If you do the same kinds of jobs over and over, you already know how much of each one repeats. A kitchen remodel has a familiar scope of work, a familiar set of tasks, and a familiar way of getting paid along the way. A project template lets you capture all of that as one reusable bundle — the scope, the payment milestones, and the tasks — so the next time a similar job comes in, you can drop the whole setup onto it in a couple of clicks.
Think of a project template as the full recipe for a type of job. Your scope templates, milestone templates, and task templates are the ingredients; the project template ties them together so you don’t have to reassemble them every time.
This article covers how project templates are put together, and how to build, save, and use them.
How a Project Template Is Put Together
A project template is a container. Open one and you’ll see three sections:
Scopes — the scope templates bundled into this project. Each tile shows the scope template’s name, how many line items it has, and its total cost.
Milestone — the payment schedule for this kind of job. A project template can hold one milestone template, or none at all — unlike scopes and tasks, it isn’t a list. The tile shows the milestone template’s name and how many payment stages it contains.
Tasks — the task templates bundled in. Each tile shows the task template’s name, how many tasks it holds, and how many days the sequence runs.
Each section has a + Add scope template, + Add milestone template, or + Add task template tile. Click it, and you’ll get a searchable list of your existing templates — check the ones you want, and add them all at once. Templates you’ve already added won’t show up again in that list, so you won’t accidentally add the same one twice.
Because the Milestone section holds at most one template, it behaves a little differently: the + Add milestone template tile disappears once something is linked. The heading also keeps a running count — it reads 0/1 while the slot is empty, and switches to the number of payment stages once you’ve filled it. To swap in a different schedule, remove the one that’s there and add another.
Click any tile you’ve already added to hop straight to that scope, milestone, or task template’s editor and make changes to it. And each tile has a small remove button if you want to take it out of the bundle.
The key idea: these are links, not copies
When you add a scope, milestone, or task template to a project template, you’re adding a reference to it — not a frozen copy. That means the two stay connected. If you later improve your “Rough Plumbing” scope template, every project template that includes it picks up the improvement automatically. You fix things in one place, and they flow everywhere.
The flip side matters just as much: deleting a project template does not delete the templates inside it. You’re only throwing away the bundle, not the parts. The underlying templates stay right where they are, ready to be used elsewhere.
Building a Project Template From Scratch
Go to Resources and open Project Templates.
Click + Create template. A new, empty template opens.
Click the name at the top to rename it — call it something you’ll recognize, like “Kitchen Remodel” or “Bathroom Gut.”
In the Scopes section, click + Add scope template and pick the scope templates that belong on this kind of job.
In the Milestone section, click + Add milestone template and pick the payment schedule you want this kind of job to bill on. Pick one — this section takes a single template.
In the Tasks section, click + Add task template and pick the task templates you want to come along.
That’s it — the template saves as you go. Back on the Project Templates listing, each tile echoes back what’s inside: total cost, number of scopes, number of payment stages, number of tasks, and the overall duration, so you can tell your templates apart at a glance.
If you don’t have any templates to add yet, the add window points you to the Scope Templates, Milestone Templates, and Task Templates pages in Resources, where you build those.
Saving a Project Template From a Live Project
You don’t have to build a project template from nothing. If you’ve already got a project set up the way you like it, you can capture it:
Open the project’s Scope tab.
Click the Project Template button and choose Save as Project Template.
Give it a name. You’ll see a Template Includes summary confirming what’s about to be captured.
Click Save.
Eano turns each of the project’s subprojects into its own scope template, captures the project’s tasks as a task template, and — if the project has payment milestones set up — snapshots those into a milestone template too, then bundles all of it into a new project template for you. Those pieces become reusable on their own.
You don’t have to name the milestone piece. Eano names it after the project template, so saving a template called “Kitchen Renovation” produces a milestone template called Milestones for Kitchen Renovation. If you already have one by that name, it adds a number on the end — “Milestones for Kitchen Renovation (2).”
One thing that surprises people: these auto-created milestone templates are hidden from your Milestone Templates page by default, so your list of hand-built schedules doesn’t fill up with one entry per project template. If you want to see them, flip the Project milestone template toggle in the top-right of that page. Turn it on to show the milestone templates that belong to project templates; turn it off to go back to your standalone ones.
If the project has no payment milestones when you save it, no milestone template gets created and the new project template’s Milestone slot is simply left empty.
Using a Project Template on a New Job
When you’re building an estimate and want to start from a template:
Open the project’s Scope tab.
Click the Project Template button and pick the template you want. Each one shows its scope count, payment stages, task count, duration, and total cost. (On a brand-new estimate with an empty scope, your project templates also appear as a row of cards right on the Scope tab.)
A confirmation appears. If your scope is still empty, it’s a straightforward Import Project Template. If the project already has scope, you’ll instead see Overwrite the project with this template? — and that’s worth taking seriously. Importing a project template replaces the project’s current scope, payment milestones, and tasks with the template’s. It isn’t a merge, and it can’t be undone, so use it on a fresh estimate rather than one you’ve already customized.
If the template includes tasks, you’ll see an Import task start and due dates toggle. Leave it on to bring the schedule dates from the task templates, or turn it off to add the tasks without dates.
If you keep dates on, pick a Start on date. Eano lays the task sequence out from that starting point.
Click Import Project Template.
Your scope, payment schedule, and tasks populate in one shot, and you can adjust anything from there for the specific job in front of you.
What happens to payment milestones you already had
The confirmation window spells this out before you commit, under Milestone:
If the template carries a payment schedule, it replaces whatever the project had. That’s true even if you’d already customized those milestones by hand — importing a project template always wins.
If the template has no milestone template attached, your existing payment milestones are left completely alone. You’ll see a note saying so right in the window: “This template doesn’t include payment stages. Your existing payment stages will remain unchanged.” Eano doesn’t assume that an empty slot means you wanted an empty schedule.
It’s worth knowing what does and doesn’t survive the trip. A milestone template remembers the names of your stages, their order, what share of the contract each one bills, whether each is payable, and how long each is expected to take. It doesn’t carry dollar amounts or calendar dates — the amounts are recalculated against the new job’s contract value, so a “50% on completion” stage bills half of this job. Projected dates aren’t filled in on import; you set those on the project.
A quick safeguard worth knowing: before anything is written, Eano checks that the task templates’ dependencies form a valid sequence. If it spots a loop — a task that ends up depending on itself through a chain — it stops the whole import and tells you, rather than writing a half-built schedule. Fix the dependency in the task template and try again.
The Project Template button lives on the Scope tab while you’re still building the estimate. Once a project is signed or started and the scope locks, you can still save a template from it, but importing a fresh one over the top is no longer offered.
Putting a Template in Front of a Client
A project template does more than save you setup time on a new job — it can help you win the job in the first place.
Every project template has a Featured Images section at the top where you can attach up to ten photos: past work, a designer’s render, anything that shows a client what this kind of job actually looks like finished. You can also build a template from one of Eano’s ready-made material packages instead of starting blank, using the Create from a Material Package tile next to Create a blank template on the Project Templates page.
And if publishing is enabled for your account, you can turn a template into a public web page with a lead form on it, so a prospect can look at the package and ask you for an estimate — which lands in your pipeline as an opportunity already loaded with that template. Turning a Project Template Into a Package You Can Sell covers all three.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Project templates span more than scope. A project template bundles scope, payment milestones, and tasks — that’s what sets it apart from a plain scope template, which holds only a scope.
The Milestone section takes one template, not a list. Scopes and Tasks can hold as many as you like; the payment schedule is one or none.
Edits flow through automatically. Because the pieces are linked rather than copied, improving a scope, milestone, or task template updates every project template that uses it.
Deleting a bundle never deletes its parts. Removing a project template leaves the templates inside it untouched.
Importing overwrites. Applying a project template replaces the existing scope and tasks — it’s a fresh start, not an addition. Payment milestones are replaced too, unless the template has no milestone template attached, in which case they’re left as they are.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between a project template and a scope template? A scope template is just a scope — line items and their pricing. A project template is a bundle that can hold several scope templates, a milestone template, and task templates together. Think of the scope template as an ingredient and the project template as the full recipe.
Can I attach more than one milestone template to a project template? No. A project template holds one payment schedule or none — that’s why the section shows 0/1 when it’s empty. If you want a different schedule, remove the linked template and add another.
I saved a project as a template. Where did its milestone template come from? Eano created it for you from the project’s payment milestones and named it Milestones for your template name. It’s hidden from the Milestone Templates page by default — turn on the Project milestone template toggle there to see it.
Why can’t I find the milestone template Eano created for me? Those auto-created templates are hidden so they don’t clutter your list of hand-built schedules. Flip the Project milestone template toggle in the top-right of the Milestone Templates page to show them.
Will importing a project template wipe out the payment milestones I already set up? If the template has a payment schedule attached, yes — it replaces yours, even if you’d customized them. If the template has no milestone template attached, your milestones stay exactly as they are, and the confirmation window tells you so before you commit.
Do the dollar amounts and dates come across with the milestones? The template carries the names, the order, the percentage each stage bills, and the expected duration — not fixed dollar amounts or dates. Amounts are recalculated against the new job’s contract value, and you set the projected dates on the project itself.
If I change a scope template, do my project templates update too? Yes. Project templates link to their scope, milestone, and task templates rather than copying them, so any change you make to the underlying template shows up everywhere it’s used.
Will deleting a project template delete the templates in it? No. You’re only removing the bundle. The scope, milestone, and task templates it referenced stay put and can be used elsewhere.
Does importing a project template add to my current scope or replace it? It replaces it. Importing overwrites the project’s current scope and tasks with the template’s, and the action can’t be undone — so use it on a fresh estimate rather than one you’ve already customized.
Can I decide whether to bring the schedule dates over? Yes, for tasks. When a template includes tasks, you’ll get an Import task start and due dates toggle and a Start on date. Turn dates off to add the tasks without a schedule, or keep them on and pick the day the sequence should begin. There’s no separate on/off switch for the payment milestones — they come along with the rest of the template.
Where do the scope, milestone, and task templates come from? You build them on the Scope Templates, Milestone Templates, and Task Templates pages in Resources, then add them to a project template. Eano also provides a set of ready-made scope templates for common project types to start from.