Templates vs. Projects: What's the Difference?

1. The Filing Cabinet and the Engine

Think of it this way:

Templates = the filing cabinet. Every checklist and form in Xenia lives in the Templates tab. A template defines the structure of a form — the questions, the step types, the sections, the scoring, the conditional logic. A template sitting in the filing cabinet does nothing on its own. It's just waiting to be used.

Projects = the engine. A project takes a template from the filing cabinet and deploys it to your team on a schedule — daily, weekly, monthly — at the right locations, to the right roles, at the right times. The project generates tasks. Each task contains the checklist. Employees open the task, complete the checklist, and submit.

The relationship: one template can be used by multiple projects. One project uses one template. You can have a "Daily Opening Checklist" template deployed by a morning project (6am start, 9am due) AND a second project for early-morning pre-opening verification (5am start, 6:30am due). Two projects, one template. 

2. What Each One Creates

3. Three Submission Modes

Every template has a submission mode setting:

Project-based only: The template can only be completed when a project-generated task exists. No project = no access to the form. Best for daily operational checklists where you need completion tracking.

Ad hoc only: The template can be submitted anytime by anyone with Can Submit access, without a task or project. Best for incident reports, vendor issue forms, and anything that happens on demand.

Both: The template can be completed either way. Best for forms that might be scheduled sometimes and submitted on-demand other times. 

4. The Most Common Confusion

"My team can't find the checklist." Usually one of two things: the template isn't published, or the template is set to Project-based only but no project has been created for it. Check both.

"I deleted the project — does that delete the template?" No. Templates and projects are independent. Deleting a project stops future task generation but does not affect the template or its historical submissions.