How Jetpack Workflow Works

Before you start setting things up, it's worth taking two minutes to understand how Jetpack Workflow is structured. Everything in the app connects to four core concepts - and once those click, the rest of the setup process will make a lot more sense.

A template is a reusable process. It defines the steps (tasks) required to complete a type of work - a 1040, a monthly bookkeeping engagement, a payroll run - in the right order.

You build a template once, then use it to spin up projects for any client. Templates are not client-specific; they represent the work type, not the client. Think of them as your firm's standardized playbook for each service you offer.

A client is any individual or business you do work for - including your own firm for internal projects. Each client has their own profile page where you can view their contacts and all the work associated with them.

Contacts are the individual people linked to a client - a bookkeeper, an office manager, a business owner. One client can have multiple contacts, and one contact can be linked to multiple clients.

A project is a specific job for a specific client. You create it by applying a template to a client - Jetpack Workflow takes your standardized process and turns it into a live, trackable piece of work for that client.

Projects can be one-off (a single engagement) or part of a series. A series is a set of recurring projects on a schedule - monthly bookkeeping, quarterly reviews, annual filings. Each individual occurrence in a series is called an individual project.

Because different clients have different needs, each series can be customized per client. If a client needs customization or requires extra steps, you can update their series and those changes will carry forward to all entries that haven't started yet. Entries already in progress or completed are never affected by a series-level edit.

Tasks are the individual steps inside a project. They're what team members actually work through day to day. Each task can have its own assignee, due date, budgeted time, description, and checklist - so the right person always knows exactly what to do and when.

The mental model flows in one direction:

Templates → Clients → Projects → Tasks

You define your processes in templates. You add the clients you do that work for. You create projects by applying a template to a client. And your team works through the tasks inside those projects.

A few things worth knowing about how changes flow through this system:

Say your firm does monthly bookkeeping. You'd have a Monthly Bookkeeping template with tasks like "Reconcile accounts," "Review transactions," and "Prepare reports." For each bookkeeping client, you create a series using that template - Jetpack Workflow then generates a new project entry for that client each month on schedule.

If one client needs an extra reconciliation step that no one else does, you update their series. That change carries forward into their upcoming entries. Every other client's series stays exactly as it was.

Your team sees their assigned tasks in Tasks and works through them from there - no need to dig through projects to find what's next.

Your job is to build the templates, add your clients, and invite your team. The First Steps article walks you through that setup in the right order.

You don't need to worry about templates or clients to get started. Head to My Work in the left panel - that's where you'll find the tasks assigned to you, organized by what's due and what's blocked.

Where to go next: