Activity Plans provide structure and automation to your organization's planning and scheduling process.
Prior to the AdvoLogix Spring 2018 release Activity Plans were referred to as Action Plans.
Example illustration of a simple business process for a new engagement
How do APs provide structure for scheduling?
APs represent a series of activities grouped by a common timeline objective. This allows for the management of a group of interconnected activities that move forward independently of (and/or in unison with) each other.
How do APs provide scheduling automation?
APs provide many productivity enhancements, the single most important being the ability to control multiple activities as a single entity. APs can be assigned to a matter automatically, via the visual process builder or flow, or through other means, such as a logic trigger. To this end, features such as activity plan templates (APT) allow the reuse of previously created APs without the need to recreate the same process.
What is an activity plan template (APT)?
An APT expedites the process of creating a new AP. The templates are pre-configured APs containing all the details required to implement an AP. Simply apply a template to a matter, and a new AP is deployed with everything scheduled and assigned as per the template. The matter's new AP may be left as-is or edited to reflect a unique schedule for the given AP.
These templates help provide a framework for implementing best practices and reusable standards within your organization.
Example illustration of a business process converted into an AP
How do I display AP or APT names from activity reports?
This is applicable to AdvoLogix Matter Management v1.136 onwards only.
All activities (events and tasks) generated from an AP now include a direct lookup relationship field (Activity Plan Task) pointing to the source AP Task custom object. Having this relationship now empowers your system administrator with the ability to build custom formulas to pull related AP or APT information very easily.
How do I migrate existing activities to use the new reportable AP Task field?
This is applicable to AdvoLogix Matter Management v1.136 onwards only.
Prior to version 1.136, all activities generated as part of an AP were populated with the custom field advpm__TaskTemplateId__c. This meant that the user was unable to see the AP name in a report; only a View link was displayed. Going forward, all activities generated as part of an AP will be populated with the new custom field (advpm__Activity_Plan_Task__c). This will allow users to see the AP/APT name on a report.
With this change in mind, the old field (advpm__TaskTemplateId__c) is deemed unnecessary and thus can be deleted from your organization.
Before deleting the old field (advpm__TaskTemplateId__c), verify the data value is copied into the new field (advpm__Activity_Plan_Task__c); otherwise, your existing activities will lose association with the parent AP.
How do I enable Activity Plans for more objects?
This is applicable to AdvoLogix Matter Management v1.149 onwards only.
Step 1: Create a Relevant Lookup Field on the Activity Plan Object
Prior to version 1.149, APs could be created only for accounts, contacts, or matters. AdvoLogix has now allowed APs to be created for any object that is enabled for activities. However, to enable this function, your system administrator must first create a lookup field referencing the object needed to support APs on the AP object (advpm__ActionPlan__c).
For example, to be able to create APs for a custom object named Object_A__c within your organization, you must first create a lookup field for Object_A__c on the advpm__ActionPlan__c object.
Step 2: Create an Activity Plan Button on the Object
To be able to create an AP from the record detail page of the custom object, your system administrator must create a custom button for the detail page on that object.
- Go to Salesforce Setup | Object Manager.
- Search for your object in the search box, and open the object's detail view.
- Select Buttons, Links, and Actions from the sidebar.
- Click New Button or Link and enter the following information:
- Label - Create an Activity Plan.
- Name - Will be auto-populated.
- Display Type - Detail Page Button.
- Behavior - Display in existing window without sidebar or header.
- Content Source - URL
{!URLFOR($Site.Prefix+'/apex/advpm__ActionPlanSelect', null, [refId=Object_A__c.Id,refType='Object_A__c',retURL=Object_A__c.Id], false)}
** Replace Object_A__c with the actual API Name of your object, which you would like to enable for AP.