A template is a structure you define once and load onto as many jobs as you like. There are five types, and each one holds a different part of a job.
You reach them from Templates in the sidebar, which expands into Area Templates, Selection Templates, Item Templates, Task Templates and Inspection Templates.
The five types
The first three work together to produce a selections portal. Combining templates to produce a working selections portal shows the three of them on one job.
Area templates hold a list of areas, each belonging to an area type, in the order you set. Note that they point at your account's shared area records rather than holding copies, which is why renaming an area affects everywhere it is used.
Selection templates are three levels deep. A group per area type, the decisions inside each group, and a selection type on each decision.
Item templates hold one item group per selection type, and the products inside each group. Your upgrade prices and any Price on Application flags live here, and they carry across onto every job you load the template into. That makes an item template your published upgrade price list as much as a product list.
Task templates hold task groups and the tasks inside them, with durations, offsets and prerequisites. HomePulse calculates a total template length from them, which is what drives your forecast completion date on a job.
Inspection templates hold inspection groups and the checklist items inside them.
How they reach a job
Area and selection templates are the flexible pair. You can load several of each onto one job and remove any of them afterwards, which is what makes a base-plus-packs library possible.
Item and task templates load one each, from the empty state of their screen, so you load them before adding anything by hand.
Inspection templates are chosen when you create an individual inspection, either from a job directly, or from the inspections tab.
Loading copies, it does not link
When you load a template onto a job, HomePulse copies the structure into that job and the job owns its copy from then on. Editing the template afterwards changes future jobs and leaves existing ones exactly as they are, which is what stops a client's selections shifting underneath them while they are choosing.
The one exception is areas. An area is a shared account record, so an area template gives a job a pointer to the same area rather than a copy of it.
Where to start
Build a selection template first, because it is the largest piece of setup and the one you would otherwise repeat on every job. Then an item template alongside it, covering the same selection types, since that is where your pricing lives and the two have to match.
Area templates are quick and worth doing next. Task templates are worth it once your build schedule is settled. Inspection templates can wait until you are running inspections in HomePulse.
What to do next
Building an Area Template
Building a Selection Template
Building an Item Template
Building a Task Template
Building an Inspection Template
Related articles
Combining templates to produce a working selections portal
Cloning templates into a job
How many templates do you actually need
Building add-on template packs
Area Types and Selection Types: the two axes that control everything