Using Templates in Coordinate: A Comprehensive Guide

In the world of project management, systemizing your processes through the use of templates can greatly enhance efficiency, precision, and consistency. This blog post guides you step-by-step on how to use templates in Coordinate, detailing how to create, customize, and assign tasks to specific roles, and effectively use template due dates.

Step 1: Creating a New Template

Start by heading over to the 'Template' section located in the upper part of your Coordinate interface. In our example, we'll be creating a simple 'Annual Check-in' template. This template creation process is quite similar to creating an empty project.

Here are the sub-steps:

1. Click on 'Create a new template'.
2. Name the template 'Annual Check-in'.
3. Create a new task group within the template named 'Annual Check-in Task Group'.
4. Inside the task group, create tasks relevant to your project. For instance, the first task could be 'Complete a Survey', and the second task could be 'Check-in Meeting'.
5. You can also add additional information, like a link to the survey or other instructions necessary for the tasks.

Step 2: Appending the Template to Your Project

After creating your template, go back to your project. There, you can append the new template you created. Click on 'Append Template', select 'Annual Check-in', and your template will be added to your project.

Step 3: Creating Project Roles

Coordinate allows you to assign tasks not just to specific users, but also to specific roles, making the task assignment more dynamic and adaptable.

1. Go to 'Settings' and navigate to the 'Project Roles' section.
2. Add roles relevant to your business. For this example, we'll add 'Client' and 'Account Manager'.

Step 4: Assigning Roles in Your Project

In your project, assign the newly created roles to the respective individuals. In our case, assign the 'Client' role to 'Bob', and assign the 'Account Manager' role to yourself (or any other user). Keep in mind that people can have multiple roles, and not everyone needs to have a role.

Step 5: Assigning Tasks to Roles in the Template

With roles created and assigned, you can now assign tasks in your template to these roles.

1. Go back to the 'Annual Check-in' template.
2. Assign 'Complete a Survey' to 'Client'.
3. Assign 'Check-in Meeting' to 'Account Manager'.

Now, when you append this template to any project, the tasks will automatically be assigned to the users holding those roles in that specific project.

Step 6: Adding Template Due Dates

Adding template due dates can greatly streamline your project process. You specify due dates in relative business days, and Coordinate will space everything out accordingly, ensuring tasks aren't due on holidays or weekends.

1. Delete the 'Annual Check-in' task group from your project.
2. Go back to the 'Annual Check-in' template in the 'Template' section.
3. Let's specify the 'Complete a Survey' task to be done on day 1 and the 'Check-in Meeting' task to be done 10 business days later.

Note that Coordinate will calculate the relative days based on your specified business days, which you can adjust according to your work week and holiday settings.

Step 7: Using the Template

Go back to your project and append the 'Annual Check-in' template again. Now, it will ask you to specify the date for the tasks in the template. If you pick the 24th as the 'Check-in Meeting' date, Coordinate will automatically calculate that the 'Complete a Survey' task will be due 10 business days earlier.

Step 8: Mixing and Matching Templates

For complex projects, you can create more templates and use them as building blocks. Simply append the necessary templates for each client or project. This flexibility allows you to use Coordinate as a powerful tool for standardizing your processes and ensuring that your team is always adhering to the best practices.

In conclusion, templates in Coordinate can drastically increase productivity and uniformity across your projects, providing an efficient system that adapts to the roles and timelines of each project. Whether you are conducting an annual check-in or any other project, Coordinate's templates will always help keep you on track.