Onboarding templates¶

An onboarding template is a reusable plan for bringing a brand live. It holds the milestones your team works through, the tasks in each one, and the questions you ask every new brand. When you create a brand in Onboarding status, you pick one or more templates. Packr copies them into that brand's own plan, with real dates counted from the brand's onboarding start date.

Templates live on the Templates tab of the Onboarding page. They used to be under Settings → Workflow Templates.

Overview¶

• Build reusable onboarding plans from milestones that run on plan days, counted from each brand's onboarding start date.
• Add the tasks for each milestone, with a priority, a due day, who they go to, and whether the brand can see them.
• Ask the brand questions (dates, numbers, text, or a dropdown), which are answered on its onboarding board.
• Preview how the plan lays out before you save it.
• Archive templates you no longer use, or delete them. Brands that already used them keep their plans.

Screenshot: The onboarding template library. (pending capture)

Browse the template library¶

1. Select Onboarding in the navigation, then the Templates tab.
2. Each card shows the template's name and description, its planned length in days, and how many milestones, tasks, and questions it has.
3. To include archived templates, select Show archived templates at the bottom of the list.

A Default badge marks a template provided by Packr. You can pick it when you create a brand, but you can't edit it. An Archived badge marks a template that's hidden from the template picker.

Create a template¶

1. On the Templates tab, select New template.
2. Enter a template name and, optionally, a description of when to use it.
3. Add milestones and their tasks. See the sections below.
4. Review the questions. A new template starts with the four standard questions.
5. Check the Timeline preview at the bottom.
6. Select Create template.

Until the template is complete, Create template stays disabled and a hint beside it names the first problem, for example Give the template a name. A template needs a name and at least one milestone or question.

To change a template later, select its card or its edit button, make your changes, and select Save changes.

Screenshot: The onboarding template editor. (pending capture)

Add milestones¶

Milestones are the stages of the plan. Each one runs over a range of plan days, where day 1 is the brand's onboarding start date.

1. Select Add milestone.
2. Name the milestone, for example "Accounts & access".
3. Under Days, enter the day the milestone starts and the day it ends. A chip beside the days shows how long it runs.
4. Use the up and down arrows to reorder milestones, or the trash button to remove one.

Milestones don't have to follow one another. They can overlap or leave gaps. Their order in the list sets the order of the groups on the brand's onboarding board; it doesn't change their days. A milestone can start on day 1 at the earliest and must end by day 365.

Add tasks to a milestone¶

Select Add task under a milestone and give the task a title. Each task row has these settings:

• Priority — the task's priority.
• Assign to — who gets the task when a brand is created from the template:
  • Account manager — the brand's account managers, starred when the brand is created. This is the default.
  • Specific person — one member of your 3PL team, chosen with the user picker. They're added to the brand when it's created. If they're no longer on your team by then, the task goes to the account managers instead.
  • Unassigned — nobody. The task is created without an assignee.
• Due day — the day within the milestone when the task is due, for example due day 3 of a 5-day milestone. It can't be after the milestone ends.
• Internal · 3PL only or Brand-visible — internal tasks are only seen by your 3PL team. Brand-visible tasks also show on the brand's own onboarding board. New tasks start as internal.
• Tags — type a tag and press Enter.
• Add description — optional details for the task.

Use the arrows on a task to reorder it within its milestone, or × to remove it.

Add questions¶

Questions collect facts from the brand during onboarding, such as expected order volume. They aren't part of the schedule. Anyone on the brand answers them on its onboarding board.

1. Under Questions, select Add question.
2. Type the question and pick an answer type: Date, Number, Text, or Dropdown.
3. For a dropdown, type each option and press Enter. A dropdown needs at least two options.
4. Tick Required to flag the question as a must-answer on the board.

A new template starts with four standard questions:

• Estimated arrival date (first shipment)
• Estimated pallet / carton locations
• Estimated pick bins (≈ SKUs)
• Estimated orders per month

Remove any you don't need. If a template is missing any of them, select Add standard questions to add the missing ones back. Your other questions stay as they are.

Check the timeline preview¶

Once at least one milestone has its days, the Timeline preview shows the plan's total length in days and how many milestones and tasks it has. Below that is a bar for each milestone across its days. Overlapping milestones stack. Any milestone still missing its days is listed under Not on the plan yet.

The total length is the last day on which any milestone ends. It's also the length shown on the template's card and in the template picker when you create a brand.

How a template becomes a brand's plan¶

When you create a brand in Onboarding status and pick templates:

• Dates. Each milestone starts on its start day, counted from the onboarding start date as day 1. Each task is due on its due day within its milestone.
• More than one template. Templates are used in the order you pick them. Each template's plan starts after the previous template's plan ends, and their milestones become groups on the board in that order.
• Tasks. Each template task becomes a real task in the brand's Onboarding channel. It's assigned, and marked internal or brand-visible, the way the template says.
• Questions. The templates' questions are added to the brand, unanswered.
• A copy, not a link. The brand keeps its own copy of the plan. Editing, archiving, or deleting the template afterward doesn't change brands that already used it.

Archive or delete a template¶

• Archive — select the archive button on the template's card. The template stays in the library but is hidden from the template picker when creating a brand. To bring it back, select Show archived templates, then the template's unarchive button.
• Delete — select the trash button and confirm with Delete. The template is removed from the library. Brands already onboarded with it keep their boards.

Default templates provided by Packr can't be archived or deleted.

Tips¶

• Keep a separate template for each set of work you reuse, such as a standard plan plus an add-on for wholesale brands. Then pick several when you create a brand, and each one starts where the previous one ends.
• Mark a task Brand-visible only when the brand needs to see it or do it. Everything else can stay internal.
• A task with a Brand day label was saved before milestones had days. Give its milestone a start day and an end day, and the task moves inside the milestone.

Common questions¶

How do I create an onboarding template? Go to Onboarding → Templates and select New template. Give it a name, add milestones with their days and tasks, review the questions, and select Create template.

Does editing a template change brands that are already onboarding? No. Each brand keeps its own copy of the plan from when it was created, so template edits only affect brands created afterward. To change a brand that's already onboarding, move its milestones on the Timeline or edit its tasks on its onboarding board.

Who can create or edit onboarding templates? Anyone whose role has the Manage onboarding templates permission. 3PL Admins have it by default, and admins can give it to other roles in User Roles.

How are onboarding task due dates worked out? Day 1 of the plan is the brand's onboarding start date. A milestone starts on its start day, and each of its tasks is due on its due day within that milestone. For example, if the start date is September 1, a milestone on days 8–12 runs September 8–12, and a task on due day 3 of that milestone is due September 10.

What happens when I pick more than one template for a brand? They're used in the order you pick them. The second template's plan starts after the first one ends, and so on. Their milestones appear on the board in that same order.

What's the difference between Internal and Brand-visible tasks? Internal tasks are only seen by your 3PL team. Brand-visible tasks also show on the onboarding board for the brand's own users. New tasks start as internal.

What's the difference between archiving and deleting a template? Archiving hides a template from the template picker but keeps it in the library, so you can unarchive it later. Deleting removes it from the library. Either way, brands that already used it keep their plans.

Related¶

• Onboarding overview
• Onboarding timeline
• The onboarding board
• Create a brand
• Roles & permissions