Project Templates can be used to copy recurring deliverables or steps in a project.
You can use any other Project as a template or create dedicated template projects.
New Project
You can copy project lines (deliverables) and or phases (milestones) when creating a new project.
Select the Template Project, Copy Options, and click "Copy Info".
Copy from Template
After you create the project, you can copy lines from any other projects by clicking on the "Copy from Template" link.
You can create a new Project Phase for the lines to be created and also add a prefix for the new Project Lines.
Choose if you want to copy resources for the project lines as well as the Project Line Allocations (if multiple people are assigned to a project line).
Select the project to copy and, optionally, a specific phase (otherwise, all phases will be queried).
After clicking "Query Template", you can select all the lines or individual lines you want to copy.
Overwrite the information if necessary and select "Add All" or select individual lines and "Add Selected".
Project Phases
If the template project has phases and you don't select a specific template phase, all phases are copied.
If you enter a "Name for new Phase", just one phase is created, even if your template project has multiple phases.
When you clone a Project Phase, only the Phase is cloned - not the associated lines.
You can "deep clone" a project phase with the lines, by using the "Copy from Template" link and selecting the project and phase.
Copy multiple times
You can run this multiple times. This allows you, e.g.
- to create different phases (milestones) with the same steps
- and create Lines for various deliverables
Example: the template has the lines "install", "test" and you have "Widget A" and Widget B"
You can create the following configurations:
(1) Project with Project Lines
(run twice with Widget A/B as prefix)
- Widget A install
- Widget A test
- Widget B install
- Widget B test
(2) Project with Project Phases and Project Lines
(run twice with Widget A/B as Phase Name)
- Widget A
- install
- test
- Widget B
- install
- test
(3) Project with Project Phases and Project Lines
(run twice with Widget A/B as prefix and Phase Name)
- Widget A
- Widget A install
- Widget A test
- Widget B
- Widget B install
- Widget B test
For the first and last option, the Project Mode just needs to be ProjectAndLine and is suitable if the list is limited. The second option requires individual fields as Project Mode and is suitable for situations with a large number of steps/deliverables.
The copied information includes plan info, but not Status or actual information.
You can hide lines by setting the Status to "Drafting".
Create Project from Opportunity - Copy Template
When you Create/Update the Project from an Opportunity, you can also copy lines from another (template) project. It provides the same functionality as the "Copy from Template" link from within the project, but does not allow to select or not select certain lines.