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
1) Hover over your avatar and go to the Template Center.
2) Open the + Template dropdown and choose Project.
You can also click + Template directly and then select 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) Add the elements you want in projects created from this template:
Tabs: Enable tasks, docs, budgets, or time tracking modules
Tasks, task lists, and folders: Set up your project structure
Custom fields: Include any fields you need for tracking
Teams or team members: Assign default participants
📌 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 choose to share the project with other people, teams, or groups.
In the final step, 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!
Applying Tabs from a Template to an Existing Project (Beta)
You can apply the tabs from a project template to a project that already exists — it doesn't have to have been created from that template.
This comes in handy when you want a consistent tab setup across multiple projects, for example, the same dashboard configuration, without going into each one and setting them up individually.
📌 Note: You need the Add, edit, and delete projects permission to use this feature. This includes Admins, Managers, Restricted Managers, and Restricted Profitability Managers (for projects they're added to).
How to apply tabs from a template
Open the project you want to update.
Click the + button next to the tab bar to open the module picker, then select Apply tabs from project template at the top.
📌 If the project already has multiple tabs, open the All tabs dropdown instead and select Apply tabs from project template.
Select a template from the Project template dropdown.
Check or uncheck Keep existing tabs depending on whether you want to add the template tabs alongside your current ones or replace them entirely.
Click Add tabs.
When Keep existing tabs is checked, the template's tabs are added on top of what's already on the project. When unchecked, all existing tabs are replaced with the ones from the template.
📌 Note: If you uncheck Keep existing tabs, the project’s tabs will be overwritten to match the selected template. This includes tabs you can’t see due to permission restrictions. Tabs that exist on the project but aren’t visible to you (for example, the Budgets tab if you don’t have access) will be removed. At the same time, any tabs included in the template will be added to the project—even if you don’t have permission to view them. If you're unsure how this might affect the project, keep this option checked or consult with your team.