Project Templates - What Gets Inherited

Last Modified On: December 10, 2024

Project Templates provide you with a quick and easy way to create and populate new Projects without having to create it from scratch. When you create a Project from a Template or apply a Template to an existing Project, Inspire Planner copies information from the Template to the Project. 

Perhaps you are wondering, exactly what information from the Template gets copied? This help article discusses what information is inherited from templates when you:

• Create a Project from a Template
• Apply a Template to an Existing Project
• Create a Project from scratch and there is a Global Default Project Setting in place
• Apply the Global Default Project Setting to all existing Project Templates

Creating a Project from a Template

This is done by selecting a template when creating a new Project.


 

When you create a new Project from a Template, the following information is copied from the Template:

• Project Settings
  • All Project Settings (accessed by clicking on the Project Settings Gear Icon at the top right corner of your Gantt Chart) are inherited except for Time Zone. Time Zone always defaults to the user's time zone and is automatically populated during Project creation.
    
    
     
• Project Schedule Layout
  • This refers to the columns displayed/hidden, the column order and the column widths. 
    
     
• Non-working Days/Weeks
  • All non-working Days/Weeks defined in the template are then applied to the Project.
    
    
     
• Project Tasks
  • All project tasks within the Template, including all Task information (i.e. duration, dates, predecessors, assignments, etc) are copied.
     
  • Project task status is not inherited and will reset to "Not Started" (or equivalent custom value). Review the tasks in the template and ensure all tasks have a status as this impacts task assignment.
     
  • If task assignments tend to change from Project to Project, it is also best practice not to have assignments in the Templates since this too, will get copied over to the new Project.
     
  • Setting of Project Baselines should be done on actual Projects and not templates as these, too, would be inherited. 
     
  • Constraint Type and Constraint Date are not inherited from templates
    
     
• File Attachments 
  • Files attached to the Project Task chatter feed, as well as files in the Project Files related list, are copied over to the new Project but not Chatter posts.
    
     
• Project Scheduling Modes (manual vs automatic)
  • The new Project inherits the Scheduling Mode defined on the Template, unless you edit the value in this field as you create the project.

• Project Team Members
  • The new Project inherits the Project Team members defined on the Template. If "Add as Collaborator" is TRUE for any Project Team member where the  Project Team member is a user, it will also automatically create collaborator records for them.
    
    Please Note:
    Make sure that your project team members do not include inactive users. It is recommended that when you deactivate users, you should also remove them as project team members on any of your project templates.

• All Project Fields
  • If the project fields do not have a value, or if you do not edit the value in the field, then values from the template are copied over to the new Project except for Time Zone, Project Template, Owner, External ID and any look-up fields. 

Applying a Template to an Existing Project

A template can be applied to an existing project:

• By updating the project template look-up field in Project Details, or
• By using the Insert Multi-Template Feature (this is only available in the Gantt LWC)

There is a difference in what gets inherited from the template, depending on the method you use.

When you apply a template to an existing Project by updating the Project Template Look-up field, it only copies the following:

• Project Tasks
  • All project tasks within the Template, including all Task information (i.e. duration, dates, predecessors, assignments, etc) are copied.
     
  • Project task status is not inherited and will reset to "Not Started" (or equivalent custom value). Review the tasks in the template and ensure all tasks have a status as this impacts task assignment.
     
  • If task assignments tend to change from Project to Project, it is also best practice not to have assignments in the Templates since this too, will get copied over to the new Project.
     
  • Setting of Project Baselines should be done on actual Projects and not templates as these, too, would be inherited. 
     
  • When the Project Tasks are copied over to the existing Project, they are appended to existing tasks within the Project and will not overwrite already existing tasks.
     
  • Constraint Type and Constraint Date are not inherited from templates
     
• File Attachments 
  • Files attached to the Project Task chatter feed, as well as files in the Project Files related list, are copied over to the new Project but not Chatter posts.

• Project Team Members
  • The new Project inherits the Project Team members defined on the Template. If "Add as Collaborator" is TRUE for any Project Team member where the  Project Team member is a user, it will also automatically create collaborator records for them.
    
    Please Note:
    Make sure that your project team members do not include inactive users. It is recommended that when you deactivate users, you should also remove them as project team members on any of your project templates.

All other settings from the template are not applied to the destination project.

For more information on what is inherited from a template when using the Insert Multi-Template Feature, please see Gantt LWC - Insert Multi-Templates.

Creating a Project from Scratch and there is a Global Default Project Setting in place

There is a setting in Inspire Planner that allows you to Set a Global Default Project Setting which is a way for you to define settings that are applied to new Projects created where you are not inheriting from a template. If you have enabled this in your org, then the following settings are applied to new Projects where you are not inheriting from a template.

• Project Settings
  • All Project Settings (accessed by clicking on the Project Settings Gear Icon at the top right corner of your Gantt Chart) are inherited except for Time Zone. Time Zone always defaults to the user's time zone and is automatically populated during Project creation.
    
    
     
• Project Schedule Layout
  • This refers to the columns displayed/hidden, the column order and the column widths. 
    
     
• Non-working Days/Weeks
  • All non-working Days/Weeks defined in the Template are then applied to the Project.
    
    

Applying the Global Default Project Setting to all existing Templates

There is a setting in Inspire Planner that allows you to apply the Global Default Project Setting to all existing Project Templates. When you apply the Global Default, the following are applied to all existing templates:

• Project Settings
  • All Project Settings are inherited except for Time Zone. Time Zone always defaults to the user's time zone and is populated at Project/Template creation.
    
    
     
• Project Schedule Layout
  • This refers to the columns displayed/hidden, the column order and the column widths. Please note that if you have previously adjusted the columns for a template, Inspire Planner would have created a User Project Settings record for you for the template. This means that even though you have applied the Project Schedule Layout from the Global Default Project Settings, when you go to the template, you will continue to see the columns as per your User Project Settings. To see the settings applied from the Global Default Project Setting, you will need to click on the Reset View icon.
    
    
     
• Non-working Days/Weeks
  • Any non-working Days/Weeks defined in the Global Project Setting template are then applied to all existing Project Templates.
    
    

Please Note: In all instances above, the following are not inherited from a Template:

• Project Collaborator - unless there are project team members being inherited from the template where "Add as Collaborator" is TRUE. This will only auto-create collaborator records for users but not contacts or queues.
• Time Zone
• External ID
• Value in Project Template Look-up 
• Project Owner
• Task Key