Templates vs. Data Dictionaries

Servantium provides flexible tools for capturing data, pricing work, and generating proposals. To use the system effectively, it is important to understand the difference between Templates (which drive guided processes and outputs) and Data Dictionaries (which define administrative properties).

The Guided Process: Templates

Templates are designed to be a guided, user-facing process. They answer the core questions of an engagement’s lifecycle: What, How Much, and How it Looks.

1. Engagement Templates: “What is getting done?”

Engagement templates guide your team through the discovery and scoping phase. They provide a structured, often slide-show-like form containing specific fields (text, chips, sliders) necessary to understand the requirements of a specific type of work.

• Goal: Capture the scope of work.
• Learn more: Engagement Templates

2. Quote Templates: “How much will it cost?”

Quote templates encode your pricing strategy. They define standard sections, default line items (roles, materials), baseline costs, markups, and dynamic formulas that automatically evaluate against the engagement data.

• Goal: Calculate the price accurately and consistently.
• Learn more: Quote Templates

3. Document Templates: “How does it look when presented?”

Document templates are your final output layer. They take the raw data from the engagement and the calculated pricing from the quote, merging them into a polished, client-ready DOCX or PDF proposal.

• Goal: Format the data for the client.
• Learn more: Document Templates

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Administrative Properties: Data Dictionaries

While templates guide the user through a workflow, Data Dictionaries operate behind the scenes.

Data Dictionaries: “What data are we tracking?”

Data Dictionaries define the underlying custom schema for objects in your organization. They are administrative properties that dictate what custom fields exist, what data types they are (Text, Number, Date, Boolean), and whether they are required.

Instead of guiding a specific process like a template, Data Dictionaries ensure that as your team uses various templates or imports data, the underlying data remains structured, searchable, and consistent across the entire organization.

• Goal: Maintain clean, structured, and centralized data schemas.
• Learn more: Data Dictionaries