Internal Reminder to Contact Client

This example details how to set up a Custom Process to send a reminder Task to the partner to call the client if there has been no partner contact in 90 days.

This article contains the following sections:

• Example of the Task that is Sent to the Partner
• Summary of the Custom Processes that will be Set Up
• When will the Tasks Start to be Sent?
• Step 1 - In your Practice Management Software, set up a Custom Field "Last Partner Activity"
• Step 2 - Add a Custom Process to Run a One-Off Update of the Clients' Last Partner Activity Custom Field
• Step 3 - Create a Document View to find documents created or modified by the Partner "Yesterday"
  
• Step 4 - Add the Custom Process to run Daily Update of the Clients' Last Partner Activity
  
• Step 5 - Create the Client View used to Create the Reminder Task
• Step 6 - Add a Custom Process to Create the Task Reminder
• Optional - Add a Step to Update the Last Partner Activity

Example of the Task that is Sent to the Partner

The following is an example of the Task that is sent to the partner responsible for the client.

Summary of the Custom Processes that will be Set Up

This involves setting up the following custom processes:

• "Last Activity by Partner - Update Client"
  Automatically tracks the date that your partners last interacted with their clients. Using a document view to check when the last activity was, the Automation process then updates a Custom Field "Last Partner Activity" in the client record with that date. This date is then available in FYI and, for practices integrated with Xero Practice Manager, it also syncs to Xero Practice Manager.
  
  
• "Last Partner Activity - Send Reminder"
  Using a client view, this checks the date in the "Last Partner Activity" Custom Field for each client and automatically triggers a task as a reminder when a client has not been contacted in more than 90 days.
  
  
• There is also a one-off process that needs to run initially "Last Activity by Partner - Initial Update of Client". This adds today's date to all clients so that the date can start being updated on a daily basis.

When will the Tasks Start to be Sent?

Once the daily processes are set as active, it will take 90 days to build up the history of when the Partner last contacted the client. No Tasks will be sent as reminders during this time.

Step 1 - In your Practice Management Software, or in FYI, set up a Custom Field "Last Partner Activity"

This example uses a Custom Field "Last Partner Activity" field that is set up in Xero Practice Manager. This can alternatively be set up directly in FYI by an FYI Admin (refer to Managing Custom Fields).

1. in Xero Practice Manager. go to Custom Fields.
2. Select New Custom Field.
   
   
   
   
3. When you create a new Custom Field in Xero Practice Manager, you have a choice for the Custom Field Type. This data is date related.
   Scroll down to the Date field and click Select.
   
   
4. Then follow the prompts to configure the Custom Field.

When it has synced with FYI, the "Last Partner Activity" custom field can be viewed inside your FYI client list (refer to Synchronising Clients, Staff, Jobs, Time, Tax Returns with Xero Practice Manager).

You can run a manual sync from the Clients list in FYI to make it available. Refer to Running a Manual Sync with Xero Practice Manager and Additional Notes on Syncing.

Step 2 - Add a Custom Process to Run a One-Off Update of the Clients' Last Partner Activity Custom Field

The Last Partner Activity field is initially blank for all clients. To start, you need set up a process that is run once. This adds today's date to all clients so that the date can start being updated on a daily basis.

Note: This is a one-off process.

1. Check that the "All Clients: view in the Clients list is set to display clients with the Status set to "Archive". This view will be used by this process.
2. Go to Automation - Processes.
3. Click Add Custom Process.
4. Add the Name as something that makes it easy to identify in Automation - Processes.
   In this example the Name is set as " Last Activity by Partner - Initial Update of Client"
5. If required, add any additional description of the Process in the Description.
6. Set the Trigger to “Manual”.
7. Set the Filter as "Client - View" and select the "All Clients" view.
8. Checkmark Run only once per Client.
   
   
9. Set an appropriate team member as the Owner. This user will be notified if anything goes wrong with the automation process.
   
   

Add the Step to run the Initial Update of Last Partner Activity Date for all Clients

1. Click Add Step.
2. Select FYI Actions.
3. Select Update Client.
4. Expand the Action section.
5. Select “Last Partner Activity” from the Custom Field drop-down.
   
   
6. Click Save.
   
   
7. Test the process on a single Client.
8. Check the results in the Client - Custom Fields tab for the test client. The "Last Partner Activity" date for that client should show as 'today's date'.
9. When ready, set the Status of the Process to "Active" and click Run.
10. Check the number of clients the process will run for.
11. Click Run.
12. When the process has finished, check the results in the Clients list by including the column "Last Partner Activity" and checking this is set to 'today's date' for all the active clients.
13. Once the process is run, you can delete it so that it is not accidentally run again.

Step 3 - Create a Document View to find documents created or modified by the Partner "Yesterday"

The process will use a document view to track the date of the Last Partner Activity on each of your clients. 

1. In the Documents list display the "All" view.
2. Add the follow two columns to the view:
   Modified on
   Created by
3. Apply a filter to the Modified On column using the Relative Date field functionality and set this to "Yesterday”.
   
4. Filter the Created by column to show only those team members who are “Partners” in your practice.
   
   
5. Save the view. In this example the Document view is saved as "Partner Activity" and it is saved as for Automation Only.

Note: To reflect Partner Activity, this view should show all types of documents that any of the Partners have created or modified. It would not include Tasks. If you prefer, you can fine tune this, for example, to exclude Spreadsheets, or to only check if there has been a Phone Call, File Note, Meeting record or email contact with the client.

Step 4 - Add the Custom Process to run the Daily Update of the Clients' Last Partner Activity Custom Field

1. Go to Automation - Processes.
2. Click Add Custom Process.
3. Add the Name. In this example the Name is set as "Last Activity by Partner - Update Client".
4. If required, add any additional description of the Process in the Description.
5. The Trigger is set to “Schedule”.
6. Then specify how frequently you want the ‘Last Partner Activity’ field updated after a partner interaction is recorded in FYI. This is set to run every day (Every 1 Day).
7. Set the Filter as "Document - View", select the view that was created, in this example, the view was saved as "Partner Activity".
8. Make sure that Run only once per document is not selected. This ensures that if there is partner activity on an existing document this will be recorded as the latest activity. For example, if a Phone Call was created and then edited by the partner in a week's time (due to making another call) the "Last Partner Activity" date is based on that last change.
   
   
   
   
9. As no documents are created by the process, set Inherit Job as uncheckmarked,
10. Set an appropriate team member as the Owner.
    
    

Add the Step to Update the Client

1. Click Add Step.
2. Select FYI Actions.
3. Select Update Client.
4. Expand the Action section.
5. Select “Last Partner Activity” from the custom field drop-down.
   
   

Set the Status of the Process to "Active"

When you are ready, set the Status of the process to "Active".

Important Note: Be careful when setting an automation to "Active". Ensure you have tested it first. Refer to Testing Custom Processes.

This Custom Process will now run automatically every day and update the "Last Partner Activity" custom field for clients so that you can track this in FYI. For practices integrated with Xero Practice Manager, this can also be tracked directly inside of Xero Practice Manager.

Step 5 - Create the Client View used to Create the Reminder Task

The process uses a Client view to check which clients have had no activity from the Partner in the last 90 days.

1. In the Client list display the All view.
2. Add the follow two columns to the view:
   Last Partner Activity
3. Apply a filter to the Last Partner Activity column using the Relative Date functionality and setting this as "Older Than 90 Day".
   
   
   
   
4. Save the view. In this example the view is saved as "Partner Activity > 90 Days"

The Clients view would look similar to the following.

Step 6 - Add a Custom Process to Create the Task Reminder

1. Go to Automation - Processes.
2. Click Add Custom Process.
3. Add the Name as something that makes it easy to identify in Automation - Processes.
   In this example the Name is set as "Last Partner Activity - Send Reminder".
4. If required, add any additional description of the Process in the Description.
5. The Trigger is set to “Schedule” and set as "Every 1 Day".
   This will run after midnight every day.
6. Set the Filter as "Client - View", select the view that was created. In this example, the view is saved as "Partner Activity > 90 Days"
7. Make sure that Run only once per document as unchecked.
   The process is set up to send a Task when the Last Partner Activity date is more than 90 days. Once sent, if the partner contacts the client, and then in another 90 days if no further contact is made, this needs to send a task again. So it needs to be set without Run only once per document.
   
8. Set an appropriate team member as the Owner.
   
   

Add the first Step to Delay the Process 1 Hour

Both the processes are scheduled to run at the same time every day. So, this process needs to include a Delay step to delay it by 1 hour. This ensures the "Last Activity by Partner - Update Client" has updated the client with the latest activity date.

1. Click Add Step.
2. Select FYI Actions.
3. Select Delay.
4. Set the Delay as "1 Hour".
   
   

Add the Step to Create the Task

1. Click Add Step.
2. Select FYI Actions.
3. Select Create Task.
4. Expand the Task section.
5. Add the Task details as in the screenshot below.
   
   

Set the Status of the Process to "Active"

When you are ready, set the Status of the process to "Active".

Important Note: Be careful when setting an automation to "Active". Ensure you have tested it first. Refer to Testing Custom Processes.

Optional - Add a Step to Update the Last Partner Activity

When the Task is sent, the Filter in the process is set to not "Run only once per document". Therefore, this sends a new Task every day until the relevant Partner contacts the client (adds a document for the client). 

If you want to avoid generating a task every day, you can add a second step to the "Last Partner Activity - Send Reminder" process to update the "Last Partner Activity" date on the client. Once the task has been created, this second step effectively sets the Task being created as an activity for the client and this will only update clients who have not had partner contact for more than 90 days.

The Update Client step is added in the same way as Step 2 and Step 4 above.

Important Note: If you include this step, you cannot reset the "Last Partner Activity" date.
To ensure this date reflects only partner activity, omit this step.