3. Creating Default Schedule Templates

Once you have added Tasks and Costs to the module, you will be ready to set up your schedule templates. 

Schedule templates are used for two main purposes in Editorial:

1. To create a templated list of tasks / milestones that can be applied to each of your Editorial projects to allow you to track progress.
2. To create templated sets of costs (predicted, not actual) which can be applied to Editorial projects, based on typical expenditure, to help with the process of generating a P&L.

In order to view the Editorial Checklist tab within an Editorial record, you will need to have a default schedule template in place. Otherwise, you will receive an error message. 

 

Creating a Schedule Template 

Here are the basic steps you need to follow to create your default templates:

1. Navigate to Editorial Admin > Schedule Templates and select the blue "Create New" button. 

You will then be taken to the screen pictured in the screenshot below, where the "default" schedule form/name will be automatically filled for you. 

When creating your default templates, you must not manually edit the first field as this will prevent the system from recognising this template as your default. 

2. Select your "Schedule Type" from the dropdown menu. The three relevant types here are 'Editorial Checklist', 'Editorial Completion Schedule' and 'Costs'.

3. Add your tasks from the "Task" dropdown menu. You can add as many as needed to each schedule template by selecting the blue "add another task" button. 

4. When you are ready to add the schedule, press the blue "Create" button.

N.B. Please note that the fields 'Duration', 'Period', 'Immovable' and 'Milestone' are not applicable to Editorial schedules. These are used when creating Production schedules.

The required default "Schedule Types" for your Editorial module are as follows: 

Editorial Completion Schedule 

This schedule will sit as a list in the Editorial Schedule tab. It is designed to represent the milestones that need to be hit before a project can enter the Production process. 

 

Editorial Checklist 

This schedule is intended to represent a tickbox list, providing an easy overview of what has and hasn't been completed within your project.

Note: It is not mandatory to use both the Editorial Checklist and the Editorial Completion tabs. The system is designed to be as configurable as possible, and there are publishers that prefer to only use one tab out of the two. It is really up to you how you use these parts of the module!

Costs

The final default schedule template needed for your Editorial module is for the use of the Costs tab. Here, you can create a set of costs that are typically associated with creating a book. Whilst you will need to create a default template, you can then create as many variants as possible, to represent the differing costs associated with each of your product types. This is then used as a basis from which to scope out the expected cost of a project, to assist in generating a draft P&L.

Unlike the previous two templates, the Costs template sits within Production > Production Admin. This is because it can be configured and used across both the Editorial and Production modules. 

When creating your Costs template, you can set the basis on which costs are being built, ie. whether it is a fixed cost or based on copies ordered, MS pages, etc. You can also set the Rate and Currency of each cost. 

Once have created your default template, the list will automatically populate the Costs tab. You can add as many costs as needed to this schedule by clicking on the "add another task" button. 

Please note that, once a cost template has been applied, as in the screenshot above, you have the option to amend it for that specific project. You can remove and add costs as you wish, and edit their details. This template is intended as a starting point, but not as a restrictive framework.

 

Once you have created your default schedule templates, you can create any additional schedule templates that you may want, to represent the variation in workflows for different types of projects.

Should you want to use our Editorial workflow function, you can set that up by heading to the next step here.

Otherwise, we can move straight on to adding a new project to your Editorial module.