Create a Template – Kantata Knowledge Base

Account Permissions Needed: Project Creator (or higher)

Overview

Creating templates allows you to quickly and more easily create projects and ensures that you have the time and resources necessary to be successful. You can also choose to create a template from an existing project. Once you have created a template, you can apply it during project creation or apply it to an existing project.

Whichever account member creates a template is automatically assigned as the template owner. While there isn't a way to transfer template ownership, an account member with a Project Lead account permission or higher can clone the template and become the owner of the new template copy.

How to Create a Template

In the left navigation, hover over Templates and click the Add (“ ”) icon.
Fill out all information at the top of the template:
- Template Name (required)—Give your template a name that will make it easy to distinguish from other templates.
- Duration—This is the number of days it should take to complete a project.
- Budgeted—This determines if the template is for a financial project. If selected, you can enter the project budget, currency, and other budgeted information.
  Note: If the Budgeted checkbox is deselected, some fields in the template disappear or are no longer editable. Only users with Project Lead (or higher) account permissions can create budgeted templates.
- Currency—This determines the type of currency for the project.
- Sharing—The Sharing options affect who is able to see and edit your template. Account Administrators can edit templates that have the Shared (View Only) option selected, even if they aren't the template owner.
- Description—This is a description that explains the purpose of the template. You can include common markdown syntax to add formatting to the text in this field.
Note: Each project template has a 200,000 Character Limit. This amount is an accumulation of all fields in the template. Your current character amount updates every time you click Save.
To create a resource estimate in your template using unnamed resources to indicate your demand, go to the Resources section and start adding unnamed resources in the Resource Roles column, clicking Add Resource for each new resource you'd like to add.

Note: Only the roles that you’ve created in Settings > Roles will be available in the Add Role drop-down. Each role can be mapped to a named or new unnamed resource when you create a project from this template. To make each role more specific, modify the Resource Label. For example, the Sr. Software Engineer role can have the label Front End Web [React Js].Only the roles that you’ve created in Settings > Roles will be available in the Add Role drop-down.
To add skills to your resources, click the Side Panel (“ ”) icon. The Resource side panel opens, where only the Skills section appears. Adding skills makes it easier to find the right fit when you are ready to assign work to specific people.
Next, select the Tasks tab to create tasks for your newly defined resources, clicking Add Task for each task you'd like to add.
Specify the following task information:
- Type—This is the task type: Task, Deliverable, or Milestone.
- Priority—This is the level of priority you want to assign to the task.
- Task—This is the task’s name.
- Description—This is a description of the task.
In the Resources field, you can assign a task to any unnamed resource you’ve added to the Resources tab by clicking in a task’s Resources field and selecting a label from the drop-down menu; you can also enter estimated hours for each resource.

Note: Adding estimated hours makes it easier to schedule hours from the Resourcing tab of a project. After an unnamed resource has been assigned to a task in the template, the total number of Assignments and Estimated Hours will now appear to the right of the resource label in the Resources tab.
Fill out the remaining task information:
- Task Budget—This is the amount of money it will cost to complete the task.
- Task Est. Hours—Known as task estimated hours, this is the total number of hours it will take to complete the task.
- Start—The number of days into the project that the task will begin. If you want to create a Start day that predates the day you apply the template, just enter it as a negative value.
- Duration—The number of work days that the task should take to finish. If a task has subtasks associated with it, you’ll only be able to set a Duration on the subtask because dates always roll up to the parent.
- Weight—Available only for the Milestone task type, this is the weight of the task. For all other task types, this field is grayed out.
Tip: After you create tasks in the project template, you can click the Gantt tab to get a visual representation of the Start and Duration of the tasks. When you set dependencies and edit task dates in the Gantt chart, the changes will be reflected in the template. For more information about how dependencies work, please see our article on Gantt Chart Dependencies.
To create a subtask, click the Drag (“ ”) icon on the left side of a task and drag it to the right.
Click the More (“ ”) button to add a Checklist to the task, mark the task as Non-billable, or add tags.
When finished, be sure to Save your template.
Tip: To begin creating a project from this template, click the Project from Template button on the top-right. After you create a project from the template, you'll be able to assign an actual user to each unnamed resource and they’ll be invited to your project and assigned to the task.