Understanding the Rulebook

Learning Team

Overview

The Rulebook is one of the most flexible automation tools in Practifi. It allows you to define rule criteria that, when met, automatically trigger one or more actions across your organization. In practice, this means you can translate your firm's existing engagement standards, service commitments, and internal protocols into background logic that requires no manual oversight from your team.

Whether it's assigning a task when a client's dependent turns 18, sending a notification when a deal's close date has passed, or starting a process when a new referral is logged, the Rulebook ensures those workflows remain consistent and scalable. Your firm's members won't need to remember what to do next — the system can be built to guide them.

This article outlines the key components of the Rulebook and how they work together. For step-by-step instructions on creating a new rule, see our Using the Rulebook article.

Types of Rules
Available Actions
Required Permissions
Accessing the Rulebook
Pre-Built Rules
Compatible Practifi Objects
Considerations

Types of Rules

Three types of rules can be created within the Rulebook. Understanding which type fits your scenario is the foundation of building effective automation.

Time-based execution – Evaluation is based on the number of days between today and a specified target date field, as defined in the Rule Criteria record. Rules are evaluated once a day, outside business hours, and will run only once per record. This type is well-suited for date-driven events, such as upcoming contract renewals, client anniversaries, or required review intervals.
Record-based execution – Evaluation is based on whether a record meets certain field-level criteria, as defined on the Record Criteria tab of the Rule Criteria record. Rules can be evaluated when a record is created, when it is created or updated, or when it is created or updated to meet the evaluation criteria. In the third scenario, this means the record did not satisfy the criteria before the update but does afterward. This type is well-suited for responding dynamically to changes in client status, deal stage, or other record-level data.
Time and record-based execution – Evaluation occurs the same way as time-based execution, but the record must also meet the criteria specified on the Record Criteria tab for the rule to execute. This type gives you both a date trigger and a conditional filter, which is useful when timing matters, but the trigger should apply only to a specific subset of records.

Available Actions

When a rule's criteria are met, one or more of the following actions can be triggered:

Create a Task
Post to Noticeboard
Send a Notification
Send an Email
Start a Process

Multiple actions can be added to a single rule, meaning one triggering event can set several things in motion at once. For example, a rule evaluating a past-due deal close date could simultaneously create a follow-up task for the assigned advisor, post an alert to the Noticeboard, and send a notification to the relevant team members.

Please note: The Send an Email action works only for internal users. Email alerts cannot be sent to external recipients. To learn how to create an email template for the Send an Email action, see our Creating and Using Email Templates article.

Required Permissions

To access the Rulebook and create or modify rules, users need the Practifi - Manage Rules permission set assigned to their user profile. The Administrator permission set group includes this permission by default. Without it, the Rulebook page will not be visible in the Settings app.

Accessing the Rulebook

The Rulebook is located in the Settings app. To access it:

Click the App Launcher in the upper left-hand corner of Practifi.
Select the Settings app from the app drop-down menu.
Once in the Settings app, use the Navigation Menu to locate and click the Rulebook page.

On the Rulebook page, you will find a list of all active and inactive rules created in your Practifi instance.

Pre-Built Rules

Practifi includes 13 pre-built rules designed to cover common scenarios across client lifecycle management and engagement. These rules are available out of the box and can be activated and customized to fit your firm's workflows and service standards:

Client Anniversary
Client Death
Deal Close Date Past Due
Dependent Turns 18
Expiring Reference Document
Expired Reference Document
Expired Reference Document - Escalation
Lost Client
Negative Email Sentiment
New Referral
Platinum Client Not Contacted in 90 Days
Platinum Client Not Contacted in 120 Days
Promote to Prospect

If these pre-built rules aren't visible in your organization, please contact Practifi Support for help.

Compatible Practifi Objects

Record-based execution is only compatible with certain Practifi objects. These objects are automation-ready, meaning their triggers are enabled in their underlying settings.

If your rule includes either the Create a Task or Start a Process action, it must be configured for an object that also supports workflows. This is a more specific requirement than general record-based execution compatibility. To verify whether a particular object has automation enabled:

Navigate to Salesforce Setup by clicking the settings cog in the upper right-hand corner of Practifi.
Click Setup from the drop-down menu.
In Salesforce Setup, use the Quick Find search bar on the left-hand side to search for and select Custom Settings.
On the Custom Settings page, select the Manage link next to Practifi Trigger Settings.
On the Practifi Trigger Settings page, you'll see checkmarks next to objects with automation enabled.

The full list of eligible objects is as follows:

Access Request
Account
Account Team Member
Action
Action Field Value
Active Form Display Criteria
Active Form Field
Active Form Field Assignment
Active Form Prompt
Active Form Screen
Active Form Section
Active Form Table
Active Form Validation Rule
Addepar Portfolio
Asset Allocation
Asset Liability Role
Asset/Liability
Batch
Black Diamond Portfolio
Campaign Member
Checklist Item
Client Stage History
Component
Contact
Contact Point Address
Contact Point Email
Contact Point Phone
Content Document
Content Document Link
CTCT Contact List Membership
Deal
Deal Stage History
Deliverable
Deliverable Fulfillment
Division
Division Member
Email Message
eMoney Client
eMoney User
Envestnet Proposal
Envestnet Proposal Registration
Event
Event Rollups
Fee
Financial Product
Goal
Holding
Income Expense Role
Income/Expense
Installment
Noticeboard Post
Objective
Objective Relation
Orion Account
Plan
Policy
Policy Coverage
Policy Coverage Role
Policy Role
Preset Checklist Item
Process
Process Stage History
Process Task
Process Type
Questionnaire
Reference Document
Relationship
Retirement Income
Rule Action
Rule Criteria
Service
Stage History
Task
Task Outcome
Task Stage History
Team Member
Topic
Topic Assignment
User
Xplan Client

Considerations

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you build and manage rules in the Rulebook.

Performance guidelines. There is no hard maximum on the number of rules you can create for a given object, but we recommend no more than 10 rules per object and no more than 10 criteria per rule. Exceeding these thresholds can cause performance issues.

Record-based rules require at least one criterion. If a record-based rule has no criteria defined on the Record Criteria tab, it will not run. If you want a rule to apply to all records on a given object, you can use $Record.Name as the resource and Is Not Null as the operator.

Time-based rules run overnight. By default, time-based rules are evaluated at 10:00 p.m. If you wish to change this schedule, you can update the runtime in the Scheduled Jobs section of Salesforce Setup. Salesforce allows a maximum of 10,000 notifications per hour and cannot retry missed notifications. In high-volume scenarios, some notifications for time-based rules may not be delivered. Adding an email action alongside notification actions is a reliable way to ensure delivery regardless of whether this limit is reached.

Rules run regardless of how a record was created. Rules will execute on records created directly in Practifi, through a file import, or via an integration. If you do not want rules to run on records from a specific source, you can add criteria that exclude those records, inactivate the relevant rules before the import, or temporarily disable record-based execution from the Rulebook Settings in Salesforce Custom Settings.