Setting Up and Editing Key Dates in the admation admin

Key date templates are most useful for those businesses with many custom key dates set up in the system. You can slice your project set up time in half by saving and loading templates across your key dates section of a project. 

As an admin, you have the ability to create key dates in the admin section of admation. You can also edit existing template names and days, which we'll talk more about below.

To start, click the Admin button and head to Key Date Templates. 

From here, you'll be able to see an existing range of any templates created by people within your organisation, or previously created in here by other admins.

 

Creating a New Key Date Template

To create a new key date template, click  New Key Date Template. You'll then see a page with any of your custom key dates and supply deadline listed. If you don't have custom key dates set up, you may want to set them up first.

First give your key date template a name. Then fill in your template. For most key dates, you'll be able to enter a Date Offset which is the difference in days from a project's given start date. Any custom dates that are saved as a date range, will have a second field for Duration. We'll show you how to fill these out below. 

Using the example dates, we'll create our own date template. 

Using the prompts above, you can translate the above as follows:

Key Date		Date Offset, or days from start date, translated.	Good to know, or just for your own reference.
Presentation Deadline (1)		1 business day after my project starts, a presentation will be due.	1 business days after my project starts (previous date), a presentation will be due.
Design (2)		2 business days after my project starts, the design for my EDM will be due.	There will be 1 business days between the presentation deadline and the design deadline (2 - 1 = 1).
Build (3)		3 business days after my project starts, the building for my EDM will be due.	There will be 1 day between the Design deadline and the Build start date (3 - 2 = 1).
Supply Deadline (3)		3 business days after my project starts, the EDM will be due.	The build deadline and the supply deadline will be on the same day (3 - 3 = 0).

The above is only a representation. But talk about tight deadlines! It will make sense why we've done this test template like this in a minute.

Click Save once you're happy with your inputs. Or let your admation client success manager know if we can assist you with any of the above.

Remember that when using your template, we'll factor out weekends and admation public holidays by default. Using the instructions from the key dates template guide, here's how this template would look in practice.

Creating a New Key Date Template with Date Ranges

Date ranges make things that little bit trickier.

When you have date ranges, admation will add an extra field to your template under the Duration field. When setting up a template with a date range, the date offset becomes your start date in the range, whilst the duration is used to create the end date in the range. 

If your duration is 2, then admation assumes that you will start working at 9AM on the day of the date offset, and the work will be due at 5PM on the next day – so that's two full days worth of work (excluding weekends). Remember to click Save once you're done.

Editing Existing Key Date Templates

Key date templates can be created by anyone with access to create or edit an existing project. So there may be times where you'll need to do some admin work to tidy up the template names or date offsets. To edit an existing key date template, click the Pencil Icon  next to an existing template. 

Make your changes, then click Save.

Deleting Key Date Templates

Key date templates can be created by anyone with access to create or edit an existing project. So there may be times where you'll need to do some admin work to delete any unneeded templates from the system altogether. To delete an existing key date template, click the Checkbox next to the template you would like to delete, then click on the greyed out Trash can icon . 

Deleting a key date template will not affect any projects that used the template to set up their dates. Remember – if you're unsure, you can always contact your customer success manager, or admation support to walk you through these steps.