Apply a template
Create work from a template for one client or for hundreds, and read the results.
A template does nothing until it's applied. Applying builds the tasks, sets the dates, and assigns the owners.
Applying to one client
- Open the template and apply it.
- Choose the Client.
- Set the Period / tax year — for example, TY 2024 or Mar 2025.
- Optionally set an Assignee override (optional), or leave it on Use template rules.
- Apply.
Period is not optional thinking
The period drives every period-relative due date in the template, and it's what distinguishes this year's work from last year's in your task list.
Applying TY 2024 work with the period left at the current year produces tasks with the wrong deadlines and a list where two years of the same job look identical. Set it deliberately every time.
Assignee override
Use template rules honours whatever each task specifies. An override assigns the whole job to one person instead.
Override when one person is doing all of it. Leave it alone when the template's per-task assignments are the point.
Applying in bulk
Bulk apply runs a template across many clients at once — the annual "create every 1040 for tax year 2024" job.
Select your clients, set the period once, and preview before committing. The preview sorts every client into four outcomes:
- Will apply — good to go
- Skipped — deliberately not applied, usually because the work already exists
- Needs attention — something about this client blocks it and a human should look
- Failed — didn't apply
After the run you get the same breakdown with Applied counts.
Read the results
The preview is the point of bulk apply, and skipping it is how a firm ends up with four hundred duplicate jobs.
Needs attention is the category to actually read. It usually means a client is missing something the template depends on — no assignee resolvable, a missing custom field, an inactive record. Those clients silently don't get work created, and nobody notices until the deadline.
Skipped is usually good news. It generally means the work already exists, which is the protection against running the same bulk apply twice.
Applying versus recurring
Apply when you decide to create the work.
A recurring schedule when the work should create itself every period without anyone deciding.
Monthly bookkeeping should be recurring. An annual tax season run is usually a deliberate bulk apply, because you want to choose the moment and check the list.
Notes and limits
- Applying the same template twice to the same client and period is generally caught and skipped.
- Editing the template afterwards doesn't change work already created.
- Tasks arrive in their configured starting status.
- A bulk apply respects your permissions — clients you can't edit aren't touched.