Reusable templates and how to organize them

Templates are where you encode your process. The teams that get the most out of LyncView spend a few hours up front getting templates right, then almost never touch them again.

How many templates should I have?

Most service businesses end up with 3-7 main templates plus a handful of variants. Too few and each project requires heavy customization. Too many and you spend more time maintaining templates than running projects.

Start with one template per "type of work that has a meaningfully different sequence." If two types of work share 80% of the same steps, make them one template and customize per project.

Naming conventions

• Type, not client. "Residential Permit" not "Smith House Permit."
• Specific enough to differentiate. "Permit" is too vague if you do residential AND commercial.
• Consistent prefix when grouping. "Permit — Residential", "Permit — Commercial", "Permit — Variance."

Default due dates

Each item has a "due offset" — number of days from project start. Use them. Even if you adjust per project, having defaults means new projects come pre-loaded with reasonable expectations, and the client portal shows projected timelines from day 1.

When to create variants vs. customize per project

Make a variant template when a difference applies to multiple projects. Customize per project when the difference is one-off. Rule of thumb: if you've customized the same way on three projects, that's a new template.

Updating templates

Edits to templates only affect new projects, never existing ones. This is intentional — process changes shouldn't disrupt active client work. If you want to apply a process update to an existing project, do it manually.