Template Console - BETA

Last Modified On: November 2, 2026

Overview - What is the Template Console?

The Template Console is where you manage your project templates as versioned products and roll improvements into the projects already running them. Instead of a template improvement only reaching new projects, Smart Sync lets you push the change into active projects - reviewing every change, protecting work that has already started, and showing the schedule impact before anything happens. 

Key Terms

What you can do in the Template Console

• Browse and search every template in the Template Library.
• Create templates and manage their versions - draft, refine, promote.
• Bring an existing Inspire Planner template into the Template Console.
• Smart Sync (Premium+) - apply a version’s changes to active projects, change by change, with the schedule impact shown first.
• Track every sync run and revert it.

What you cannot do

• Smart Sync never applies a change you haven’t reviewed and approved - there is no silent bulk update.

• It does not overwrite work that has already started - protected changes are flagged, never applied automatically. 

• Stitching multiple templates into a master project, and inserting reusable task blocks, are planned for a future release. 

Who can do what 

Ask your Salesforce admin if you need a different permission set.

Availability

• Template management and versioning: BETA, available to all customers at no additional cost. Your admin turns it on in Inspire Planner Settings.
• Smart Sync and Advanced Scheduling: Premium+ Success Plan customers.
• Salesforce-native: All sharing, field-level security and record access continue to apply.

Prerequisite

Your Salesforce System Administrator must first complete all the steps outlined in Admin Guide - Template Console - BETA.

How to access the Template Console

Click on the App Launcher and enter "Template" in the search box. Then, click Template Console.

The Template Library

The Template Library provides a centralized view of all project templates, allowing users to browse templates, monitor their status, and view key metrics.

Summary tiles

Finding a template

1. List Views  - click the list name (All Templates) to switch to Active, Draft, or Retired.
   
   
    
2. Search - type in Search templates... to filter by template name.
   
   
    
3. Grid and Card Views - use the two buttons beside the search box. The grid shows Template Name, Category, Status, Active Version, Active Projects, Versions, Owner, Last Modified and Description. Cards show the same highlights as tiles.
   
   
    
4. Sort, filter, and group - in the grid, click a column header to sort. Open a column’s header menu (the arrow on the header) to filter, group by that column, or show and hide columns. Drag a header to reorder columns.
   
   
    
5. To open a template - click its name in the grid, or click its card.
   
   

Creating a new Template

Existing project templates must be migrated to the new Template Console before they can be managed using the new interface. You can also create new templates directly in the Template Console.

1. Click New Template in the top right corner.
   
   
    
2. Enter a Template Name, choose a Category (for example - Construction or Customer Onboarding), add a Description, and Save. The template record opens.
   
   
    
3. Go to the Versions tab and click Create v1.0.
   
   
    
4. Enter a description for the new version (optional), then click Create v1.0. Adding a description is recommended as it helps document the purpose of the version or summarize the changes made, making it easier to identify and distinguish between versions later.
   
   
    
5. You will be redirected to the Schedule Builder in a new tab. Build the schedule - phases, tasks, durations, dependencies - and save it.
   
   
    

6. Return to the template record. On the Versions tab, click Promote on the v1.0 row and confirm. v1.0 becomes the Active version.

   
   
   
   Note: A template with no Active version cannot be used by Smart Sync. Promote v1.0 when it is ready.
    

7. Once the promotion is complete, the template version status will change from v1.0 Draft to v1.0 Active, indicating that the template is now available for use.
   
   

Bringing in an existing template

If your team already has Inspire Planner templates (projects marked as a template), move them into the Template Console instead of rebuilding them. You need the Template Admin or Template Owner permission set.

For instructions on how to migrate existing templates, please see Migrate Existing Templates to Template Console.

Note: Migration does not change any project’s schedule. It only links the projects to the template so Smart Sync can compare them with future versions. If the action shows a message instead of Start migration, the message says what is missing.

The template record - tabs

The template record organizes everything into tabs:

Managing versions

Create a new version

1. On the Versions tab, click New Version.
   
   
    
2. Enter a short Description of what this version changes and click Create Draft.
   
   
    
3. The Console clones the Active version into a Draft (the next minor version) and opens it in the schedule builder in a new tab. Refine tasks, durations and assignees, then save.
   
   Nothing reaches a live project while you work in the draft.
   
   To reopen a version later, click on the version row.
   
   

Compare versions

On the Overview tab, click Compare in the Versions panel, or View Diff in the Smart Sync banner. Both show what changed in the Active version compared with the version just before it. Added, removed and modified tasks are listed with the fields that changed.
 

You cannot pick two versions to compare, and the Versions tab has no compare button. To review a draft before you promote it, open the draft and the Active version side by side.

Promote a version

When the draft is ready, click Promote on its row and confirm. The draft becomes the Active version and the previous version is Retired - kept for history, not deleted - so every project’s origin remains traceable.

Note: Only one draft can exist at a time. Promoting a version does not change any project; use Smart Sync to bring projects up to it.

Creating a project from a template

Each version of a template is stored as its own template project, named after the template with its version label — for example, “Hotel Build Template v1.2”. When you create a project, you pick one of these versions. The new project gets a copy of that version’s tasks, and Inspire Planner records which version it came from. Smart Sync uses that record later to bring the project up to newer versions.

Note:Always pick the Active version. The template search also lists Draft and Retired versions. Check the Active version label on the template’s tile in the Template Library, or on its Versions tab, before you choose.

Inspire Planner copies the version into the new project. Large templates are copied in the background, so the tasks may take a moment to appear on the Gantt.

Adding a template to an existing project

You can add one or more templates to a project that already exists, for example, to add a standard phase to a project. 

To add a template to an existing project, you can either use the Insert Multi-template feature or apply a template via the project template lookup field.
 

For more information, please see:

• Insert Multiple Templates
• Applying a Template to an Existing Project via Project Template Lookup Field

The tasks are added to the project’s schedule. The project is also recorded as using that template version, so Smart Sync can include it later.

Creating projects from an Opportunity

If your administrator has mapped products to templates, a project can be created from an Opportunity. Each product on the Opportunity adds its mapped template version to the new project. The mapping points to one specific version. After a new version is promoted, your administrator must update the mapping, or new projects keep using the older version.

Smart Sync (Premium+)

Smart Sync is part of the Premium+ Success Plan. If your org does not have it, clicking Review & Sync shows: “Smart Sync requires the Premium+ Success Plan. Please contact customer.success@inspireplanner.com.”

Starting a Sync

1. On the template's Overview tab, click Review & Sync in the Smart Sync banner.
   
   
    
2. In Sync projects up to version, choose the target version — the template’s Active version. A draft appears as “Draft (preview only)” and can’t be synced; retired versions aren’t offered.
   
   
    
3. The Console analyzes every active project against that version, classifies each change and gives each project a safety score.
   
   Completed and canceled projects are left out, and the Console reports how many.
   
   Projects already on the version are excluded. To include them, check the box for "Include projects already on this version".
   
   

Understanding the classification

What Smart Sync detects

Smart Sync compares each project against the target version, matching tasks by a stable task key, and detects three change types - Added, Removed and Modified.

A task counts as Modified when its Name, Duration, Duration Unit, Phase (parent group), Notes or Dependencies differ.

Added tasks are inserted in place, the project is renumbered once, and dependencies are rewritten by task identity, so links the project added itself, survive.

Approving changes

• Ready to Sync changes are pre-selected; while Needs Review and Blocked are opt-in.
  
  
   
• Approve, override or skip down to the individual task. Select all / Unselect all is available per project, and any change can be skipped — including Ready to Sync ones.
  
  
   
• Started work, actuals and time entries are never overwritten without an explicit override.
   
• Approvals are pinned to what you reviewed: if a change shifts after review, it is skipped and the sync log says why — a change is never applied riskier than reviewed.

Include projects already on this version

If you edited the Active version in place rather than creating a new one, switch on Include projects already on this version. Smart Sync re-pushes the version’s current content to projects already on it. Every change it finds needs review - nothing auto-applies - project-specific tasks are never removed, and a project whose tasks aren’t linked to the template waits rather than receiving the template a second time.

Schedule impact

Expand a project to see its schedule impact. Click Calculate schedule impact to see its current finish, projected finish and the day shift.

Turn on Auto-calculate schedule impact to compute it automatically as you expand each project.
 

Applying the sync

When your selections are made, click Sync (n) Projects. Approved changes apply in the background - you can keep working.

• When a sync changes the task set, the project’s schedule is recalculated automatically.
• Each project owner is @mentioned in Chatter with a summary of what changed.
• A project a teammate is actively editing is skipped and retried automatically.
• Track progress on the Sync Runs tab.

Reverting a Sync

Revert a whole run

On the Sync Runs tab, a run shows Revert run while it can still be undone safely. Click Revert run, then Revert to confirm.

Revert one project

Open the project’s record page. The Template Sync History panel lists every sync of that project.



Expand a sync to see each change (an Override tag marks changes that were force-applied), then click Revert and confirm.

What revert does

• Edited tasks are restored to their prior values.
• Added tasks are removed, with the same protections a removal gets.
• Removed tasks are restored from the Recycle Bin as the original records — checklist items, time entries, risks and child tasks intact, in their original order with their original dependencies.
• The run shows Reverting while it works and then the final result; the schedule recalculates when the task set changes.

When revert is not offered

A sync can be reverted only while it is the project’s newest sync, no newer sync is waiting, the project is still on that version, and the project isn’t completed or canceled. Removed tasks can only be restored while they are in the Recycle Bin (15 days). Revert never runs on a project a teammate is editing.

When a feature is not available

Appendix - Classification & safety reference

Classification is fully deterministic — there is no AI. Each change is evaluated against the project’s live state using the rules below (first match wins). Changes already reflected in the project are not shown.

*Protected statuses are the org’s Completed statuses plus In Progress, per the status mapping in Inspire Planner Settings.

Safety score and project bucket

• The score starts at 100 and subtracts 15 for each Needs Review change and 30 for each Blocked change (minimum 0). Example: 1 Needs Review + 1 Blocked = 100 − 15 − 30 = 55.

• Project bucket: any Blocked change makes the project Blocked; otherwise any Needs Review change makes it Needs Review; otherwise it is Auto-Safe.

Why in-place edits to the Active version classify differently

Re-pushing an Active version’s current content compares the project’s live tasks with the version itself — there is no prior version to diff. Because the engine cannot prove a difference came from the template rather than the project’s own work, deletions never appear, and every change that would have been Ready to Sync becomes Needs Review. Blocked therefore appears only through a version promotion.

Reproducing each tier

• Ready to Sync: the template edits a task the project never touched (Not Started).
• Needs Review: set that task to In Progress, or edit its duration in the project first.
• Blocked: log time on the task in the project, then delete the task in a new draft and promote.