5 min read

Feature

Creating new projects and connecting them to your portfolio is easier than ever with automations! This article will review how to manually add projects and how to automatically link them, as well as how to use templates to make your workflow even sleeker.

Connect a project manually

To create a new project manually, head over to your portfolio and click "Add project".

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The drop-down menu will allow you to choose from your recent projects or search for other projects in your account if you wish to connect an existing project to your portfolio. To create a new project within this portfolio, click "Create new project".

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Next, name your project and either choose from an existing account template or use the "Standard project" template to start from scratch. Click "Create project" when you're done.

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Now, you'll be able to see all connected projects in your portfolio, and input some project details such as "Project health" and planned timeline.

Create a project automatically

There are a few automations you can enable to create new projects and connect them to your portfolio. Two steps are involved to make this process fully automated, and we'll review the first in this section and the second in the following section.

To create a project automatically, you need to first set the right conditions. You will need:

An origin board containing the relevant details to be turned into a project
A trigger that occurs when a project needs to be created
An automation set up from the origin board aligning the information with the trigger

Let's look at an example together. If you have a board where you manage prospective projects, for example, a requests and approvals board, head to "Automate" to set up an automation from that board.

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Tip: The "Project Requests & Approvals" board seen here is a template available in our Template Store.

Click "+Add automation" to create a new custom automation, and then when you click "When this happens", select "status changes to something" from the dropdown menu.

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Next, set your "Status" to the "Request Status" column, and the label to "Approved". For "then do this", choose "create item in board". Now, you can choose your portfolio board for the board, and then click "item" to choose out how you'd like the new board to map out the items from your approvals board.

Now that we're set up on that end, we have to head back to our portfolio to complete the next step. Click "Integrate" to set up the new boards that have been created using the previous step.

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Use keyword search in the search bar or scroll until you find "Create project from template" integration marked with the star icon⭐ on the top left.

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You have 3 different variations of the same automation to choose from here.

How to choose which automation is right for your workflow:

"When an item is created create a project from template" is used when you want all automation-created project boards to follow the same template's structure.
"When an item is created and only if status is something create a project from template" is used like the first, but considers an additional condition; a specific label in the Status Column. For example, you only want to create project boards from projects designated as "long-term" or "company wide" in the Status Column.
"When an item is created and only if person is assigned to someone create a project from template" is similar to the second, but considers a different condition; a person or people assigned in the People Column.

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Now, click "project" to choose the template you wish to model your project boards after, select board permissions, and customize the board's name. Our pro tip here is to click the "+" and use the "item name" supported field to dynamically generate the new board's name from the item's name in your approvals board.

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Tip: Expand the "Advanced" settings to choose which Workspace and folder the board is created in, and even assign board owners and subscribers.

Now, each time a project's status is changed to "Approved" in your Project Requests & Approvals board, you'll see a new project board created in your portfolio!

Troubleshooting

Let's review a few issues that might come up while managing projects with automations and try to solve them together.

I can't find the board I want to use as a template

If you can't find the template you wish to use, go back and make sure it is saved as a template. If it isn't, you can click the 3-dot menu, "More actions", and then "Save as a template". It is important to note that once the project board becomes a template, it will move to the Template Center and will no longer appear in your left pane.

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Another important thing to note is that you are trying to use a project board template, and not a regular board template.

Only project board templates can be connected to a portfolio, while regular board templates, even if they are used to manage a project, cannot be connected. You can identify the board type by its icon in the left pane. A regular board's icon has a vertical line at the left, while a project board's icon has 3 horizontal gantt-style lines.

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To convert a regular template board to a project board template, head to the template editor. Click the 3-dot menu on the board's header, click "More actions" and then "Convert board to project".

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