Configure Action Plans

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Create an action plan template.
• Add a new task to the action plan template.
• Launch a new action plan from an existing action plan template.
• Add dependent tasks to an action plan.
• Create an action plan.

In this module, we assume you’re a Salesforce admin or user who’s authorized to set up Action Plans. If you’re not, that’s OK. Read along to learn how your admin would take the steps in a production org. Don’t try to follow these steps in your Trailhead Playground. The Action Plans feature isn’t available in the Trailhead Playground.

Create an Action Plan Template

Wealth manager Ryan is excited about trying out the new Action Plans feature. First, he creates an action plan template to capture the repeatable tasks involved in financial plan review meetings. This will enable him and other wealth managers at Cumulus to easily automate task sequences in an action plan.

Here’s how Ryan creates the action plan template.

1. Click and select Wealth Management.
2. Select the Action Plan Templates tab from the navigation bar.
3. Click New.
4. In the New Action Plan Template window, provide the following details.
   1. Name: Quarterly Plan Review 2021
   2. Target Object: Account
5. Click Save.

The Quarterly Plan Review 2021 action plan template is created successfully. Ryan is going to use this template to create an action plan for his quarterly plan review with Rachel (covered later in the unit). But before he does that, he must add the tasks to the template that are part of the review process.

Add a New Task to an Action Plan Template

Ryan adds the first task in the sequence: schedule meeting with the client.

1. Click and select Wealth Management.
2. Select the Action Plan Templates tab from the navigation bar.
3. Open the Quarterly Plan Review 2021 template.
4. Click New Task.
5. In the New Task window, provide the following information.
   1. Subject: Schedule Meeting with Client.
   2. Priority: Normal.
   3. Days: 1
      This value specifies the number of days available to complete a task beginning from the start date of an action plan.
   4. Select Required.
      This ensures that this task gets completed before the team moves on to the next one.
   5. Select Role and then Client Associate.
      When Ryan creates an action plan, the task is automatically assigned to Srilakshmi.
   6. Select Send a reminder to the task assignee on the due date at and select the time at 8:30 AM.
      This ensures that Srilakshmi doesn’t miss scheduling the meeting. 
6. Click Save.

Add Dependent Tasks to Action Plans

The action plan template is starting to shape up. Ryan decides to add more tasks, but he wants to ensure that all these tasks are completed in order for compliance and consistency. This is where Task Dependencies can help. Using this nifty feature, Ryan can define tasks as prerequisites and they must be completed before successor tasks can be started. 

For the quarterly plan review meeting, we’ve already discussed the tasks in unit 1. But let’s recap, this time in sequence and with prerequisite tasks.

Ryan has already created the first task and added it as a dependent task to the Quarterly Plan Review template. Here’s how he adds a second dependent task.

1. Click and select Wealth Management.
2. Select the Action Plan Templates tab from the navigation bar.
3. Open the Quarterly Plan Review 2021 template.
4. Click New Task.
5. In the New Task window, provide the following information.
   1. Subject: Create Account Performance Report
   2. Priority: Normal
   3. Days: 1
   4. This task is a prerequisite to review the report. Select Required.
   5. Prerequisites Tasks: Ryan wants Srilakshmi to work on the performance report only after she’s completed the parent task. In the Tasks Dependencies section, select Schedule meeting with client and use  to move the task to the Selected Tasks box.
   6. Assigned To: Select Role and then Client Associate.
      Just like the parent task, Action Plans resolves this role to Srilakshmi when Ryan creates an action plan.
   7. Reminder: Select Send a reminder to the task assignee on the due date at and select the time at 8:30 AM.
      This ensures that Srilakshmi doesn’t miss scheduling the meeting. 
6. Click Save. The Quarterly Plan Review 2021 template page shows both parent and dependent tasks under the Items tab.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add the third task, Review Account Performance Report, with the Create Account Performance Report task as a prerequisite.
8. Click Publish Template.

Create an Action Plan

Ryan now sets the Quarterly Plan Review 2021 action plan into motion for his client Rachel. Here’s what he does.

1. Click and select Wealth Management.
2. Click the Accounts tab and select Rachel’s account.
3. In the Action Plans component, click New Plan.
4. In the New Action Plan window, provide the following details.
   1. Name:Quarterly Review with Rachel 2021
   2. Start Date: Specify the date when the action plan starts.
   3. Action Plan Template: Quarterly Plan Review 2021
   4. Status: In Progress
   5. Select Skip Nonwork Days for Tasks.
      This tells Action Plans to avoid nonworking hours, company holidays, and other nonworking days for deadline calculation.
5. Click Next.
6. The preview page shows a summary of the new action plan with details of all the tasks, including deadlines and how different roles are resolved to users.
   Click Save.

Action Plans automatically assigns all the tasks in the action plan to their respective owners. These tasks also show up on Rachel’s activity timeline. 

Task owners like Ryan and Srilakshmi can view these tasks in their Task cards on their home pages.

What's Next

With Action Plans in their org, Ryan’s team is back to running the Wealth Management division like a well-oiled machine. But wait, there's more: follow along in the upcoming units to understand how cloning templates can make Ryan's life easier and how he can seamlessly scale the org by distributing the templates to partner communities. On your mark, get set, go!

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Considerations for Creating Action Plan Templates
• Salesforce Help: Considerations for Creating Action Plans
• Salesforce Help: Considerations for Executing Action Plans
• Salesforce Help: Add Task Dependencies to Action Plans