How to work with project templates

Using project templates in OpenProject helps your team save time, avoid repetitive setup, and ensure a consistent project structure across your organization.

Let us have a look at how you can set up project templates in OpenProject.

3 steps to create a new project template

In OpenProject, only administrators can create and remove project templates. That way, there is a handful of people ensuring consistency and overseeing the amount and structure of templates.

To set up a new project template, you can either create a new project from scratch or convert an existing one into a template. If you want to make sure that all settings are predefined as you need, we suggest creating a new template project.

In short, there are three steps:

1. Create a new project.
2. Adjust all settings so that the project is a good template.
3. Mark the project as template.

We will go through all three steps by using an example use case.

Project templates example use case

Let us use the example of organizing an event, e.g. a conference. This is something that can occur frequently, e.g. quarterly or annually. In order not to have to start from scratch every time and also to help in case different colleagues are organizing conferences, a template can be very useful to save time and build on past experiences.

We’ll walk you through which modules can be pre-configured to get the most value out of templates.

1. Create and name your project template

First, you create a new project by clicking on +Project on the header menu.

Now you see the screen where your template will later appear as well. Select a template to start with prefilled settings or start with a blank project.

Then, you name your project that will later become your template.

When you create your project template as described above, consider adding template to its name, making it easy to distinguish it from your normal projects. Your project template will appear e.g. in the project lists so that you would want to be able to see which of the projects serve as templates.

We advise to add a short description that will also appear in the overview of selecting a new project from a template. You can also define whether your new project should be the subproject of another project. For the function of being a template, this is not relevant, but if you use several templates, you could think about organizing them all under a “templates” project.

2. Adjust the project settings

Modules template

Now, go to the project settings and activate the relevant modules for your template. For an event template, this could be modules like Activity, Boards, Budgets, Calendars, Documents and more.

Work package template

Next, set up the work packages needed to manage your project from initiation to closing. Thereby include relations and hierarchies to make it quick and easy when you start a new project from your template.

Of course you can also customize your work package form in the template to include all relevant information for your organization. Every time you open a new work package, you will then see the attribute list that you had set up.

Agile boards template

If you are using the boards view to get things done with your team, set these up, too. Configuring the lists of action boards will provide you with prefilled boards as they automatically draw input from your work packages.

Members template

Consider setting up your members for your project templates. Either the whole team will always be the same or you set up the core members that will for sure be part of a project like this. Define roles and permissions, rates and groups.

Custom fields template

Creating custom fields in your project template allows you to have it available for all future projects based on this template. We created for example an approval field so that managers can approve artworks or merchandise or the likes. Please note that if a custom field is enabled globally, it will automatically be displayed in a template project.

Project attributes template

If you want to display specific attributes on the project overview page, you can select existing or create new project attributes for your template project.

3. Set your project as template

We showed only the most relevant modules to give you an idea about the benefits of project templates. Other modules like Meetings or Wiki can of course also be set up for your template.

Important

Please note that due to complexity reasons, the modules Budgets and Time and costs cannot be copied with content for now. Please do not set these up in your template as when you use the template, these modules will appear empty in your newly created project.

---

Once you’re happy with all settings on your template project, it’s essential to set it as template so that it will appear in the template selection when creating a new project.

To make this project a template, navigate to the project settings to either:

A) Go to information and click on the 3-dot-menu to choose set as template.

B) Or go to templates and enable the button to “set as template”.

In case a project template is not relevant anymore and should not be used any longer, this is also the spot where you can remove it from templates.

---

Congratulations, you’ve created your first project template in OpenProject. Now, if you click on +Project again, your template will appear in the selection overview:

Project templates help you start faster, stay consistent, and improve project outcomes — especially when your team manages recurring workflows.

For more information about project templates and other OpenProject-related questions, please see our documentation.