---
id: KB-TL-018
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/trackline/one-template-for-everyone-or-one-per-client
idioma: en
categoria: trackline
subcategoria: plantillas
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-TL-005, KB-TL-006, KB-TL-015]
citadoPor: [KB-GL-019, KB-TL-030]
---

# One template for everyone or one per client?

_The decision that determines whether in a year you have three templates or forty._

**Responde a:** how many process templates do i need · a different template per client · maintaining many templates · simplifying the processes we have

At first you build one template. Then a client asks for something different and it gets duplicated "just for them". A year later there are forty near-identical templates, nobody knows which to use, and changing one thing means editing forty.

## The rule that prevents proliferation

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Duplicate a template only when the steps change, not when what is requested within a step changes.** If the process is the same and only the document list varies, you do not need two templates.

## When another really is needed

| Situation | New template? | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The phase order is different | Yes | It is another process, however similar |
| There is an approval step the other lacks | Yes | Who takes part changes |
| Two extra documents are requested | No | Same sequence, different content |
| It is for another country with different names | It depends | If only the wording changes, no |

## How to tell there are too many

**En corto**

- Someone asks which to use and the answer starts with "it depends on…".
- Two have nearly identical names and nobody recalls the difference.
- A regulatory change forces editing more than five.
- And some templates have not been used in six months.

> [!WARNING]
> The fourth is the easiest to fix and the least examined: a template unused for six months should be retired or marked. Leaving it guarantees someone uses it by mistake exactly when it matters.

## The clean-up, once it has happened

1. **List them by actual use** — How many files were launched with each in the last year.
2. **Group those sharing a sequence** — Usually three or four families emerge, not forty unique cases.
3. **Keep one per family** — With the variation inside, not as a separate template.
4. **And retire what is unused, without deleting files** — Files launched with it still exist; what is retired is the template.

> [!NOTE]
> Having AI draft a process helps you start, but it does not replace this decision: it can generate forty correct templates as fast as three, and writing them was never the problem.

**What if a client demands their own circuit?**

Then it genuinely is another process: who takes part and in what order changes.

**Can I change a template with files in progress?**

Yes, and those already launched carry on with the version they started with.

**How many is reasonable?**

Fewer than you have, almost always. One per process family.

## Ejemplos

**A company has accumulated thirty-one supplier onboarding templates.**

- Groups them by sequence and finds three families
- Keeps three templates with the variation inside

→ A regulatory change is applied by editing three templates instead of thirty-one.

**A template is created per client and there are already twenty.**

- Unifies into one and marks the specifics as optional

→ Improvements reach everyone at once.

**One client demands a document no other asks for.**

- Creates a variant for that case alone

→ The exception does not contaminate the general template.

**Nobody knows which template fits a new client.**

- Names templates by case type

→ The choice is obvious.

**An improvement reaches three templates and not the others.**

- Reduces the number of templates before improving

→ Maintenance stops multiplying.

**A copy is made for a one-line change.**

- Uses an optional field instead of a copy

→ The template list does not grow with every nuance.