Jobs (Basic): Create & apply job templates

Creating job templates will ultimately save you loads of time and is a must for working efficiently. You’ll need them for all your frequently used procedures as well as for adding jobs to pipelines.

Create job templates

A job template is created by a firm owner, an admin or any team member who has access rights to manage templates.

To create a job template, go to Templates > Firm templates from the left menu bar, open the Jobs tab, then click Create template.

See below for the details about each numbered field in the Create job template window:

a. Template name: Give the job template a name you’ll see when selecting it (e.g., 1040 Return).

b. Job name: Give the job name displayed on the job cards in a pipeline. Use shortcodes to add dynamic data (such as the specific account name and due date) to make jobs easily identifiable. 

c. Time budget: Set the time that should be allocated to completing the job. This field is available only to firm owners, admins and team members with the Manage time budget access right. 

d. Priority: Choose the priority level for the job: Low, High, Medium or Urgent.

e. Description: Use different text formatting, emojis, bullets, numbered lists, links and even shortcodes here. The shortcodes add dynamic data to automatically add more specific information to a job description.

f. Assignees: Select one or more task assignees. You can select Team members or Roles:

• Team members: Select a team member's name or several names.

• Roles: Select an account role or roles. Once the job is created from the template, all team members assigned to the relevant roles in a client account will be allocated to the job.

g. Start date: Set the date when the assigned team member should start working on a job. It's not the same as the job creation date. The job is visible inside a pipeline once it is created, but it is not visible in the calendar view unless you set the Start and/or Due dates. 

h. Due date: Set the date by which the job must be completed, calculated from the start date. When you have it set, you can easily tweak your calendar view to see all your due dates inside the calendar. This also influences the color of the counters on the job card.

Start and Due dates are considered either relative or absolute (approximate or firm):

• Relative (default): Set a period of time for how long after the start date the job is due (e.g., start one day after the job was created; finish two weeks after the start date). If no start date has been set, the due date is calculated from the job creation date. Note, that you cannot set more than 10 000 units (days/months/years).
• Absolute: Toggle on Absolute dates to set start and due dates from the calendar instead (for example, April 15).

i. Client-facing status: Toggle Show in the client portal to set up a job status that will be visible to clients when the job is added to a pipeline. Here's more on assigning the client-facing status via the job template.

j. Add: Click to enable a comment or a wiki page section for the job template. 

k. Comment (first, click "j"): Leave any useful notes here. For example, specify details your team members might need to know to do the job.

l. Add a wiki page (first, click "j"): Leave internal instructions suitable for this kind of job for your team members.

m. Save & exit, Save and Cancel: Click Save & exit to save the template and go back to the templates list; Save to keep your changes and continue editing the template or Cancel to exit without saving.

Customize job names and descriptions with shortcodes

While creating a job template, include dynamic data—such as the account name or due date—in a job’s name, job's name and description for a client. This way, you can: 

• Easily tell jobs apart by the specific details in their names once they are inside a pipeline and displayed on job cards.
• Automatically add more specific information to job description.
• Share specific information in the job's name and description for a client.

By selecting these shortcodes, you can include any of these details in a job’s name, job's name for a client or a description:

• Account name: The account the job is for
• Account custom field: Any custom account field
• Date shortcodes: Any date, such as a due date set in the job template
• Pipeline periodicity: The job’s schedule settings in the selected pipeline
• Priority: The priority set in the job template

Here, find some examples of job names or descriptions with shortcodes and how they would appear in a pipeline or for the client:

Apply job templates

Once you have some job templates, you can speed up the process of creating jobs. Job templates are applied manually or automatically by selecting a default.

To apply a job template manually:

1. Create a new job.

2. Add accounts and indicate the pipeline.

3. Click the Template list to expand it, then select the template you want. Check the template details; edit them if needed.

4. Continue creating the job by clicking Add at the bottom left.

Default job template

The default job template is automatically applied to all jobs created inside a pipeline. To set it, click on the pipeline name on the  Pipelines page, from the Templates or Workflow sections. 

Once the default job template is chosen, it’s automatically applied...

• ...when a job is manually added to the pipeline.
• ...when a recurring job is automatically added to the pipeline according to the schedule settings. For more details, go here.
• ...when a job is automatically added to the pipeline according to the settings of the client sign-up form. For more details, go here.
  

Edit job templates

To make changes to a job template:

1. Go to Templates > Firm templates from the left menu bar, select Jobs, then click either on the job template name in the list or select Edit in the pull-down.

2. Make changes to the job template, then click the Save & exit button.

Duplicate job templates

Create new job templates from existing ones: Click three dots to the far right of the job template, then select Duplicate from the pull-down. The job template copy will be saved with the appropriate suffix (e.g., Form 940 (2)).

Delete job templates

To remove a job template completely, go to  Templates > Firm templates from the left menu bar, select Jobs, click three dots to the far right of the job template, select Delete in the pull-down, then click the Delete button to confirm.