Every approved client moves through five pipeline stages. The Today's Focus list on Participants uses that position, plus how recently you have been in contact, to surface who is worth looking at first.
The five stages
Not Started — approved, has not yet begun the assessment.
In Assessment — has started and not finished.
Completed — finished the assessment. Results are ready to read.
In Planning — you have opened NexPlanner with this person.
Active Plan — a plan exists and is in use.
A person only moves forward through these stages; nothing here can be set by hand.
What Today's Focus surfaces
Today's Focus is not the whole pipeline — it is the subset that needs a decision from you, ranked by how urgent that decision is:
- Awaiting review — one or more tasks need your attention.
- First contact window — completed the assessment less than 72 hours ago. This is when a conversation lands best; it grows less useful with delay.
- Completed but never contacted — finished, and nobody has followed up.
- No contact in N days — was active, has gone quiet.
- In assessment for N days — started and has stalled partway through.
An empty Today's Focus is a genuinely good sign. It means nobody in your roster is waiting on you right now.
Reading the pipeline stage badge
Each row in Participants carries a coloured badge for its stage — grey for Not Started, blue for In Assessment, green for Completed, violet for In Planning, emerald for Active Plan. The colour is a quick scan aid; the label is the fact.
What this does not track
The pipeline describes where someone is with you. It says nothing about their pending/active/archived membership status, which is a separate question answered in Approving clients.
Related
- Approving people, and what it costs — moving someone from pending to active
- Your Counseling Desk — where you go once they are active