Checklist Templates

Checklist Templates are the reusable runbooks your team draws on to spin up live checklists — onboarding, offboarding, device setup, security reviews, and any other repeatable procedure. Admins define a template once here, and technicians start checklist instances from it on tickets, assets, contacts, clients, or standalone.

Overview

Checklist Templates let you:

• Create reusable templates with ordered items and one level of sub-items.
• Mark individual items (and sub-items) as Required.
• Set a default assignee role on an item so it resolves to a teammate when an instance is created.
• Scope a template Org-global or to a specific client.
• Choose a Category (Onboarding, Offboarding, Setup, Decommission, Security Review, or General).
• Optionally close the attached ticket when a checklist made from the template is completed, and optionally make checklists client-visible by default.
• Clone, deactivate (soft-disable), or delete a template.

Templates are the source for Checklists instances. An instance is a snapshot copy taken at creation time, so editing a template never changes any checklist that is already in flight. See the Checklists page in PSA for running and tracking instances.

Navigate to Checklist Templates

In the left sidebar, open Admin → Checklist Templates (/admin/checklist-templates).

This is an Admin area, available to the Owner or Admin role. Managing templates requires the checklist_templates permission; the New template button needs the create action and the per-row actions need the update action.

Template list

Each template appears as a card showing its name, badges, and a summary line with the top-level item count and description.

Badge	Meaning
Category	The template's category — Onboarding, Offboarding, Setup, Decommission, Security Review, or General.
Org-global / Client name	Scope. Org-global templates are available everywhere; a client badge means the template is scoped to that client.
Inactive	Shown on deactivated templates (only visible when Show inactive is on).

Toggle Show inactive to include deactivated templates in the list.

Row actions

Each card offers these actions (visible with the checklist_templates update permission):

Action	What it does
Edit (pencil)	Open the template in the editor.
Clone (copy)	Duplicate the template, including its items.
Deactivate	Soft-disable the template (sets it inactive) without deleting it. Shown only on active templates.
Delete (trash)	Permanently remove the template.

Create or edit a template

1. Click New template (or the pencil on an existing card).

2. Fill in the template fields:

   Field	Description
   Name	Required. The template name.
   Description	Optional supporting text.
   Category	One of Onboarding, Offboarding, Setup, Decommission, Security Review, or General. Defaults to General.
   Scope	Org-global or a specific client.
   Close the attached ticket when this checklist is completed	When checked, completing a checklist made from this template closes the ticket it's attached to.
   Visible to the client by default	When checked, instances start with client visibility on.

3. Build the item list (see below).

4. Click Save.

Items and sub-items

Use Add item to append an item, then fill in its Item label. For each item you can:

• Reorder it with the up/down arrows.
• Remove it with the trash icon.
• Toggle Required.
• Pick a default assignee role: No default role, Owner, Admin, or Member.
• Add a nested step with Add sub-item. Sub-items have their own label, a Req (required) toggle, and a remove control. Sub-items nest one level deep.

Items with an empty label are dropped when you save.

How the default assignee role resolves

The default assignee role is applied when a checklist instance is created from the template, not on the template itself:

• If exactly one user in the org holds the selected role, that item is automatically assigned to them.
• If more than one user (or none) holds the role, the item is left unassigned but keeps the role as a hint for whoever fills it in.

Best Practices

• Keep templates org-global unless a client truly needs a tailored procedure; client-scoped templates only appear for that client.
• Use Deactivate instead of Delete when you want to retire a template but keep it for reference — deactivated templates can be re-shown with Show inactive.
• Mark only the steps that must not be skipped as Required; when a ticket has incomplete required checklist items, closing it prompts for confirmation first.
• Because instances are snapshots, refine a template freely without worrying about disrupting checklists already in progress — your changes apply to new instances only.