Who can use this feature:

Available on Enterprise plan

Managed templates help you recreate workflows across your account and keep them aligned at scale. You can create a template out of a workspace or a board, which acts as the “master template”. Any boards or workspaces created from this template are called instances. When you update and publish changes to the managed template, supported changes carry over to connected instances, keeping workflows consistent.

How it works

Creating a Managed template with standardized template instances goes as follows:

1Define a workspace or a single board as the managed template

This can include boards, dashboards, workdocs, and more. The boards within this workspace will then be able to send updates to all boards created from it.

2Create template instances by adding the template’s content to any workspace in your account

If the template includes multiple entities, such as boards, docs, and dashboards, these combine into a single instance. Once created, instances automatically receive supported changes from the managed template whenever changes are published. 

3Publish updates as needed

Workspace owners can click the Publish button to apply changes from the template to all connected instances.

Create a managed template

You can create a managed template from either a single board or an entire workspace.

To create one from a board, click the three-dot menu next to the board’s name and select Save as template:

You will be asked whether to move the original board to the Template center so it appears only there, or duplicate it so that it appears both in the Template center and in the left panel.

Once you make this choice, you will be prompted to select between a Standard template or a Managed template.

You can then name the template and set it as public or private, giving you control over who can use (install) the template.

Private templates are visible to all account members but can only be used by specific team members invited by the template owner on the template members page.

When finding a private template in the template center, team members who have not been added as template members will see a greyed-out Edit in a new tab button along with a Request to join option. Clicking "Request to join" will notify the template owner for approval. Once access is granted, team members will be able to use the template!

To create a managed template from a workspace, click the three-dot menu next to the workspace’s name and select Save as template:

Note: When saving a whole workspace as a template, the option to duplicate the origin isn't available. 

The workspace will be transferred to the Template center.

Create template instances

To create an instance from a managed template, open the left pane, click the blue + icon, and select Template center.

From there, you can search for the template by name or find it under Templates created in your account. Open the template and click the blue Use managed template button to add it to your account.

You can also click the arrow next to Use managed template to choose whether to add it to an existing workspace as a folder or create a new workspace where the template will be added.

Once you finish this step, a new workspace or folder will appear in your account containing the same boards, dashboards, workdocs, and more as the original template.

Note: If you delete or archive an instance, it is automatically detached from the managed template and will no longer receive updates.

Publish changes to the template

When you update a managed template, you can publish the changes so that they are applied to all connected instances. To do this, click the Publish changes button at the top right of the board:

You can then include detailed release notes explaining the updates made in this version:

These notes will automatically be added as a board discussion on the template itself and on all boards created from the template, keeping everyone informed.

Once the changes are published, all instances will reflect the updates, and their members will receive a notification to align with the latest modifications.

Template owners can edit a managed template and publish updates to all instances. Template members can edit the template and view unpublished changes in the Template center, but they cannot publish. Instance boards update only after an owner publishes.

Note: When publishing template changes, it will publish any new changes added across all components included in the Managed template. For example, when a new column is added to a Managed template and changes are published, all instances from that template will receive that new column as well. 

Which changes transfer over?

While we're constantly working on adding additional capabilities for the Managed templates feature, at the moment, the following board updates or changes will be transferred over from a Managed template to its instances once clicking the "Publish changes" button:

Changes made to a Managed template won’t always apply to existing instances, but will apply to any new instances you create.

New columns added

Any time that you add a new column to your board and then publish the changes, the newly added columns will transfer over to the template instances.

Note: When you remove a column from the managed template and publish the template update, that column is not removed from existing instances. The change only affects new instances created after you publish. If you want the column gone from existing instances, delete it on those instance boards.

New groups added

When you add new groups to your Managed template and publish the changes, the new group will also be added to the template instances.

New items and subitems added

When adding new items and subitems to your Managed template, they will be transferred over to your instances after clicking "Publish changes".

Note: Columns can’t be set as required on an instance board. This helps ensure new items can still be pushed from the managed template, since required columns added on an instance would be empty by default.

Data validation in managed templates

Data Validation helps you enforce consistent inputs across all boards created from a managed template.

Template owners control validations on template-managed columns. On instances, you can add validation rules to local columns, but can’t mark local columns as required.

How validation ownership works

Template-managed columns:

• As the template owner, you can define validation rules and mark template-managed columns as required on the managed template.
• These validations apply to all existing and new instances created from the managed template.
• On instances, validation settings for template-managed columns are not editable.

Local columns on instance boards:

• On an instance board, you can add validation rules to local columns created directly on that board.
• To make sure template owners can publish changes without being blocked, you can't set local columns as required.

Note: If an instance already has required columns or validation rules set from an earlier configuration, they’ll continue to apply. To remove legacy instance-level validations, contact Support. Cleaning up legacy rules is recommended to avoid conflicts with template-level validations.

Status and dropdown column settings changes

Any change that you make to the status column settings within a Managed template board will be synced after publish, including:

• Adding new labels
• Changing the text and color of the labels
• Definition of the "Done" status
• Column description and name
• Deactivating labels

Note: Instances owners will not be able to change any of the status column settings listed above.

Within the status column settings, we offer the option to deactivate status labels. With this capability, a Managed template owner can prevent further use of a status label on all instances while still keeping that label in place wherever it was used beforehand! However, the option to fully delete a label is not available to prevent the accidental deletion of data on template instances.

In addition, any changes made to your dropdown column settings will be transferred over as well after publishing changes on your template!

Column descriptions

Changes to column descriptions on the managed template transfer to instances when you publish the template update. New instances created from the template inherit your column descriptions.

Board permissions 

To have complete control over your instances, board permissions are directly synced from a Managed template to all boards created from it.

By setting viewing and editing permissions on a Managed template, every board created from that template will inherit the same permission settings, allowing you to maintain consistency across your entire workflow.

Following this logic, here's what you will see when trying to edit board permissions from any of the instances:

Tip: We're working on adding additional capabilities in the future, so stay tuned!

Identify a Managed template

Managed templates are marked with a crown icon in the Template center:

When you open an instance, you will see both the crown icon and a paper clip in the board header. Expanding the header shows which managed template the instance is connected to and provides a link back to it in the Template center.

View all instances

From the top bar of any Managed template, you can easily view and access all template instances that were created from it with the click of a button! All you need to do is click on the "Instances" button at the top of your screen, and you'll then be able to see a list of all connected instances and the last publish status for each of them, including successes and errors:

Managing templates with dozens of instances has never been easier. Here, you can find instances that are created from the same template grouped together for a clear overview. You can also quickly track each component's location, including its product, workspace, and board.

Tip: Instantly jump to the product, workspace, or board by clicking them instead of searching through your account.

Need to focus on instances with publishing errors? Use the status filter to sort and identify boards experiencing publishing issues, making it simple to resolve them efficiently. With the filter, you can also monitor the number of successfully synced or failed groups during and after publishing.

Detach an instance

In case you want to detach an instance from the Managed template so that it no longer receives updates from the template, click on the "Instances" button at the top of your screen to display a list of all connected instances. Next, find the instance you want to detach, click on the three-dot menu next to it, and select "Detach Instance."

Note: When you choose to detach an instance, this action is permanent and cannot be undone.

Delete a template

If you'd like to delete your template, you can do so from the three-dot menu next to "Instances". Select "Delete template", and then either choose "Permanently delete" or "Move to workspace" to move it from the template center back to your workspace.

Alternatively, you can find the template you want to delete in the template center, click on the three dots next to "Edit in the new tab", and select "Delete template".

Automate template creation

You can use custom automations to create new template instances. For example, an HR team could set up an automation that creates a new onboarding board from a managed template whenever a candidate is marked as hired.

Tip: Check out this quick YouTube video to learn more about how to automatically create a new board from your templates!

Managed template usage dashboard 

Admins can now access a usage dashboard with a clear view of all managed template activity by heading to the admin section, selecting "Usage stats", and then choosing "Managed templates". This includes the total number of templates, the number of instances in use, and which templates are used most often:

The dashboard helps prevent unexpected issues by showing when you’re approaching or have reached your template limit, so you can take action before workflows are disrupted. It also makes it easier to understand how templates are being used and manage them more effectively across the account.

Supported columns

While most columns are supported when transferring newly added columns from a Managed template to an instance, some are only partially supported. 

The following column types are partially supported:

• Timeline Column: column settings are partially supported (The option to set as deadline, connect with a Duration Column, or set date reminders will not transfer over from managed template)
• Dependency Column: column settings are not supported
• Button Column: column settings are not supported 
• Progress Column: column settings are not supported
• Connect Boards Column: column settings are not supported
• Mirror Column: column settings are not supported
• Email column: Changes in individual email addresses are not supported

Limitations

There are a few limitations that are important to keep in mind when using our Managed templates feature. They are as follows:

• You can only publish up to 20 newly added columns at a time
• You can publish up to 25 newly added items and 20 groups when publishing new changes 
• In case you publish changes with an unsupported column, the instances will still receive any supported columns that were published, however, the unsupported column(s) will not be added to the instance
• You can include up to 30 components (boards, docs, dashboards) and up to 2500 items in a template
• You can include up to 1000 instances per template 

• You can include up to 300 columns per board in a managed template