How to set up record templates

Save a half-filled record, with its owner and status, so your team can start the same kind of record without retyping it.

A record template is a record of one of your own Objects that starts half filled in. An admin makes templates on the Object's Templates tab in Settings › Objects, and your team picks one from the New button on the Object's list. See What is an Object? for what an Object is.

At Fairgreen Golf Co., most Repairs are warranty repairs: the same fault type, the same owner in the warehouse team, and the status Received. A Warranty repair template fills all three, so logging one takes the customer's name and nothing else.

Before you start

Making and changing templates needs the Define Objects row on Settings › Permissions, which admins hold by default. Templates belong to your own Objects only.

Using a template needs the same Create permission as any new record, such as Repairs · Create. See How to set who can see and edit an Object.

How do you make a template?

Open Settings › Objects, click the Object, and open its Templates tab. Press New template.

Type a Template name, such as Warranty repair. This is what people pick from the New button.
Fill in the fields the template should start with. Leave a field empty to leave it empty on the new record.
Pick an Owner and a Status if every record from this template starts with the same ones.
Press Save template.

Nothing is required in a template, even a field the record itself requires. The required check happens when somebody saves the record.

Which fields can a template fill?

Most of them. A few are left out, and the editor names them under "Not offered here", because Tideswell fills them in or they are added after the record exists:

Fields that work themselves out, and Reference number fields.
File fields, since files are attached to a record that already exists.
Fields that cannot be typed into.

The Status list offers only the statuses a record can start in. A status that can only be reached from another status, set with Can be entered from, is left out. See How to set up the stages a record moves through.

How does your team use a template?

Press the New button on the Object's list, such as New Repair. Once the Object has a template, the button opens a menu: Blank, then each template by name.

Picking a template opens the usual new-record form with the template's values already in it. Change anything, then save it as an ordinary record. Nothing is written until you save, and the record does not stay linked to the template.

What if part of a template no longer fits?

Tideswell leaves that part out and says so. If a field was archived or changed type since the template was saved, the form opens with a note, "Some of this template was left out:", followed by what and why.

The template's own row on the Templates tab shows the same note under "Left out when this template is used:". Open it, check it, and press Save template; the editor warns "Saving will leave these out for good:" first.

How do you change or delete a template?

Press Edit on its row to change it, or Delete to remove it. The delete confirmation says that records already made from it stay exactly as they are.

Can any new record start with an owner and a status?

Yes. The new-record form has Owner and Status whether you start from a template or from Blank. Owner starts empty and Status reads No status, unless a template filled them. See How to set a record's status and owner for what each means.