Action Centres are live, table-style views into your SwiftFox database that you can search, filter, sort, edit (where enabled) and export. They are the central hub for reporting on, and taking action with, your data — bringing operational work such as cases, finance, forms, goals and CPD, lists, posts and organisations together into configurable areas and sections so teams can monitor records and act on them at scale.
Depending on your subscription, some Action Centres may already be set up in your account.
What an Action Centre does
Each Action Centre presents records from your SwiftFox database in a table you can work with directly. Across every type you can:
- Search the records in the table.
- Filter to narrow the table to the records you care about.
- Sort by a column.
- Pin or hide columns to focus the view.
- Edit in-table — for the fields that have been made editable.
- Export to CSV for use outside SwiftFox.
Every Action Centre reads live from your database rather than from a stored copy, so records are current each time you open one. A Refresh data control in the table toolbar re-reads the data without reloading the page, which helps when you are watching records change as you work.
The table controls work the same way across every type — see Action Centre filtering, sorting, in-table editing & export (Document ID: 156).
Core building blocks
- Areas — top-level groupings, each with its own Area name, Area icon and Path name. Areas appear in the left-hand navigation. The path name cannot be changed once an area has been created, so choose it deliberately — see Action Centres — Areas & sections (Document ID: 162).
- Sections — folders inside an area that group related Action Centres together.
- Action Centres — the individual table views. Each has a type that decides what data it shows and which settings are available.
- Permissions — per-Action-Centre access for users or user groups: Full Access, View and Edit, or View only.
Action Centre types
You choose a type on the Basics step of the Action Centre builder. The operational types are covered in Action Centre types reference (Document ID: 154):
- Cases — a system-wide case hub; filter, open and edit cases, and add posts, tasks and comments.
- Data Table — unifies one People or Organisation data table across all profiles, so a profile may appear on several rows.
- Posts — a table of all posts, with date and tag filters.
- Organisations — browse every organisation and map parent and child hierarchies. See also Organisation Action Centre (Document ID: 414).
- Goals — a per-person summary of goals and CPD targets, points and progress.
- Goal activities — the detailed, activity-level view behind goals and CPD, with approvals.
- Form responses — a table of submissions for a chosen form, with selected questions as columns.
The financial types are covered in Financial Action Centre types (Document ID: 155):
- Financial - Batch — process and export batch payments through a payment provider.
- Financial - Invoices — view all invoices, with optional MYOB exports.
- Financial - Payroll — process payroll deductions and track historical batches.
- Financial - Receipt import — bring receipts into SwiftFox in bulk from a spreadsheet.
- Financial - Receipts — view all receipts, with status, method and line-type filters.
- Financial - Receipts summary — totals paid per contact across a period you define.
List builder is the most flexible type. It starts from a saved list, lets you add extra columns (including custom fields), mark columns editable, and optionally publish the result as a website or Login Portal directory. See List Builder Action Centres (Document ID: 153) and Website directories & Login Portal publishing (Document ID: 157).
Two further types appear in the type list and are not yet covered by these guides: Financial - Subscription Invoice Previews and Review Actions.
Where Action Centres live
Areas appear in the left-hand navigation. Opening one takes you to the Action Centre landing page, where the area's sections are listed down a second column with their Action Centres grouped inside them. Selecting an Action Centre opens its table.
On Settings → Features → Action centres, each area appears as a tab, and Manage Areas sits at the right-hand end of that tab strip. This is where Action Centres and areas are created and managed.
Getting access
Two user-group permissions govern Action Centres. Both sit under the Action Centre heading in a user group's permission list:
- Action Centre — described in the product as "Access to the action centre feature". Without it, a user cannot see Action Centres at all.
- Action Centre Management — "Ability to create and edit action centres and areas". This is what makes the Action centres page appear under Features in Settings.
A user who needs to build Action Centres needs both. For the full setup steps, see Creating an Action Centre & permissions (Document ID: 152).
Where to go next
- Creating an Action Centre & permissions (Document ID: 152) — the create flow and the permission levels.
- Action Centres — Areas & sections (Document ID: 162) — organising areas and sections.
- Action Centres — Workflows: step-by-step (Document ID: 160) — which guide to use for each task.
- Action Centres — Limitations & best practice (Document ID: 161).
- Action Centres — Frequently asked questions (Document ID: 159).