# Templates, and giving one to a project

**Category:** [Time Tracking](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/time-tracking)
**Updated:** 2026-08-06

## What a template controls

A template is the log-time form. For each field it decides:

- **Collected** — whether it appears at all

- **Required** — whether an entry can be saved without it

- **Order** — drag rows to reorder

Built-in fields are in the list too, so you can require a **Description** on every entry, or hide it. **Date** and **Hours** are always on and always required — without them there is no entry to record — and **Project** is always shown because it is what chooses the template.

## Make a template

- Go to **Custom Fields › Templates** and choose **New template**.

- Name it after the work it describes, e.g. *Client billable work*.

- Switch on the fields it should collect, and mark any that are required.

- Press **Save**.

A field that is not collected cannot be required — the Required switch grays out, because “mandatory, and never asked for” is not a state worth having.

## Give it to a project

- Go to **Projects & Budgets** and open the project.

- Find the **Custom fields** section and pick a **Field template**.

- Save.

From then on, time logged against that project asks for that template's fields — on the web, in the mobile app, and through the API.

## The workspace default

One template is the **workspace default**. It applies to:

- every project that has not chosen its own template, and

- time logged with **no project**.

That is why custom fields start working as soon as you set them up, instead of after somebody has visited every project one at a time. Leave a project's picker on *Workspace default* and it follows the default even if you later change which template that is.

The default template cannot be deleted while it is the default — make another one the default first. Deleting any other template sends the projects that used it back to the workspace default; values already collected are kept.

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## Related Articles

- [Track your time](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/articles/track-your-time)
- [Create a custom field](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/articles/timetracking-create-custom-field-1)
- [Templates, and giving one to a project](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/articles/timetracking-field-templates)
- [Filter, sort and group reports by a custom field](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/articles/timetracking-reporting-custom-fields-1)
- [Custom fields in the API and AI tools](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/articles/timetracking-custom-fields-api-1)

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