Workflows and approvals

Organisation templates and project copies

Lesson 3 of 9 5 min

Shape belongs to the organisation, approvers belong to the project.

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In this lesson

  1. Organisation templates
  2. The project copy
  3. Naming the approvers
  4. Keeping a standard

Shape belongs to the organisation, approvers belong to the project. This is the single most useful idea in the course.

Organisation templates

At organisation level you build the process your company follows: three-stage claim approval, a single review for small variations, a two-step submittal review. No names, just the shape and the rules. When a project is created, your organisation's defaults are cloned into it, so a new job starts governed rather than empty.

The project copy

A copy is a real, separate template belonging to that project. Editing it never reaches back and changes the organisation standard, which is what makes it safe to adapt a process for an unusual job. It also means a copy can drift, so it is worth a look when a project starts behaving differently from its siblings.

Naming the approvers

The copy is where people are attached: this project's project manager on the first decision, this project's commercial manager on the second. Assignment does not have to be a named person, and often should not be. It can be everyone holding a given permission, or whoever a field on the record points at, which survives someone leaving the company.

Keeping a standard

If a process matters enough to be uniform, an organisation default can be locked so projects inherit it rather than editing their own copy. Use it where governance genuinely requires it, and leave the rest adjustable.

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