Templates

Understanding Tallyfy templates

Templates are the core building blocks in Tallyfy. They are reusable patterns or blueprints for your standard business processes and documents. Templates define the steps and structure to ensure work is done consistently every time.

Why templates matter

Templates form the foundation of effective process management in any organization. Without standardized templates, businesses often struggle with inconsistent work quality, wasted time reinventing processes, and knowledge that disappears when employees leave. Templates solve these problems by creating a single source of truth for how work should be done, making training easier, reducing errors, and allowing for continuous improvement.

Template vs. Blueprint

In the Tallyfy app, we call these Templates. If you use the Tallyfy API (for coding integrations), they are called Blueprints. It’s the same thing, just different names.

Templates aren’t just for big, complicated processes. They are also great for documenting the many smaller, specific workflows that teams do often (the ‘long tail’ mentioned in the Introduction). Creating templates for these simple but frequent tasks helps everyone do them correctly and consistently.

Key ideas about templates

• Standard way: Templates set the official standard for how a process should run.
• Use again and again: Create a template once, then use it many times.
• Do it the same way: Ensures every time the process runs, it follows the same rules.
• Handle more work: Templates help you manage more work efficiently as you grow.

Types of Templates

Tallyfy has two main types of templates:

1. Procedure templates: Use these for step-by-step guides, standard operating procedures (SOPs), or any specific how-to that involves a sequence of actions.
   • Define tasks that happen one after another or at the same time.
   • Use rules (conditional logic) to change the path based on answers.
   • Assign tasks to specific people or roles.
   • Collect information using form fields.
   • Add automations to make things faster.
   • Example: An employee onboarding process, a purchase approval workflow, or steps to publish a blog post.

Tallyfy’s approach vs. flowcharts

Instead of complex flowcharts, Tallyfy uses a simple checklist style for steps, combined with easy “if this, then that” rules. This makes processes easier for everyone to understand, build, and follow, while still handling decisions and different paths. People tend to use these checklist-style processes more reliably than old flowchart diagrams.

2. Document templates: Use these for policies, general guidance where the order of information is not critical, lists of do’s and don’ts, or reference materials.
   • Have fixed parts that don’t change.
   • Include fill-in-the-blank fields for specific details.
   • Ensure consistent formatting.
   • Can reuse common text blocks (snippets).
   • Example: A social media usage policy, do’s and don’ts for client calls, a list of current WiFi passwords, or an up-to-date client list.

Template lifecycle (Creation to Use)

1. Create: Build templates by:

   • Starting from a blank slate.
   • Using Tallyfy AI for help.
   • Converting existing Word/PDF documents.
   • Importing from other sources.
   • Copying (duplicating) existing templates.

2. Manage: Keep templates organized using:

   • Folders and subfolders (e.g., by department).
   • Tags for easy filtering.
   • Permissions to control access.
   • Assigning a Template Owner who is responsible for keeping it updated.

3. Use: Launch templates to start real processes:

   • Fill in any starting information needed.
   • Assign the process or tasks to the right people (members).
   • Track progress as work gets done.

Template vs. Process: Building Analogy

A template is like the master blueprint for a house. It defines the standard design.

When you use that blueprint to build a specific house, that’s like launching a process. Each house built (each running process) is unique, even if based on the same blueprint. Each needs its own unique name or address (like “123 Main St Build” or “Job #567”) so you can track that specific project separately.

Benefits of using Templates

• Better quality: Standard steps mean fewer mistakes.
• Faster training: New team members can easily follow the documented process.
• Easier improvement: Update the template once to improve the process for everyone.
• Keep knowledge: Templates store your company’s know-how in a usable format.
• Meet rules: Helps ensure compliance requirements are followed every time.

• Configure your template
• Sample templates
• Create a template
• Template Tools
• Track activity
• Duplicate a template
• Convert BPMN patterns into Tallyfy templates
• Publish a template
• How to request bulk acknowledgement for a template
• Tags
• Import a template
• Insert media
• Organize templates into folders
• Print, download, and export Tallyfy templates
• Best practices for template organization and management
• Automations
• Edit a template
• Snippets
• Variables

Recommended next

Now that you understand what templates are and why they’re important, your next step is to learn how to create your first template. This will give you the practical skills to start building your own standardized processes.

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