Most simply, Action Plans are reusable checklists that can be used for onboarding, training, or on projects that need organized tasks. But they're much more than that.

Action Plans allow users to do things "where they are." They create accountability and tracking for your training and projects. No more the days of "did you do that?" "Did you do it the right way?"

Each Action Plan consists of tasks organized in different levels. The top level are called phases. Each phase consists of one or more sections that contain the actual tasks.

Action Plans can be used one-off, or repeatedly used many times. Action Plan Templates let you reuse an Action Plan as many times as needed.

This organization system gives you what you need to create flexible Action Plans that can be used for many different use cases. Let's take a look at the most common ones.

Use Action Plans to organize and simplify intake, training, and projects for your services business.

Action Plans take internal onboarding to the next level by letting you craft in-app experiences. Let your users walk around the software and processes that they're learning, rather than just reading or watching videos.

Create an Action Plan Template for each department or role, and then assign it to new employees as they go through onboarding.

You can also use Action Plans to roll out new technology—or changes to your processes—by creating an Action Plan Template and assigning it to each user.

Action Plans can be used to streamline any activity that needs to be repeated—especially if it should be done consistently.

Use an Action Plan Template to hold the standard process that you want followed, and then customize it for the specific project being done.

Action Plans live inside of bases, just like cards, guides, and folders. So in order to create one, you'll go into the base:

Once your Action Plan (or template) is created, you can configure all of the phases, sections, and tasks.

Phases are the top-level organizational structure for Action Plans. Each phase consists of a title and an optional content block.

Each phase displays the completion information of its tasks. So you can quickly tell if a phase is complete, or how much is left.

When an Action Plan is displayed, the first incomplete phase will be shown to the user.

Sections go inside of phases. Each section consists of a title and an optional content block.

Each section displays the completion information of its tasks.

Tasks are what people work on. They consist of the following things:

You have flexibility on how to structure your tasks. Generally speaking, it's good to make the tasks simple. Use several small tasks instead of one large task that includes many things.

There are two types of Action Plans: instances and templates. If you want to reuse your Action Plan, then you want a template.

An Action Plan Template is mostly identical to an Action Plan, except some of the options are different at the task level.

Use Action Plan Templates if you are doing partner to client delivery. Create the template in your partner account and then assign the action plan to your client (via managed account.)

Packages should not be used for the partner to client delivery use case.

Action Plans are assigned to users using the "Assignments" button at the top right. You can assign to users on your team or on client teams (via managed accounts).

When an Action Plan is assigned to a user, it appears at the top of their tasks page, and they will receive a notification that they've been assigned the plan.

There are different roles available when you assign a user to an Action Plan. These roles are for organization purposes currently, and features will be added that make use of these roles.

Action Plan Templates are assigned to users using the "Assigned" button at the top right. You can assign to users on your team or on client teams (via managed accounts).

When you assign a template to a user, a new Action Plan instance will be created for them. It is identical to the template, with fields like "due date" will be filled out based on the corresponding template properties.

If you assign an Action Plan Template to a single user, all tasks will be assigned to that user. Otherwise, the tasks are not assigned.

Important: If a template is updated, the instances underneath it are not updated.

Clicking the "Assigned" button on a template will take you to the template reporting page.

This page shows all of the action plan assignments and information about their status

Here are the fields being reported:

Permission Required: "Manage All Action Plans"

Access the "Tasks Reporting" dashboard to view information about all action plans across your entire team.

This view shows you all action plans, and groups them by template. You can filter by users or managed accounts to see the progress of an individual user.

Users are notified about action plans at specific times:

Individual tasks are not notified, as that would result in an overwhelming number of notifications.

A core goal of Action Plans is to keep users in the platforms that they use and are training on.

Action Plans work in Sidekick to ensure that users stay on-platform the whole time.

The admin role comes with "Manage All Action Plans", and regular users come with "Manage Owned".