across your book of business. This article outlines key aspects of the Deliverable functionality to help give a broad understanding of the feature. For information on using the Deliverable functionality within your organization, please consult our Creating and Using Deliverables article.

Please note: This feature is not automatically enabled within your Practifi organization. To enable this functionality or answer any questions regarding this feature, please reach out to your CSM.

What is a Deliverable? 

The Deliverable functionality in your Practifi organization provides the ability to automatically generate a schedule of recurring client entitlements that advisors are tasked with delivering. This automation ensures that your standards of service are being met across the firm's book of business. 

Once set up, each Service maintains a set schedule of Deliverables, which are fulfilled by linking them to Tasks and Events with our dedicated sidebar assistant. Over time, each Deliverable gathers a history of successful and unsuccessful fulfillment. This history forms the basis for a deeper understanding of client success outcomes, like add-ons or churning away, via reporting. 

For example, your firm has a new prospect, Ryan Beger, who has an open deal with your firm for Retirement Planning. Before you promote him to a Client, you'd make sure that your firm's Deliverables are set up for his eventual Service Type. Once the Deliverables are created, they attach to Ryan's required Services and become highly repeatable with clear requirements for any team member at your firm servicing Ryan Beger's account. 

What is a Deliverable Type?

A Deliverable Type is a template made within your Practifi organization representing the individual Deliverables attached to a specific Service Type. This means that each time a client has this Service Type, your team will be expected to fulfill these Deliverables. Before creating Deliverable Types, your firm needs to be on board with the schedule of the Deliverables you are committing users to. You will want to conduct discussions as a business to agree on what your clients are entitled to and represent these using Deliverables.

What are calculation basis fields? 

Within the Deliverable Type, the calculation basis fields are set to determine when the Deliverable is initially started, how often it occurs and when it is due on an ongoing basis. By setting the Frequency, Initial Calucluation Basis and Ongoing Calculation Basis fields, the system will then calculate the due date of the Deliverable. This calculated date is then displayed in the Next Due Date field, giving your team members a clear day when the client's Deliverable needs to be fulfilled. 

Frequency

The Frequency field in the calculation basis fields sets how often a Deliverable needs to be completed. From the drop-down options for the Frequency field, you will select the option that best suits how often the client would expect this Deliverable. The options available in the Frequency field are as follows: 

  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
  • Semi-Annually
  • Annually
  • Biannual
  • Triennial 

Initial Calculation Basis

The Initial Calculation Basis field sets the Next Due Date field when the Deliverable is first created and works in conjunction with the Frequency field. This field's setting tells the system if the Deliverable's first Next Due Date should be based on the Service's start date or based on a calendar period. 

The Based on Service Start Date option in this field means that the Next Due Date will be calculated as the Service Start Date plus the interval length defined by the Deliverable Type's Frequency field. This means that if you have set the Frequency field to Quarterly and the Service has a Start Date of July 15th, then the Deliverable's initial Next Due Date will be October 15th. 

Alternatively, the Based on Calendar Period option means that the Next Due Date will be calculated as the end date of the nearest calendar interval as defined by the Deliverable Type's Frequency field. This means that if the Frequency is set to Quarterly and the Service has a Start Date of July 15th, then the Deliverable's initial Next Due Date will be September 30th, as this is the last day of the third calendar quarter. 

Ongoing Calculation Basis

The Ongoing Calculation Basis field sets the Next Due Date for the Deliverable after it is fulfilled and, like the Initial Calculation Basis, works in conjunction with the Frequency field. The Ongoing Calculation Basis can be based on the completed Deliverable's due date or based on the date the previous Deliverable was fulfilled. 

The Based on Due Date option for the Ongoing Calculation Basis field means that the Next Due Date for the new Deliverable will be calculated from fulfilled Deliverable's Next Due Date plus the interval length defined by the Deliverable Type's Frequency field. If the frequency is Quarterly, was fulfilled on July 15th, but the Deliverable had a Next Due Date of September 30th, then the Deliverable's updated Next Due Date will be December 31st. 

If the Ongoing Calculation Basis is set to Based on Fulfillment Date, the Next Due Date will be calculated as the date the Deliverable was fulfilled plus the interval length defined by the Deliverable Type's Frequency field. For example, if the frequency is Quarterly and the Deliverable is fulfilled on July 15th, then the Deliverable's updated Next Due Date will be October 15th. 

Where do Deliverable Records Live?

A list of Deliverables exists on the Client's Service & Pipeline record page by using the Deliverables subtab.
Screen_Shot_2021-07-07_at_2.30.05_PM.png

Deliverable information attached to the Service also exists within the Service record under the Deliverables subtab. 
Screen_Shot_2021-07-07_at_2.35.20_PM.png

In both of these locations, selecting the Deliverable Name will open the specific Deliverable record with additional information included in subtabs. Screen_Shot_2021-07-07_at_2.38.52_PM.png

On the Deliverable record page, the Basics tab gives an overview of the Deliverable Type and displays the settings for calculating the Next Due Date. The Dates & Reminders section on the Basics tab contains everything to know when a Deliverable was last fulfilled when it's next due and what the reminder settings are for the Deliverable. Reminders are set by checking the Set Reminder box on the Deliverable Type and will automatically notify the Deliverable Owner of the upcoming due date with a Task assigned to them. The Days Before Due Date field on the Deliverable Type sets how many days before the Next Due Date this reminder task should appear within your organization. 

The Fulfillment tab on the Deliverable record contains a history of successful and unsuccessful fulfillment of this Deliverable to give a history of the Deliverable in relation to the Client record. The System tab includes fields that tend to only matter to System Administrators, as well as displays a list of changes made to fields on the Deliverable record itself. This tab is useful for investigating changes different users have made to the Deliverable. 

How are Deliverables Fulfilled?

When it comes time to record a Deliverable that you've met successfully, you will do so from the record page of the Task or Event that did the job by using the sidebar assistant located on the right side of the record page. Screen_Shot_2021-07-07_at_3.10.05_PM.png

The sidebar assistant will display any fulfilled or open Deliverables with key dates. For Open Deliverables, the date displayed will be the Next Due Date of the Deliverable. The date displayed for Fulfilled Deliverable is the date that the Deliverable was fulfilled rather than its Next Due Date. Once the checkbox is selected for the Deliverable that the task or event is fulfilled, the Deliverable will move to the fulfilled list and disappear from the open list. Additionally, on the Deliverable's record Fulfillment subtab, you will see a record created for the successful fulfillment of the Deliverable. 

If a Deliverable's Next Due Date passes without fulfillment, a Deliverable Fulfillment record is created with no Fulfillment, Fulfilled By or Fulfilled checkbox field values provided. These missed fulfillment records help when reporting on fulfillment rate, which relies on the Fulfilled checkbox as its basis. 

Adjusting Deliverables for specific Services

Users can modify the Deliverable record directly, if necessary, to give specific clients their agreed-upon entitlements. For example, changing the frequency of a check-in Deliverable from quarterly to monthly provides the customer with a higher standard of service than is typically included in the Deliverable Types template created by your firm. 

Users can also add new Deliverables to a Service through the New Deliverable button in the page actions on their Service record. Creating records in this location is identical to creating Deliverable Types, though it exclusively applies to the Service in question. To have the change occur across multiple clients, it would need to be created as a Deliverable Type in your organization.

When editing or creating a new Deliverable, the Frequency Recalucation Basis field is mandatory. This field determines how the Deliverable's Next Due Date is recalculated when the Frequency field value is changed. The calculation takes the basis field specified in the field and then adds the specified Frequency value to set the Next Due Date.

Deliverable Reporting

While every firm has different reporting goals surrounding Services and Deliverables, we've included a handful of sample reports with this feature to help teams get started on tracking Deliverable fulfillment performance. These reports can be accessed from the Deliverable Reports folder within your Practifi organization. 

The sample reports available are as follows:

  • Fulfillment % by Service Type & AUM YTD 
  • Fulfillment % by Division, Owner & Type YTD 
  • Fulfillment % by Owner YTD 
  • My Missed Deliverables by Client YTD 

The first three sample reports represent different ways of summarizing fulfillment rates and are intended for managers looking to track indicators of Deliverable performance over time. The last sample report, My Missed Deliverables by Client YTD, is intended for end-users rather than managers and provides an overview of any Deliverables missed by the running user to allow for fulfillment rate improvement. The charts included in these sample reports display a reference line to indicate a realistic target for fulfillment rate. This has been set at 85% but is easily changed to suit your firm's needs in the Report Builder.

Deliverable Tiles

Once the Deliverable functionality is enabled within your organization, the Deliverable tiles can be added to the Home Page within the Advisor, Client Service and Compliance apps. These tiles help your firm's Advisor and Client Service app users track when upcoming Deliverables are due. For Compliance users, these tiles call attention to missed Deliverable fulfillment within your organization.

All three Practifi tiles may be enabled, or you may select only the tiles that make the most sense for your firm's needs. For additional information about how to enable tiles within your organization, please consult our Adding and Removing Practifi Tiles article. The tiles available are as follows:

Advisor App

  • Advisor - Key Dates - Deliverables due in the next 7 days
  • Advisor - Key Dates - Deliverables due in the next 14 days
  • Advisor - Key Dates - Deliverables due in the next 30 days

Client Service App

  • Client Service - Key Dates - Deliverables due in the next 7 days
  • Client Service - Key Dates - Deliverables due in the next 14 days
  • Client Service - Key Dates - Deliverables due in the next 30 days

Compliance

  • Compliance - Missing Info - Clients with missed deliverables in the last 30 days
  • Compliance - Missing Info - Clients with missed deliverables in the last 60 days
  • Compliance - Missing Info - Clients with missed deliverables in the last 90 days
0 out of 0 found this helpful

Comments

0 comments

Article is closed for comments.