What Is an Action?

Actions are an extremely powerful and flexible component of AdvisorEngine CRM to help you track everything you’ve done. The short definition of an Action would be “Anything you do on, or behalf of a Record.” As such, every Action belongs to one, and only one, Record. Actions can take the form of tasks, activities performed, or anything else that you’d like to log related to a Record. Actions may be chained together into Workflows to show related and dependent steps and linked to a number of other CRM components to show relationships with emails, documents, accounts, opportunities, appointments, and the like.

An example of a standalone Action would be logging a client call that does not require any follow-up. The Action would contain a log of as much detail as you’d like to capture for future reference, such as the content of the conversation, who spoke to whom, for how long, and on what date. This information could easily be retrieved later to see what the last conversation you had with a client was about, when it was, or even pull a list of how many phone touches you had with an individual over a set time.

A full Workflow (a collection of all Actions in a sequence) might involve logging a call in the first Action and then a follow-up Action assigned to a CSR to have account documents mailed that the client requested. It can even be as complex as all the Actions needed to onboard a new client.

Effectively using Actions can help your firm keep track of steps in a process, help you document and track notes and information that may be useful in an audit, or they can simply serve as a to-do list of tasks.

What is a Workflow?

As implied above, Actions do not need to stand alone but can be chained together through parent, child, and sibling relationships to show the entire flow of a process from start to finish through all the necessary Actions. The term for the collection of Actions that make up a complete process is Workflow. This can be a single Action, a series of Actions chained together on the fly, or a pre-defined string of Actions created by utilizing Workflow Templates.

Viewing Actions

Since Actions accomplish a number of purposes in AE CRM, there are also a number of ways to view Actions. Becoming familiar with the viewing options will allow you to tailor your experience to best suit the needs of your role. Most standard Action views are reached through the left-side site navigation bar.

Actions Workspace: My Pending Actions

From the Site Navigation bar, select Actions > My Pending Actions or simply Actions from the main list to access a pre-filtered Grid of all Actions assigned to you that are considered Incomplete (including Past Due) status.

Actions Workspace: My Past Due and Due Today Actions

From the Site Navigation bar, select Actions > My Past Due and Due Today Actions to access a pre-filtered Grid of all Actions assigned to you that are either due on the current date or have entered Past Due status.

Actions Workspace: All Actions

The broadest way to view Actions is from the Actions Workspace Grid. From the Site Navigation bar, select Actions > All Actions to bring up an unfiltered Grid of all Actions in your database. From this Grid, you can use standard Grid Features and Searches to customize your view of the Actions to whatever suits your needs. Clicking an Action from this or any other Actions Grid will open the Action in Action Summary view.

Actions Workspace: Last 20 Actions

From the Site Navigation bar, select Actions > Last 20 Actions to access a pre-filtered Grid showing the last 20 Actions you opened for editing. (Merely viewing the Action through Action Summary view will not cause it to appear in this list.)

Jump List: 20 Actions

From the Site Navigation bar, hover your cursor over or click on the 20 Actions button to show a pop-out list of the last 20 Actions you opened for editing. (Merely viewing the Action through Action Summary view will not cause it to appear in this list.) Selecting an Action from this list will open the Action in Action Summary view.

Record Detail: Actions

From within the Record Detail view of any Record use the Record Navigation bar to navigate to Workflows > Record Actions to view a Grid of all Actions belonging to the Record.

Action Overview View

Clicking an Action from any of the Grids will open the Action in Action Overview view. This allows you to view all existing information related to the Action, including related Actions and other linked items. This is also the area used to work with the Action, making edits, adding related Actions, adding new linked items. For full details on everything that can be done from this view, see Action Overview View.

Working with Actions

See the following related help topics for more information on using Actions.

• Action Overview View: The primary location for viewing Action details and making changes.
• Action Fields Overview: See what fields are available in an Action and their intended function.
• Adding New Actions: Options for entering new Actions into your database.
• Editing Actions: Process and tools available for making changes to Actions.
• Completing Actions: Options for marking Actions as completed.
• Working with Multi-Step Actions (Workflows): See how to handle Action sequences with more than one related step.
• Action/FYI Alerts Overview: An overview of how Action and FYI Alerts function and how to manage them.
• Linking Items to Actions: See how to link other AE CRM items such as email, documents, calendar, assets, opportunities, and more to an Action.
• Printing Actions and Workflows: Print a single Action or all related Actions in a Workflow for hard-copy reference.

Advanced Action Functions

Effective use of Actions will form a cornerstone for getting the most out of AE CRM. When you’re ready to take it one step further and really make yourself a CRM powerhouse, take a look at the following advanced Action functions that you are able to take advantage of:

• Workflow Templates: Pre-build your Actions as templates that you can use over and over. Keep repeated processes consistent by using the same steps each time with the same prompts for information in pre-filled Action Notes, Tags, Types and any other Action field. Build them as single steps for basic tasks or multi-step for complex firm processes. Save the effort of redoing work each time and keep your processes consistent for all clients and employees.
• Recurring Action Definitions: Need to do something for a client over and over again on a regular date? Need a yearly, monthly, or weekly reminder to perform a task? Recurring Action Definitions allow you to trigger a set workflow at the interval you choose, automating your processes even further.
• Client Service Monitor: Group your clients into Service Levels that all receive the same service standards at each level. Assign Services to each level that are performed for each client at the intervals you specify. Keep track of the last time you performed each Service for each Record. If the Service hasn’t been fulfilled in time, trigger an Action reminder from a Workflow you specify. Let AE CRM help you stay on top of those client-service interactions and don’t let anyone fall through the cracks again.