Where do I find What matters?
Advisors open What matters from a client's sidebar, between Profile and Documents in Client information. Press G, then M while working in a client file to open the same page, or search for What matters in the command bar.
What matters brings a household's financial objective, values, big-picture goals, and concerns together with the changes and tasks that support them. The Financial Objective previously found under Profile → Household now lives here.
The What matters page is advisor-only. Clients don't have this page in their portal; advisors can share its content through What Matters Guide blocks.
What belongs in each What matters section?
On What matters, advisors record a household's priorities in four sections: Financial objective, Values, Goals, and Concerns.
Financial objective: a single statement of what the household wants its money to accomplish.
Values: separate lines for what matters to the household, such as time with family or giving.
Goals: separate lines describing desired outcomes in plain language.
Concerns: separate lines for questions or worries the household wants to address.
Use the household's own words where possible. Each item can also have a What we're doing explanation and links to changes or tasks, so an advisor can connect a stated priority with work already in place or still to do.
How are What matters goals different from planning Goals?
Goals on What matters are text statements; advisors use Planning → Goals for financial planning goals with amounts, funding, and calculations. Adding a line to What matters doesn't create a planning goal or assign any accounts to it.
For example, an advisor could record “Have more time with family” on What matters, then separately work on a Retirement goal in Planning. Changes and tasks can link to that text statement to explain how the advisor and client are addressing it.
Choose What matters when recording the household's intent. Choose planning Goals when entering the financial details needed to assess and fund a goal.
How do I add or edit a What matters line?
On What matters, advisors type new items in place and open existing items in a drawer to edit them.
For an empty financial objective, click its text area and enter a statement.
For a list item, click New value, New goal, or New concern, then type the line.
Press Enter after a new list item's text to start another line, or click away to finish.
To revise an existing item, click its text and edit the description in its drawer.
Description edits save as you type; there isn't a separate Save button. An empty new list line disappears when you leave it if it has no explanation or linked work. Use the drawer's up and down arrows to move through items, or close it to return to What matters.
How do I order What matters items?
On What matters, advisors drag values, goals, and concerns into order within their own lists. Point to a list item and drag its grip to a new position in that section. Drag within Values, Goals, or Concerns; this changes list order without moving an item into another section.
Reordering keeps an item's explanation and linked work with it. The financial objective remains a single statement above the lists; it doesn't have a reorder control.
How do I arrange supporting work on What matters?
On What matters, advisors choose Stacked to show supporting work below each item or Two columns to place it beside the item. On phones, items stack even when Two columns is selected.
This choice saves for the household and applies to What matters and its Plan Setup step. A section uses two columns only when at least one item has an explanation or linked work. Each What Matters Guide block has its own Layout setting, available when Show what we're doing is on; changing the page layout doesn't change those blocks.
How do I delete a What matters item?
On What matters, advisors delete a value, goal, or concern from its drawer.
Click the item's text to open its drawer.
Click the trash icon.
Confirm with Delete.
Deleting an item removes its connections to changes and tasks. Those changes and tasks remain in the client file.
Erasing an existing list item's description in its drawer doesn't delete it; its previous text is kept. Use the trash icon for removal. The financial objective has no delete control: clear its text if needed.
How do I record What we're doing for an item?
On What matters, advisors use What we're doing in an item's drawer to explain what is already in place for that priority.
Click an objective, value, goal, or concern that has text to open its drawer. For an empty item, type its text first, click away, then click it.
Enter an explanation in What we're doing, such as “We give 10% of each paycheck.”
Close the drawer when finished; the explanation saves as you type.
The explanation appears with that item on What matters. Linked changes and tasks also appear there, but typing an explanation doesn't create or complete either kind of record.
How do I link changes or tasks from What matters?
On What matters, advisors open an item's drawer to create supporting work or link work already in the client file.
Click the item's text.
Choose Link a change or Link a task, search if needed, and select an existing record. The link saves when selected.
To create work instead, choose New change or New task, type a description, and press Enter. For a new change, choose its category before pressing Enter.
A new task created here starts assigned to the advisor. Click the linked task to open its drawer and edit Assigned to or Due date.
Only tasks without a change can link directly from this drawer. For a task already attached to a change, link that change instead. Click a linked record to inspect it; Back returns to the item. The x beside a connection removes that link without deleting the record.
How do I link What matters from a change or task?
Advisors can link priorities from a change's drawer on Changes or a task's drawer under Office → Tasks, without starting on What matters.
On Changes, point to the change and click its › icon to open the drawer. On Office → Tasks, point to the task and click its › icon (Open task). Clicking the task text edits it instead.
In On What matters, click Link to a goal, value, or concern.
Select the item to link. The picker also includes a financial objective that has text, despite the button's shorter wording.
Repeat to connect more than one priority. Click a linked priority to open its What matters drawer, or use the x beside it to remove just that connection.
A task attached to a change gets its What matters connections through that change. When that change has links, the task drawer lists them under “Through its change.” When it has none, the task drawer has no On What matters section or link button. Edit the change's links rather than trying to add separate links to that task.
Where does What matters fit in Plan Setup?
In Plan Setup, advisors reach What matters as the final step of Client profile, after Insurance policies and before Create and prioritize goals.
Open Plan Setup from a client file and select What matters in Client profile. This step edits the same financial objective, values, text goals, concerns, explanations, and linked work as the standalone What matters page.
There isn't a second setup-only copy to transfer later. Add a line, open its drawer, and link supporting work during setup just as you would on What matters. The later Create and prioritize goals step handles planning Goals separately; finishing a text goal here doesn't create a planning goal there.
What does a client see in What Matters Guide blocks?
In a Guide shared with a client, the Financial Objective, Values, Overview Goals, and Concerns blocks show the corresponding What matters content read-only. Overview Goals uses “Goals” as its default heading.
Show what we're doing is on by default. When enabled, clients see each item's explanation, linked changes, and directly linked tasks without a change. A change shows its completion status or task progress count; its individual task descriptions aren't listed underneath it in these blocks.
Directly linked tasks can include advisor-assigned tasks. Open tasks show an assignee and any due date; completed tasks show Done and a completion date when available. Changes in categories hidden from client view, and their tasks, are omitted.
Clients can't edit these blocks, open their record drawers, or mark their linked work complete here. Printed blocks are also read-only. Advisors can edit items in these blocks while viewing a client's Guide; those edits change the same household records used by What matters.
How do I show only the priority text in a Guide?
For a What Matters block in a client's Guide, advisors can turn off Show what we're doing to keep only the objective or list text visible.
Open the client's Guides, select the Guide, and click Edit guide.
Select the Financial Objective, Values, Overview Goals, or Concerns block.
Turn off Show what we're doing in its settings. Repeat for each block that should show text alone.
Click Done to open Save your changes. For a template, choose Save for [client] only and check Guide name to make a copy for this client. For a Guide already saved for this client, choose Save this guide.
Click Save.
To change a practice template for every client who uses it, choose Update “[Guide name]” instead. If you're editing a client's copy, Save, and update “[template name]” saves that copy and updates its source template when that option is available.
This hides that block's explanation, linked changes, and linked tasks together. It doesn't delete the underlying records or remove their links on What matters. Turning the control back on restores the supporting content.
Check these blocks before sharing a Guide: assigning a directly linked task to an advisor doesn't hide it from a client in a What Matters block.
Can Dora edit What matters?
Advisors can ask Dora to propose edits to What matters, including the financial objective, values, text goals, concerns, What we're doing explanations, and links from changes or tasks.
Open Dora in the client file and describe the specific edit. For example: “Add a concern about helping aging parents, and link our existing elder-care review task to it.” Dora needs to identify the correct existing record and respect the rule that tasks attached to changes connect through their change.
Review the proposal before choosing Approve. What matters data edits take effect after approval; an AI response alone isn't confirmation that the records changed.
If a proposal needs correction, choose Reject, then explain the correction. Dora's reply box is disabled while a proposal awaits a decision.