# Goals and notes

> Set a client's overall goal and session goals with progress, keep private client notes and session notes, and add action items to a session that the client ticks off in the portal.

## Goal

Record where a client is heading and what happened along the way: **goals** with a status and progress from 0 to 100, a private **client note**, and a private **session note** per session. Notes are visible only to the Coach who wrote them; goals are visible to every Coach of the practice.

## Prerequisites

- A client (see [Create a client](https://coaching-toolkit.com/docs/clients/create-and-portal)). Goals: you must be the client's Coach or an Admin. Notes: any Coach of the practice may keep their own.

## Goals

A goal has a **scope**: `Overall` (the engagement's goal; at most one Active per client) or `Session` (tied to one session). Its status is `Active`, `Paused`, `Achieved` or `Dropped`.

In the app: open the client, **Goals**, add a goal.

| Field | Rule |
| --- | --- |
| Scope | `Overall` or `Session` |
| Title | required, up to 120 characters |
| Description | optional, up to 2000 characters |
| Target date | optional date |
| Progress | 0 to 100, default 0 |
| Session | required for `Session`, not allowed for `Overall` |

A new goal starts as Active.

- Update progress or text from the goal. Reaching 100 does not mark it achieved.
- Change status: Active and Paused move to any other status; Achieved and Dropped are final.
- The client's goals are listed newest first. The client card's current goal is the Active Overall goal.

## Client note

One running note per client per Coach, up to 20000 characters. Saving replaces the note; saving it empty deletes it. You see only your own note.

## Session note

One note per session per Coach, with three parts:

- **Topics**: one line, up to 200 characters, for what the session was about. The EMCC client log uses it as "areas worked on".
- **Note**: your session note in Markdown, up to 20000 characters. Use the formatting bar or type Markdown yourself: headings (`## `), lists (`- `) and bold (`**text**`). Reading the note shows it formatted.
- **Reflection**: up to 20000 characters, for your own practice in the sense of EMCC reflective practice: what you learned in the session and how it changes how you coach. It is optional. The EMCC reflective log uses it.

Saving replaces the note; saving all three parts empty deletes it. Only you see the note, the reflection included; it never reaches the client. It is part of your own export of the client's record. Note texts are stored encrypted.

## Action items

Action items are steps the client can tick off in the portal. They are kept on the session, apart from the note: add them one at a time, each with its text (up to 500 characters) and, if you want, a due date from the date picker. Nothing in the note text becomes an action item.

- Any Coach of the practice can add items to a session of the practice.
- Edit an item's text or due date, or remove it, from the session. The client's Coach, an Admin or the Coach who added the item can do this.
- An open item past its due date is **overdue**; the client card raises "action items overdue" (a Warning from three).
- Ticking an item done, by the client or a Coach, records who did it and when.

The client card's **Action items** panel lists every item on the client's sessions, open ones first by due date. Each shows its text, due date, whether it is overdue, who ticked it (Coach or Client) and when, the session it belongs to and the Coach who added it, and whether the client sees it in the portal. The client's Coach, an Admin or the Coach who added an item can tick or untick it as themselves.

## Who sees what

- Goals: every Coach of the practice; never the client.
- Notes: only their author, never another Coach (an Admin included) and never the client. When a client is reassigned, notes stay with the Coach who wrote them. The client timeline records that a note was written, never its text.
- Action items: every Coach of the practice sees them with their state. The client sees in the portal only the action items added by their assigned Coach or by the Coach who held the session, and nothing of the notes. Each tick and untick is in the audit log (`action_item.completed`, `action_item.reopened`) with who did it, never the text; a completed item also shows on the client timeline.

## Verify it worked

Open the client card. The goal shows with the status and progress you set (an Active Overall goal as the client's current goal), and your client note shows the text you saved. After you add action items to a session, the card's **Action items** panel lists the open ones.

## Failure cases

- A client already has an Active Overall goal, so a second one is refused.
- A Session goal needs one of this client's sessions.
- A new goal cannot be added for an Ended client.
- An Achieved or Dropped goal cannot be edited.
- A status change that is not allowed is refused, including a change to the current status.
- Goals: only the client's Coach or an Admin can change them. Action items: the client's Coach, an Admin or the Coach who added the item.
- A client, goal, session or action item of another practice is not found.