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  • Product: Practice CS

Set up project templates

Project templates help you quickly add projects for clients without duplicating data entry.
Project templates help you quickly add projects for clients without duplicating data entry. Project templates contain key project information, such as date calculations, recurrence patterns, project tasks, budget information, and assignments. You can add a new blank project template and modify it, create a copy of an existing template, or copy information from one tab on a template to the same tab on another template.
When you add a project to a client, you select a project template, and project information such as date calculations and future project generation is filled in from that template.
To open the
Project Templates
 screen, choose
Setup
Templates
Projects
, or select the
Project Templates
 action icon in the Clients navigation pane.
note
This menu command is available only if you are licensed for the Project Management module and have security permissions to access project templates.

Add or copy a project template

To create a new project template, do one of the following:
  • Select
    Add
     to create a new template.
  • Right-click an existing template in the
    Project Templates
     list and choose
    Copy Project Template
     to create a copy that you can modify.
After you create a new template, add or modify template information as needed.

Add template information

Some items in the dropdown list in this screen come from entries made through the
Setup
 menu, such as
Setup
Tracking Descriptions
. If you have the required security permissions, you can also right-click in these dropdown lists to add, edit, or delete items.

Main tab

In the
Project Templates
 screen, select the
Main
 tab and complete the fields as needed.

Identification

  • ID
     — Enter a unique alphanumeric ID of up to 11 characters. This field is required. The ID is saved in uppercase letters regardless of how you enter it.
  • Description
     — Enter a brief description of the project that staff can easily recognize.
  • Invoice description
     — Enter the project description as you want it to appear on client invoices.

Project information

  • Engagement
     — Select the engagement to use for the project. This field is required. If you have security permissions, you can right-click to add or edit an engagement in the list.
  • Priority
     — Select
    Low
    ,
    Medium
    , or
    High
    .
  • Tracking
     — Select a tracking description for the project. If you have security permissions, you can right-click to add or edit tracking descriptions in the list.

Groupings

Groupings let you categorize project templates for filtering project lists and creating reports. You can group projects by responsible staff member and by department.
Select the down arrow button and select a staff role, such as
Client's Manager
, to have the application complete this information using the client's assignments.

Entities

Select the
More
 button to select the client entities to assign to the project. When you assign an entity to the project, the application can automatically create this project for new clients that are assigned that entity. The
Associated Entities
 field shows all entities assigned to the project template.

Budget information

Select
Base on tasks
 if you want to base budget information on the information set up on the project tasks. Select
Calculate amount automatically
 to calculate budget information based on staff rates. Leave both checkboxes cleared if you want to enter budget information yourself in the
Hours
 and
Amount
 fields.

Assigned

Select the
More
 button next to the
Staff
 field to select a staff member to assign to the project, or select the down arrow button to assign a staff member dynamically based on role, such as
Client's Partner
 or
Engagement's Biller
.
If you are licensed for the Staff Management module, you can also do the following:
  • Manually assign staff based on qualifications. Select the
    More
     button next to the
    Staff qualifications
     field and create a filter to specify which qualifications the assigned staff member must have.
  • Automatically assign staff based on a work queue. When you select the
    Work queue
     option, the project is placed in a queue that appears in the Work Queue portlet of the Staff Dashboard only for staff who meet the qualifications.

Generation

Select
Recurrence
 to open the
Recurrence
 window, where you can specify project frequency, dates, and generation options for future projects.

Solution

  • Select solution
     — Select a solution to use for the project from the dropdown list.
  • Solution path
     or
    File path
     — If you select
    Other
     for the solution, select the
    More
     button to go to the solution shortcut or application file.
  • Completion event
     — Available when you select
    UltraTax CS
     in the
    Select solution
     field. Select the status event that marks the task's completion.
  • Extension event
     — Available when you select
    UltraTax CS
     in the
    Select solution
     field. Select the status event that extends the project. Set up at least one extension on the project template to extend a project through a status event from UltraTax CS.

Extensions

If you want to be able to extend a project due date, enter the number of months and/or days from the original due date for each extension. You can set up a maximum of four extensions.
If you don’t set up extensions on the project template, extensions are not available when you use the template to create a project. Extensions added later to a project template are not added to projects that have already been created. However, you can still extend an existing project by right-clicking and choosing
Add Entry
 in the
Project
 window.

Tasks tab

This tab shows selected task information associated with the current project template, including the activity, staff, target completion month and day, and tracking description.
To add a task to the project template, select
Add
 and complete the information in the
Task Template
 window. You can also double-click a row in the grid to open the
Task Template
 window. Select any column heading to sort the grid by that column.
The
Links
 tab lets you add links to items that you want to associate with the project template. You can link to files, websites, or documents outside the application, including documents stored in FileCabinet CS or GoFileRoom. You can also link to interaction items within the application.
The links you add to a project template are added by default to all new projects generated from that template.
To add a link to the project template, right-click within the
Links
 tab and select the command that applies to the type of link you want to add. Then go to the item and select
OK
.

Custom Fields tab

The
Custom Fields
 tab provides fields in which you can enter additional information for the project template.
Custom fields can be checkboxes, dates, lists, numeric fields, staff lists, or text-entry fields. Date custom fields include a dropdown calendar, and numeric custom fields include a dropdown calculator.

Modify a project template

To modify a project template, select the template in the
Project Templates
 list, select
Edit
, make the necessary changes, and then select
Enter
 to save them.

Copy the selected information to another project template

The application lets you copy all values from one tab of a project template to the same tab of another project template.
To copy values from one project template to another, right-click the source template in the
Project Templates
 list and choose one of the following commands:
  • Copy Main Values To...
  • Copy Dates To...
  • Copy Tasks To...
  • Copy Links To...
  • Copy Custom Field Values To...
In the
Copy <Items> To
 window, select the destination template in the
Copy To
 field. Select the
I understand this will replace any existing data
 checkbox, and then select
Copy Now
. Select
Enter
 to save your changes to the destination template.
After copying tab values from one project template to another, you might need to modify information in the destination template to make it compatible with existing template information. For example, after copying task values to another template, you might be prompted that the
Target Start Month
 and
Target Start Day
 values conflict with the dates in the project template. Resolve these conflicts manually before saving changes to the destination template.

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