Creating Project Templates
Project templates enable you to create standardized NetSuite project records for your most frequently used projects.
To create a project template:
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Go to Lists > Relationships > Project Templates > New.
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In the Custom Project Form field, select a form for projects created from this template.
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Enter a name for this template.
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In the Project Manager field, select a project resource to serve as the project manager for projects created with this template. Only employees with both the Project Resource and Project Manager fields checked on the Human Resources subtab of their employee records appear in the Project Manager field.
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If you use NetSuite OneWorld, select a subsidiary for this template.
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In the Scheduling Method field, select Forward or Backward.
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If you know the date your project must begin, select Forward and enter the estimated date work will start on the project. You can change this date at any time during the life of the project. NetSuite schedules all project tasks without predecessors to start on this date. You can change any dates selected when creating projects from this template.
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If you know the date your project must end, select Backward and enter the estimated date work must be completed. You can change this date at any time during the life of the project. NetSuite schedules all project tasks without successors to end on this date. You can change this date at any time during the life of the project. NetSuite schedules all project tasks without predecessors to start on this date. You can change any dates selected when creating projects from this template.
For more information on scheduling methods, see Project Scheduling Methods.
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On the Resources subtab, you can add generic resources for your project.
If you use Resource Allocations, you can create new resource allocations for generic resources from the Resources subtab. Resource allocations for specific resources cannot be created for project templates.
Note:Specific project resources and task assignments cannot be added to project templates. Generic resources can be used as placeholders in project templates. For more information, see Generic Resources.
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On the Financial subtab, in the Billing Type field, select a billing type for this template and fill in any additional information.
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If you use Job Costing and Project Budgeting, you must select a project expense type for this template on the Financial subtab. Check the Apply to all time entries box to apply the selected project expense type to all time tracked against projects created from this template.
You can also enter budget information for both cost and billing budgets on the Budget subtab. For more information about entering budgets, see Creating Project Budgets.
Note:Project templates with a duration longer than 10 years do not display project budgets. To enter a budget for your template, ensure that the duration is less than 10 years.
Note:Project templates with budgets displaying more than 20 categories will experience slower performance when creating projects from templates. It is recommended that you add only the most commonly used budget categories when creating project budgets. For more information on selecting categories for project budgets, see Setting Up Project Budgeting.
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On the Preferences subtab, select which preferences you want to apply to projects created from this template. For more information on how to use project-specific preferences, see Creating a Project Record.
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Click Save.
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On the Schedule subtab, click New Project Task to open the project task/milestone form in a new window.
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Enter information for your project task and click Save.
For more information on creating project tasks, see Creating a Project Task Record.
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Continue adding project tasks, milestones, and summary tasks to build your project plan.
Creating a Project from a Template
After you have saved your project template, you can create a new project record using the template. You can apply a template to a new project record or you can initiate the creation of a new record from the template record.
To create a new project record from a project template record:
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Go to Lists > Relationships > Project Templates.
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Click View next to the template you want to use.
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Click Create Project at the top of the template record.
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Enter a name for your new project record.
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Optionally, select a customer for your new project.
Note:After a customer has been selected for a project record, you can only change the selected customer if there are no transactions associated with the project..
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Click Create Project.
When creating a project from a project template, editing of the project or template is not available until the conversion is complete. Each conversion is completed in the background, and you may continue to work in other areas of NetSuite. A message is displayed alerting you that some actions within the project or template are not available. When your project record is available, you can click Edit to add any other information specific to your new project.
A Project Template field is also available on the new project form enabling you to select a project template to populate fields when creating a new project. Selecting a template will automatically populate some fields in the Project Overview section. After saving, your new project will begin copying the remaining template information to your new project record.
Similar to creating a project record from a template record, not all information will be available immediately. Depending on the amount of information in your template, it could take several minutes for all of your information to be copied. Prior to saving the new project record, the Project Template field can be edited to change the selected template. Changing the selected template will rewrite any fields that have been edited with the new template information. After the new project record is saved, the Project Template field is no longer available.
In the event that template conversion fails and NetSuite is not able to create the new project record, you will see a specific error message alerting you to the problem and offering a solution that you can fix and initiate the project creation again. For example, a task on the template contains a Finish No Later Then date set in the past.
Saving a Project as a Template
You can also create a project template from an existing project. Go to Lists > Relationships > Projects and click View next to the project you want to use as a template. Click Create Template at the top of the project record. Enter a name for your template and click OK.
When creating a project template from a project, editing of the project or template is not available until the conversion is complete. Each conversion is completed in the background, and you may continue to work in other areas of NetSuite. A message is displayed alerting you that some actions within the project or template are not available. A project template cannot have any transactions, charges, actual time, resource allocations, project resources, or project task assignments.
Projects with budgets displaying more than 20 categories will experience slower performance when creating templates from projects. It is recommended that you add only the most commonly used budget categories when creating project budgets. For more information on selecting categories for project budgets, see Setting Up Project Budgeting.