Drafting a file note or advice scope

Turn a reviewed conversation into a file note or a clear advice-scope draft. Review the content and choose the correct save action for a document copy or a client file-note record.

Before you start

• Open an active shared conversation for the correct client, with write access.

• Select relevant ready evidence and provide the meeting date, participants, client instructions and intended scope where known.

1. Establish the facts in the conversation

Ask Finley to summarise the discussion before drafting. For example: “Summarise the selected meeting transcript. Separate matters discussed, client decisions, agreed actions and unanswered questions.” Review that answer and correct any interpretation that does not match the meeting. State which person in a couple gave an instruction.

2. Choose the drafting action

Under the latest substantive response, choose Draft file note or Draft advice scope. The action uses that response, recent conversation and selected evidence. If the buttons are absent, close another open output card and ensure Finley has finished responding. A short acknowledgement may not expose the drafting buttons.

3. Resolve essential questions

Finley may show Before drafting the file note or Before drafting the advice scope. No new draft has been created at this point. Enter your answers and choose Continue drafting. If a detail genuinely remains open, explicitly say it is to be confirmed rather than inventing a value. Cancel drafting closes the clarification. Resolve it before changing clients or conversations.

4. Review the document

Check the subject, meeting date and body. A file note should accurately distinguish the discussion, advice or options considered, client decisions and agreed follow-up. An advice scope should make the intended work and outstanding decisions clear. For a file note, edit the body directly; the formatting controls include Bold, Italic, Bullets, Heading, Undo and Redo. Keep the source meaning intact.

5. Retain a draft copy

Once drafting succeeds, Finley attempts to save an initial Word copy to Documents. Look for Saved to client Documents; a visible draft alone is not proof of a successful save. After editing a file note, select Save draft to retain the revised document copy. An advice-scope working document has a save icon and Export Word. Check the exported copy before using it.

6. Save the file-note record when it is ready

For a file note, review the record fields separately from the body. Use Choose files under Attachments if supporting files should accompany the note. Save to client file commits the proposed file-note record; Cancel cancels the pending record action. Wait for the result and verify the note in the client’s file notes. Saving a draft in Documents does not complete this record-save step.

Check before you finish

• Check the actual meeting date, client and partner names, attribution of instructions and any promised actions.

• Confirm both the document-copy save and the client-record save when you need both.

• Keep unresolved material clearly identified for adviser review.

If something does not work

• If generation fails, keep the conversation and selected evidence, resolve the displayed error and retry.

• If saving a document fails, retry Save draft and look for the success notification.

• If Save to client file is unavailable, check whether the conversation is archived, read-only or still processing.