Using initiative templates
What a template sets up, how to add one, and how to find the right one for your business.
Answered from these docs only, by a model that cannot see your account. Check the pages it cites.
Checked against the product on October 6, 2026
A template starts an initiative from a common AI use case instead of a blank form, with its value formulas and planned figures already in place.
What a template gives you
- A description and hypothesis for the use case
- Value formulas that turn readings into value entries, and the metrics the template suggests, added to your account's metrics
- Planned figures: one-time CapEx, plus OpEx, the cost savings or revenue uplift you can expect per value period (per month on most templates; the template page says which), the freed capacity you can expect beside them, which is in no planned ROI, and the time to value. The template's time to value becomes the target Roiva measures the schedule against, so it is worth confirming against your own plan rather than leaving the default — see The initiative lifecycle
- Vendor hints, so costs from a connected finance system can be suggested for it
- A placeholder implementation for each system it runs on that you've already connected, or for its one system if it runs on only one (see Tracking implementations)
- Baselines filled in from your own history where your connected systems have it, then from your assessment answers, then from a Roiva estimate where Roiva can make one. An account with Aggregate figures only on gets no estimate. Any it can't fill, you record once.
Everything is yours to edit afterwards. The new initiative starts in Identified, and its Setup tab lists what it still needs.
Adding one
Open Initiatives → New Initiative → Browse templates, or search for a template by name. On a template:
- Add to initiatives creates the initiative in one click, with you as its owner. You haven't seen its planned figures yet, so they're marked as the template's estimate and left out of Home, ROI and reports until someone confirms them on the initiative's page, changes them, or approves the initiative.
- Customize first opens the form with everything filled in, so you can change the title, owner or figures before saving. Figures saved from the form count straight away.
Anyone on the account can add a template. An added template is an idea, so it doesn't count toward your plan's limit until it's approved, recorded as live, or given a value. Once you've added one, its card shows Added and View initiatives in place of the buttons.
If you already have an initiative with that template's title, Add to initiatives opens the form instead, which asks whether to create a numbered copy or add what's new to the one you have.
Finding the right template
- The list opens on templates for your industry, plus the ones that fit any business. Set your industry if it hasn't been set, or choose All industries in the Industry filter to see them all.
- Get recommendations: describe your business in a few sentences, and Roiva recommends templates that fit, with the reason for each. It usually takes ten to fifteen seconds. Your earlier recommendations, and your teammates', stay listed, and the button becomes Your recommendations once you've asked. It isn't offered while Aggregate figures only is on, since it sends your description to an AI model.
Which templates come first
The list leads with the templates that reach a measured number soonest, not the ones with the highest impact. First come those that compute now, from your connections or from your own figures alone, then those that would compute once you connect a platform or that your connections feed in part, then those recorded by hand. Within each, the template that asks you to type fewer figures and before-figures comes first, then the one with higher impact.
Each card says where its number would come from:
- Computes from a platform you've connected, such as "Computes from Zendesk": your connections feed everything it measures.
- Computes from your own figures: it measures nothing from a connection, only figures you set.
- Computes once you connect a platform, such as "Computes once you connect GitHub, Anthropic, or Claude Enterprise": connecting any one of those would feed whatever your connections don't already. Where it takes more than one connection, it names a group for each, joined by "and", and you connect one platform from every group.
- A connection that feeds part, with the inputs left to record by hand, or the number of inputs recorded by hand when no connection feeds any.
- Needs a number of figures from you: figures about your own business, such as your average deal value or cost per call, that Roiva has no default for. You enter each once.
Template or blank?
Use a template when your initiative resembles a common use case (a support assistant, sales email drafting, document review, AI spend optimization). The formulas are the head start: they decide what to measure. Start from scratch when the initiative is unusual; Create manually still has Roiva suggest planned figures, baselines and usually a value formula from its title and category (unless Aggregate figures only is on), or adopt a template that clearly fits.