When you follow several client folders at once, each folder knows what it is waiting for, but none says which to handle first. To manage multiple client folders without reopening them one by one, Kolinea offers the cockpit: one page that gathers the open points of every folder you work on, sorted by stake, with the action to take for each. Here is what it shows, how you work in it, and what it does not do.
What does the cockpit show, and in what order?
The cockpit takes the open points of the active folders you work on in the workspace and sorts them into two blocks. “To do” lists one row per action: approve a document, answer, decide, review a publication your assistant prepared and publish it, let someone in, set a due date, reach someone. “Following” gathers the points that ask nothing of you, because Kolinea chases in your place, the point sits with a colleague, or you have just called the person.
The order follows what is at stake: “Milestone at risk”, “Late”, “Due soon”, then “No rush”, each group with its number of actions. A row first says why the point comes up now, then the folder concerned. When a single person is awaited, the row also tells their silence: they have not opened the folder in three days, or they usually reply in two days.
How do you settle a point without leaving the page?
A click on the row opens a sheet holding the point’s real card: answer a request, decide, check documents, confirm a slot, give an approval, fill in a form. The card acts as it does in the folder, under the same rights. Documents to approve open full size and can be annotated before you approve them. An access request is accepted or declined in the sheet. A planned publication opens in the folder’s composer, and nothing is sent until you publish it.
“Run through the actions” then opens the actions of “To do” one after the other, one per screen, with a progress bar. On a keyboard, Enter does the action, L asks when to remind you, and the arrows go to the next one or back. On a phone, these are buttons, and a swipe moves to the next action or postpones it, without ever doing the action for you. At the end, a summary counts the actions done, skipped, postponed and the calls left to make.
What happens when a participant does not answer?
A point waiting on a participant climbs four rungs. Kolinea chases on its own while the delay is under three days and automatic reminders are on. From three days late, the point moves to “To do” with “Remind them myself”. After at least two reminders unanswered, the action becomes “Reach” followed by the person’s name: their card gives the numbers to call or copy. If another person on the same side is in the folder, the menu also offers to ask them instead.
After the call, two outcomes. “They answered” opens the sheet on the answer, to record on their behalf (see relay answers). “Call placed” notes a call that went unanswered: the point moves to follow-up for three days, then comes back to “To do”. The call appears in the folder’s history, which only the team reads. A point open for fourteen days with no due date comes up too, with “Set a due date”.
“Remind me later” takes a point off the list until the moment you choose: in an hour, tonight, tomorrow morning, Monday morning, or a day and time of your own. The reminder is yours alone.
How do you hold milestones and prepare the week?
At the top of every view, four figures: the actions to do and the time they take, the late points, the appointments until Sunday and the milestones at risk or compromised. The “Milestones to hold” panel lists the milestones of the next five weeks with their weather: on track, threatened or compromised. A milestone is threatened as soon as a needed point is late, and compromised when a needed point is expected after its date or has no due date.
Three other views answer other questions. “By person” shows what you expect from each contact and what you owe them, with a grouped reminder that sends a single e-mail listing every point. “By folder” is a health table, one row per folder, the most late first. “Week” draws the calendar from Monday to Sunday, with appointments, due dates, milestones and the reminders to come.
How do you prepare a progress update for a client?
From the folder page or from the cockpit, a drawer gives the folder’s point: the milestones as steps, what threatens the next one, who is waiting on what, the decisions and sign-offs of recent days. A button there prepares a progress update in the composer: where the folder stands, what is expected from the participant, what you are preparing. It is never published on its own. You review it, remove what you want, then a team member publishes it.
What happens when a team member is away?
“I’m away” hands your actions to one or several colleagues until your return day, for 90 days at most. Each sees them in their cockpit, marked “for you”, and is told by a notification. The first to deal with an action settles it for everyone. Participants see nothing change, and the responsibility for the folders stays yours. For members who manage the workspace’s folders, a “Whole team” view gives each person’s workload: active folders, open points, delays, milestones at risk.
What the cockpit does not do
- It does not act without you. An action waits for your decision, and no publication goes out on its own.
- It does not place the call. “Reach” gives the number; you call from your phone, then say how the call went.
- The thresholds are fixed: three days, fourteen days, two reminders. They are not set folder by folder.
- Only the folders you work on count. A folder you are not in, or a confidential publication you cannot read, does not appear.
How do you start?
The cockpit is included in every plan: open it, read the four figures at the top, then launch “Run through the actions” for the length of a coffee. To see what feeds the list, read how Kolinea lets you know at any moment who is waiting on what, or the full page on the cockpit.