Use Action Plans to Track Progress
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Create an action plan from an action plan template.
- Explain how tasks and dependent tasks are created in an action plan.
- Identify the tools available to track and report on action plan progress.
Put Action Plans Into Action
You create individual action plans on a record page of the action plan template’s target object.
In this badge’s scenario, you create an action plan for an account by using the Action Plan List page component.
When you create an action plan from an action plan template, you must specify a name, start date, action plan template, target record, and status for the action plan. Optionally, you can select to skip nonwork days when scheduling due dates for an action plan’s tasks.
When you create an action plan, the system automatically creates the action plan template’s non-dependent tasks and assigns them to the users specified in the template. Dependent tasks are only created when their prerequisites are complete.
Users can track their assigned tasks through standard task lists in Salesforce, on the Activity Timeline of the target record, and in action plans.
To see the status of an overall action plan, use the Action Plans List page component or a related list. You can also follow progress through reports and dashboards.
Now that you understand the basics, you’re ready to see an action plan at work. In this unit, you create an action plan from the template you configured and use its tasks and document checklist item.
Create an Action Plan
To start, create an action plan from an action plan template. Your action plan template uses Account as its target object, so you create the action plan on an account record.
- From the App Launcher, find and select Accounts.
- Select the Recently Viewed list view, then select All Accounts.
- Select the Cloud Kicks account.
- On the Actions Plans tab, select New Plan on the Action Plans list.
- Specify these details.
- Name:
Cloud Kicks Annual Account Review - Start Date: Today’s date
- Action Plan Template: Annual Customer Check-In
- Status: Not Started, the default
- Select Skip Nonwork Days
- Name:
- Select Next.
- Save your work.
You’re now on your action plan record. Notice that the tasks and document checklist items you configured are listed here in a new instance specifically for this action plan and account.
The system created only your first task, however, and you can select it from the list. The other tasks are in Waiting status, because they’re dependent on other tasks. The system creates and assigns those tasks when their prerequisite task is complete.
Also, check the due date for that first task. While you set the Days value for the Review customer metrics task to 5 days you selected Skip Nonprofit Days when you created this action plan. That means if you’re completing this unit on a weekday, the due date will be the same day next week because the system skipped the weekend.
Now that you have your action plan, it’s time to get to work.
Manage an Action Plan
Imagine that you’ve completed the first task in the action plan and you’re ready to mark it complete. You can manage this task from several different places, but because you’re on the action plan page, close it from there.
- Select the Review customer metrics from the past 12 months task in the Tasks list.
- On the task, select Mark Complete.
When you mark the task as complete, the system creates the next task. Let’s check that next task in the context of the record and mark it completed there.
- To return to the account record, in the Related To field on the task page, select Cloud Kicks.
- Find the activity timeline on the account. Under Upcoming & Overdue, notice that the next task—Present annual report and new agreement to customer stakeholders—is created and assigned to you, the action plan creator.
- To mark the Present annual report and new agreement to customer stakeholders task as complete, select its checkbox.
- Reload the page.
Because you marked the second task complete, the final task—Upload new signed customer agreement—appears in the activity timeline.
You aren’t ready to close this task, though, because closing this task marks the entire action plan complete. First, attach the signed document to the document checklist item. Your special developer edition org already includes the file that you need.
- On Cloud Kicks’s account page, in the Action Plans list, select the Cloud Kicks Annual Account Review action plan.
- Select the Signed customer agreement document checklist item.
- On the document checklist item, select the Related tab.
- In the Files related list, select Upload File.
- In the Select Files window, select CloudKicksAnnualAgreement and select Add.
- Select the Details tab and update the Status of the document checklist item to Accepted.
- Save your work.
Good job. Now, it’s time to close your last task and, by doing so, automatically mark the status of the action plan as complete.
- From global search, find and select the Cloud Kicks account.
- In the activity timeline, mark Upload new signed customer agreement complete by selecting its checkbox.
- In the Action Plans list, select the Cloud Kicks Annual Account Review action plan.
- Notice that the status of the action plan is Completed.
Your work here’s done, you’ve completed a basic action plan by working through its tasks and document checklist items.
Wrap Up
In this badge, you learned the basics of Action Plans, starting with the differences between action plan templates and action plans, plus the use cases for different industries.
Your hands-on experience with action plan templates, action plans, tasks, and document checklist items give you a foundation to implement and adopt this feature for your organization.
For details about how your industry uses Action Plans, check out Action Plans and your product’s documentation in Salesforce Help. Happy planning!