Skip to main content
Action templates

Update action details in just a few clicks using templates

Erin Gouveia avatar
Written by Erin Gouveia
Updated over a week ago

You can create action templates to easily add subactions, assignees, due dates, and dependencies to your action cards. Action templates can help you quickly update tasks that tend to repeat throughout your projects and keep consistency across the workspace.

To create an action template:

  1. Go to your main menu (upper right corner)

  2. Click "Settings"

  3. Select "Templates"

  4. Make sure you are in the "Action Card" menu

  5. Click "Create action template"

  6. Name the template and provide a label if desired

  7. Add the subactions, assignees, days, and durations. It will look something like the below. You can add further levels of subactions onto your action templates too!

Then you just save the action template and you're done!


You can also create an action template straight from an action card, using the 'Save as template' option underneath the More menu on the right:

Setting due dates on action templates

To ensure deadlines are included when you apply an action template, make sure that the 'Automatically add due dates' option is checked.

We will refer to the image above for the examples below

Assuming you've used positive and negative deadlines, there are two different scenarios to which deadlines will be applied:

1. If your main action card already has a deadline set, at the moment that you apply the action template:

Since you have already applied the deadline to the action, Hive is smart to know that you need to complete the action by that specific date. Hive will set any subaction in your action template that is listed as 'Day 0' as equal to the parent action due date. 

All negative days will happen before the action due date and all positive days will happen after the action due date, following the same pattern.

Using the above example for the Blog Post action template, if you have set the action card's deadline to 15 Jan before applying the template, when you apply the Blog Post action template:

  • "Draft" will be set for 13 Jan (minus 2 days before 15 Jan) 

  • "Review" will be set for 14 Jan (minus 1 day before 15 Jan)

  • "Finalize & Post" will be set for 15 Jan (Day 0)

  • "Analyze Post Traffic" will be set for 21 Jan (plus 6 days after 15 Jan)

2. If your action does not currently have a deadline set when you apply the action template:

Since you have enabled deadlines and your action currently has no deadline, Hive assumes that the subaction marked as 'Day 0' in the action template is today.

Using the above example for the Blog Post action template, if today is 17 Dec:

  • "Draft" will be set for 15 Dec (minus 2 days before today)

  • "Review" will be set for 16 Dec (minus 1 day before today)

  • "Finalize & Post" will be set for 17 Dec (today)

  • "Analyze Post Traffic" will be set for 23 Dec (6 days after today)

Adding dependencies to the template

Not only can you automatically add deadlines, you can also set up dependencies. So if one step can't move forward without the completion of another, it can be useful to set one up. 

Just click the "Add dependency" link. It will open a search box where you type the name of the step you want this step to be dependent on and select add. It will then show the dependency in bright yellow with the option to remove. 

Adding approval rounds to the template

If your action will need an approval process, you can include an approval template within your action template. (Note: you will need to first save the approval template by setting up the approval round and clicking Save as template under the More menu).

Once you have the approval template, you can add it to your action template here towards the bottom of the modal.

Adding an action template to a card

Click the blue + New button next to the search bar to create a new action card, then select "Apply Template" under the More menu towards the right.

From the searchable popup, click the name of the template you would like to apply. It will create the subactions and add the assignees, due dates, and dependencies from your template.

Adding multiple action templates to a card

You can now layer multiple action templates on a single action card. To do so:

  1. Apply the first action template to the card. 

  2. Select a second action template from the dropdown list.

  3. Hive will add in all of the subactions, due dates, assignees, and attachments from the second action template. All data from the first template will also remain! 

Applying action template to multiple actions at once

If you want to apply the same template to actions in bulk, you can do it in Table view. All you have to do is to select actions, right-click and select 'Apply action template'.

Did this answer your question?