This is a great question, and you’re absolutely right to weigh the pros and cons of activity templates versus workflows, especially in the context of a small office. Let’s break it down: Activity Templates in Small Offices: - What You’re Doing Now: Using an activity template with all the steps listed in the description is a solid approach for small teams. It keeps everything in one place and is easy to manage when there’s less handoff between team members. - Benefits: Simple and quick to set up. Keeps your process centralized in one task. Works well when one person is responsible for completing most or all of the steps. - Potential Drawbacks: No built-in accountability or tracking for individual steps. It’s easy to check off the task without completing every bullet point. Limited visibility into where things stand if multiple people are involved, even occasionally. Workflows in Small Offices: - Why Consider Them?: While workflows are often associated with larger teams, they can still bring value to small offices, especially if you’re looking to: Standardize processes for consistency. Track progress on multi-step tasks. Build in accountability, even if it’s just for yourself or one other team member. - Benefits: Accountability: Each step is assigned to a specific person, and you can track whether it’s been completed. Even in a small office, this can help ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Visibility: You can see exactly where a process stands at any given time. This is especially helpful if you’re juggling multiple client requests. Scalability: If your team grows or you bring on new hires, workflows provide a built-in training tool. They guide new team members through your processes without requiring constant oversight. - Potential Drawbacks: More time-intensive to set up initially. Can feel like overkill if your processes are truly simple and rarely involve more than one person. Key Considerations for Your Office: 1. How Often Do You Collaborate on Tasks? If most tasks are handled by one person from start to finish, activity templates might be sufficient. But if there’s even occasional handoff (e.g., one person takes the call, another processes the request), workflows can help ensure smooth transitions. 2. Do You Need to Track Progress? Workflows shine when you need to see where things stand at a glance. If you’re managing multiple client requests or complex processes, this can be a game-changer. 3. Are You Planning for Growth? Even if your office is small now, workflows can future-proof your processes. They’re especially helpful if you anticipate hiring or want to make onboarding new team members easier.

@Sara Stuart You are very welcome!

Hi @Russ Thornton While both Calendly and GReminders will improve the scheduling process, I do still recommend GReminders over Calendly simply based upon the integration itself. If your goal is to build up your contact history (which should be within your CRM), cutting down on as many manual entries as possible should be ideal. GReminders can create a new contact, so when an introductory meeting is scheduled that is one less step in the equation. When reminders themselves are sent out you can track the history by just going to the contact record itself and reviewing the notes. Lastly with the Wealthbox integration, you can connect an event with a workflow to ensure your process is consistent. While I admit building out specific meeting events is easier in Calendly on the surface, GReminders isn’t that much trickier if you know what you are wanting to build. If you are going in with no plan, it can feel stressful. If you have a team that will be using the system, build the events on a template level; similarly, build out the reminders for team-wide usage as well. Just a few tips that I follow. This is a firm usage of build once, use many situations. GReminders’ reminders themselves can be extremely customizable as they use liquid coding. While this isn’t in everyone’s skillset, it is something that is an option, should you wish to pursue it. There are default options though that will get you going so don’t feel obligated to pick up this skill. Both GReminders and Calendly directly integrate with Outlook and Google so unless you use something different, this should be quick to set up for both. While Calendly provides a user-friendly interface and strong general scheduling features, it doesn't cater specifically to financial advisors or integrate directly with Wealthbox, making GReminders the better fit for advisors looking for seamless CRM connectivity and client engagement tools. I do agree with a few other users that it’s not perfect, but the team is open to improvements. They are constantly trying to improve the client experience by looking at the problems that financial advisors face.

Hi Eva! I know I've said it before and I'll stand by it, I am never a fan of deleting things from the CRM. So: The Household still exists just the contacts within them should have the Contact Type of Deceased and I'd update the Household to Inactive. If you have been entering notes on the household level and you delete that household then you've just lost all that history which isn't ideal. If there is still a living spouse then there most likely will still be activity within the household. Now if both the head and spouse are deceased, the only remaining activities should be what you are wrapping up in terms of a client death checklist. Accounts will of course be another matter as ownership will have to change and that would then go to whomever it's transitioning to. I personally still leave deceased contacts in the household. The only time it can get tricky is if someone remarries. At that point you'd want to move the deceased contact to the related contacts field to avoid any confusion on spouses.