Project Templates: Overview
Project management is a big part of Productive and we've made it easier by introducing project templates.
These templates let you set default settings for projects, making it quick to start your work, whether they're for your team (internal) or clients.
You can start from scratch or use an existing template or project as your basis.
Key Features
Create multiple templates to suit different project phases, stages, or client needs.
Easily create new projects using templates.
Customize details like tasks, lists, and views within the template.
Access and manage all your templates in the Template Center.
Creating a Project Template in the Template Center (Beta)
1) Hover over your avatar and go to the Template Center.
2) Open the + Template dropdown and choose Project.
Tip: The Template Center is organized to help you view and quickly access various template types.
3) Choose whether to start from scratch, copy an existing project, or use an existing template to create your new template.
4) Choose whether the project template will be internal or client.
5) Give your template a name and a description to help it stand out for future use, designate the project manager, client, and select the desired task status workflow. Click "Create template" to save your settings.
6) Next, add the tasks, task lists and folders, or create views.
Add details like custom fields or add docs to your projects. Add the teams or team members to the project.
Tip: You can set up task dependencies within a project template to define the order in which tasks should be completed. This ensures that tasks are properly sequenced, preventing work from starting too early or getting blocked unnecessarily.
Dependencies are carried over when using a project template, keeping project workflows structured from the start.
7) After setting everything up, save your template by selecting "Done" in the upper-right corner and go back to the Template Center.
Creating a Project Template From a Project
1) Open the Project Sidebar
Navigate to the project you want to use as a template.
Click on the More actions tab (three dots) in the sidebar.
Select "Save as template".
2) Set Template Details
Provide a name for your template.
Select a distinct project color.
Add a description (optional but helpful if you have many templates).
Choose whether to save the entire project or manually select specific elements to include in the template.
Budgets, invoices, and time entries are not saved in the project template.
Managing a Template
Project templates can be edited or deleted in the Template Center.
Editing a Template:
When editing, a black bar will indicate that you are working on a template project, not an active project.
After you are done with editing the template click "Done" in the upper-right corner to save the changes.
Creating a New Project Using a Template
To create a new project from a template, select a template from the Template Center and click Use Template.
Alternatively, while in the Project Management tab, select "+ Project" and then "Create from template" to begin creating a project based on the template of your choice.
From there, you'll be directed to the project wizard, which is exactly like the one you see when creating a project from scratch.
There, you can customize your project details by selecting the client, the project manager, naming your project, enabling or disabling tracking time on tasks, and deciding what you want to copy
Then, you can fine tune what you need to copy over from the template to your new project.
Select Everything to copy everything from the template to your new project.
Select I Want to Choose What to Include to tick the boxes next to the elements you need to copy.
After selecting "Continue", you can add a budget to your project, either from scratch, by copying an existing budget or even select one from a budget template.
Alternatively, if you do not need one, select I Don't Need a Budget. You can always add the budget at a later date.
Select Create Project to jump into your new project. While working with the project, feel free to adjust it further as needed!
