The client directory, what a client record holds, and grouping people into a client group.
Clients is your firm's directory: every person and client group you collect documents from. Each client has one page with everything they have been sent and everything they have sent back.
In the sidebar, open Clients. Type in the search box to filter by name, email or number. The tabs across the top, starting with Everyone, show only prospects, clients or former clients, with a count on each.
Each row shows how many submissions the client has sent and, under Last activity, the last time anything passed between you, whether you wrote to them or they replied. A client's own page says when you last heard from them: the last time they opened a link, sent something back or wrote to you. Until they have, it reads Not yet. A badge such as 2 outstanding means requests are still open.
Open Filters and tick Active in the last 12 months to see only the clients you sent a request to, or who sent you something, in the last year. These are the clients your plan counts. See Plans.
Under Filters, Tag shows only the clients carrying one of your firm's tags. See Tags.
You don't have to add anyone before you send them a form. A client appears here the first time you send them one. To add someone ahead of time:
Nothing is sent to them until you send a form. To bring in a whole list, households included, see Importing clients.
The tabs on a client's page are Overview, Profile, Requests, Messages, Documents, Signatures and Scheduled. Documents opens with the client's vault, the documents you keep for them until you remove them, and below it From requests and sends; see Client vaults. There's also Activity, the audit log for this client, for people who can see the audit log. The page opens on Overview: what is live for them now, under Needs you, Waiting on them and Lined up, each leading to the request or send it names. Below them, for people who can see the audit log, Recent activity lists the last few things that happened, and See all opens Activity. For a member of a client group, the profile is kept on the client group's page, and the Profile tab links to it. A third party keeps a profile of their own on their page. Which details a profile keeps is up to your firm; see Client details. Each detail on file has a copy icon beside it, for pasting it into another system.
From the top of the page you can Send a form, which opens the send dialog with this client filled in once one of your forms is accepting submissions, and Send files. More holds Correct details and, if you have permission, Export record.
Open More and choose Correct details to fix a name, email address or cell phone number. The same dialog sets their Annual review month, which scheduled sends can use, and who the client is Assigned to. You can also change Assigned to straight from the card beside their details, where it shows who looks after them, or Nobody.
Requests your client has finished keep the name and address they went out with. Those requests record what was asked on the day.
Requests they have not answered yet can follow the correction. When the client has any, the dialog offers to send them, and their reminders, to the new email or cell number, and starts ticked. Untick it to leave those requests going where they were sent. Each request that moves records the old and new address in its own history.
Under Accounts on a client's profile, the firm keeps the accounts it knows of: where each is held, its last four digits, its type, whose name it's in, and its latest value. When there's more than one open account, the list totals them.
To add one, click Add an account, fill in Where it is held and the Last four digits, and click Add account. Those two identify the account and can't be changed afterward. To update the rest, click Edit beside it. Switch on Closed for an account the client no longer has. It stays on file, but the next request doesn't ask about it.
Every change is kept, with who made it and when. Accounts a client reports in a reply arrive for you to accept when you review it. Anyone in your workspace can add or edit an account.
A client group is the people you serve as one client: a couple, a family, the people behind a trust, or a business and the people who run it. A family is marked Household, and a company with the people who answer for it is marked Business. However many people it has, it is one client.
It holds two kinds of people:
Each person also has What they are: Co-client, Trustee, Owner, Member, CPA, Attorney, or any words you type. Only a co-client is taken for the primary's spouse or partner. When you send a form that names roles, each role is filled with whoever in the client's group holds it, so their CPA fills a CPA role and their trustees a Trustee role. You can change or clear any of them before you send. See Several people on one request.
To group someone:
Under Client groups, each client group lists everyone in it with their role, the primary first. Click the pencil beside one to open this person's place in it. Choose Where they stand (the primary, a member, or a third party) and What they are, and click Save, or click Remove from client group. To rename a client group or change its type, click its name to open its own page, then click Name and type.
A client group always has one primary. Making someone else the primary turns the current one into a co-client. When the primary is removed or steps down, the role passes to the co-client who has been in the client group longest, or to another member when there is no co-client, and you are told who before you confirm. It never passes to a third party: a client group with nobody of the client's own left in it closes.
On a client group's own page, the pencil beside each person opens the same dialog, to change their role or remove them. Removing someone asks you to confirm first, and says what happens to the client group when they go. Click Add a member to add one of the client's own, or Add a third party to add a professional they bring in. To add someone you already have, choose Already on your list and start typing their name, email or phone number, then pick them from the matches. Choose Somebody new to type a person who isn't in your contacts yet. Removing the last person from a client group closes it, and its accounts, profile details and requests move with that person to a record of their own. They never go into another client group that person is part of, so a business's accounts don't end up in the owner's household. Its Documents tab opens with the vault, the documents you keep for the client group, and the pencil beside each person also sets what they can do with the vault. See Client vaults. That page also sets the client group's stage: Prospect, Client or Former client. Marking a prospect a client can set off an automation.
When you import a spreadsheet with a company column, people who share a company are filed under one business and flagged Check who belongs. Open the business and make sure everyone belongs to that client, not just to the same employer. Then click Looks right.
At the bottom of the Profile tab on a client's page, you can permanently erase them if your role lets you delete what clients sent. Erasing removes their documents, answers, requests and contact details, and every PDF you filled for a client group they're in. If one of those client groups includes someone else, the dialog lists the PDFs filled for it first, so you can fill a new copy for them before you erase. If they're the last of the client in a client group, that client group's vault goes too, with every file in it, including ones your firm added: the dialog names each vault and how many files it holds, so you can download what you still need first. If they signed something alongside someone else, such as a spouse's agreement, their signature stays on that person's signed copy, since it shows the document was signed. Accounts recorded for a client group they share with someone else stay with that client group, without their name, since they're part of the other person's record too. So do copies of their documents you kept in that client group's vault, until you remove them. If they sent their part of someone else's request, such as a spouse's, it stays with that request, answers and documents included, since it's part of that client's record. A part they hadn't sent yet is thrown away, and waits for you to choose someone else, as it does when someone says the link isn't theirs. If their records are still inside your retention window, only the workspace owner can erase them. A client with many documents can take a minute to erase. You go back to your client list straight away, and it tells you when they've been erased.
Erasing can't be undone. A whole-workspace export prepared before you erase is deleted too, because it holds the client's documents. Your audit log keeps the entries it already has, because nobody can alter it. If the records might be ones you're required to keep, check with your compliance officer first. See Retention.
Every member can add clients, correct details and manage client groups. Exporting a record and erasing a client are for owners, admins and any custom role your firm has given those permissions.
Still stuck? Write to hello@cartenda.com and a person will answer.