Introduction
Designing and optimizing work templates in Karbon can significantly enhance your firm's workflow efficiency, ensure staff visibility, and facilitate management-level reporting.
This guide offers a straightforward 5-step process to optimize any work template using recommended best practices. Before making changes, duplicate the existing template to preserve a copy, and review global automators to make necessary adjustments.
Step 1 - Foundation
Set a strong foundation by selecting the correct work type and high-level parameters to streamline the template's structure.
Begin by confirming the availability of the appropriate work type for your firm's services. If necessary, create a new work type and update the relevant work statuses. Select and duplicate a base work template to optimize, which can be a best-practice template or a building block template for a fresh start.
Details Tab: Update the template name (internal and client-facing) and add high-level parameters (e.g., Assigned To, Start Date, Due Date, etc.).
High-Level Parameters Example:
Assigned To: Bookkeeper
Start Date: 1st of the month
Due Date: 20th of the month
Deadline Date: N/A
Repeats: Monthly or quarterly
Title Definition: Monthly Accounting for {Start Date - 1 (MMM YYYY)}
Step 2 - Frame
Organize the template by adding sections, tasks, and email placeholders. Each section should include at least one task or email placeholder, structured from start to finish. Internal sections are for tasks your firm will perform, while client request sections are for actions or documents requested from clients.
Role Assignments: Assign roles to each task or email placeholder but avoid assigning specific staff at the template level. This flexibility allows staff assignment when the work is created from the template.
Due Dates: Add due dates for every task, or use automators to update task due dates if adding them manually is not feasible.
Focusing on framing the workflow after establishing the foundation ensures organized and systematic task management.
Tip: Copy/paste a list of tasks from an outside source to speed up the process.
Step 3 - Automate
Leverage automation to enhance efficiency by reviewing and adjusting global automators, then adding tasklist automators to the work template.
Common tasklist automators for internal sections include:
Status of Tasks
Status of Work
This is only needed when the status of the work should change.
Assignee of Work
This is only needed when the role responsible for the
work is changing.
Due Date of Tasks
This is optional and can be used with or instead of
pre-set task due dates.
Proper automation ensures tasks are timely and correctly assigned, significantly improving workflow efficiency.
Step 4 - Finalize
Finalize the template by completing the sections, tasks, and email placeholders, including client requests and associated sending rules.
Tasks Tab: Utilize indented items, task descriptions, attachments, and linked documents.
Budget Tab: Specify fee settings and add role-based budgets.
Details Tab: Verify the correctness of template names (internal and external), high-level parameters in the description area, work type, and involved roles without assigning specific staff members.
Final touches ensure all elements of the workflow are coherent and ready for deployment.
Step 5 - Test
Step 1: Create a test work item from the template for a test client.
Step 2: Add a test contact for any auto-send client requests and assign different staff members to roles.
Step 3: Move through the work item step-by-step, ensuring tasks and automators function as expected.
Step 4: Adjust and retest as necessary until the template is fully optimized for your firm’s needs.