Start from the firm's template or an earlier deal
A deal board pre-filled from the firm's template or last year's deal, with the matter's details filled in.
Screenshots are taken from the app on every release. Updated 13 October 2026.
A new share purchase has come in, and the firm already has a checklist for this kind of deal, or the team ran a near-identical one last year. Starting from either saves you the first afternoon: the workstreams, tasks, columns and settings are there, and you spend the time on what is different about this deal.
The question that decides where you start: is there a firm template for this deal type? If there is, use it. A template is kept clean for reuse; an earlier deal carries the old client's details, which you then have to find and remove.
Create the board from a template
Open the new matter. In the Project management box, click Create new.
Give the board a Name, such as "Project Alpha closing checklist", and open Template. The list shows the task board templates kept in the matter's group and in the Firm-wide Library, sorted into their folders. Hover over the information icon beside a template to read its description.
Choose the template and click Save. The board opens with the template's task groups and tasks, its columns and labels, its views, its automations, its permission sets, the key facts strip and its board settings, such as numbering.
Read through the task names. Where the template uses the matter's details, such as the matter's title, its number or the client's name, they are filled in from this matter. A detail the matter does not have yet is left as its name, so "Obtain Client name board approval" tells you what to fill in.
Add a template to a board you have already started
On the board, click Board in the toolbar and choose Import. Open the Template tab.
Choose the template and click Import. Its task groups are added to the board. Where the board already has a column with the same name and type, the template's values go into it rather than into a second column, and a view with the same name is kept as it is.
The Template tab is there on boards in a matter. Templates themselves live in groups: see build the firm's deal checklist template.
Copy the board from an earlier deal
Open the earlier matter. In the Project management box, open the menu at the end of the board's row.
Choose Copy and move to, then the new matter under Matters. The original stays where it is. To make a second copy in the same matter instead, choose Duplicate; the copy is named after the original with "(copy)" at the end.
Open the copy in the new matter and rename it: click its name at the top left of the board.
Clear what belongs to the old deal. The copy brings every task with what is in its cells: statuses, people, dates, files and notes. Check the key facts strip above the board too. The updates on each task stay with the original board.
If the earlier board was marked completed, the copy is too. Click Board and choose Mark incomplete.
A board with more than 1,000 tasks cannot be copied.
Which starting point to use
| What you have | Start from | What to check afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| A firm template for the deal type | The template, when you create the board | Task names that show a detail's name instead of its value |
| A board you have started, and a template with a workstream you need | Import > Template | Columns that now hold values from both |
| Only last year's deal | Copy and move to the new matter | Dates, people, files and key facts from the old deal |
Tips from practice
- Automations come with the copy. Whether you start from a template or copy a board, its automations are copied too and point at the new board's own columns, groups and labels, so a rule such as "when the status changes to Signed, notify the partner by email" works on the new deal without setting it up again.
- Fill in the matter first. Template details come from the matter at the moment you create the board, and are not updated afterwards. Give the matter its number and details before you pick the template.
- Turn a good deal into the next template. When a deal closes with a checklist the team liked, make it the basis of the firm's template, cleaned of the client's details, so the next team does not start from the old matter: see build the firm's deal checklist template.
Before this: set up the deal checklist board and choose what to track on each task. For checklists that exist only in Word or Excel: turn a Word checklist into a board or bring an Excel tracker into a board.