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Guide For: admins

Checklist Templates

Checklist Templates is where you design the actual questions crews answer on the ground — a plant prestart, a toolbox talk sign-on, a worker induction, a mandatory timesheet checklist. Build the questions once here, then attach the template to the place it's used.

Who can use it — you need "view checklist templates" permission to see the list, and "manage checklist templates" permission to create, edit, or delete one. See Roles & Permissions for how access is set.

Where to find it — Administration → Checklist Templates in the sidebar.

How to use it

  1. Click New checklist template.
  2. Enter a Checklist name and choose Where this checklist is used (the usage context — see below). This defaults to Asset prestart.
  3. Optionally flip Default template on — this template becomes the fallback whenever nothing more specific is assigned for its usage context (see How templates get used below) — and Show fail options in forms, which displays defect fields when a worker marks an item as failed.
  4. To save time, pick a Quick start template (Daily prestart or Toolbox talk) and click Load preset — it fills in the name, usage context, description, and a starter set of questions you can then edit.
  5. Add a What this checklist is for description (optional, shown to whoever's filling it in).
  6. To copy an existing checklist instead of starting blank, pick one under Start from template — it copies that template's usage context, description, questions, and allowed roles into the form.
  7. Build the Checklist items — one row per question, in the order crews will complete them (see Question types below). Click Add item for each new row.
  8. For adding many questions at once, open Bulk add (optional) and paste one question per line in the format Label|type|critical (1/0)|options, then click Add to list to append them to Checklist items. Example: Check Oil|pass_fail|1 or Select operator|select|0|Alice,Bob.
  9. Set Category, Allowed Roles, and Pinned under Visibility & Access (see below).
  10. Save.

You can also click Import defaults from the checklist list to copy Subgrade's global starter templates into your workspace — existing templates with the same name are skipped.

Question types

Each checklist item has a Type:

  • Pass / Fail — compliance-style check.
  • Yes / No / N/A — three-way answer.
  • Text — free-text answer.
  • Select — pick from a list you define under Options (add each option and press enter).
  • Check — simple done/not-done tick.
  • Header — a section heading with no answer, used to group items.
  • Information block (read only) — shows rich-text content with no answer required.
  • Signature (Drawn) / Signature (Typed) — captures a signature.
  • File / Photo — an upload attached to the answer.

Every item (except Header and Information block) can be flagged Critical safety/compliance item — a failed critical item typically requires a fault description before the form can be submitted (this is enforced on the forms that use the checklist, such as prestarts).

Turn on Show advanced item options per item to reveal:

  • Extra instruction for worker — a short helper line shown under the question.
  • Attach Reference Document — link a policy or procedure from your compliance document library, plus optional Reference text (e.g. "Read pages 4-5").
  • Content — rich-text content, for Information block items.
  • Reference image — an image shown with the item, for Photo or Header items.

Visibility & Access

  • Category — tag the template (General, Safety, HR, Training, Daily, or a custom one you type in) to help you organise your template list.
  • Allowed Roles — record which roles this checklist is intended for.
  • Pinned — flag the template as a favourite.

How templates get used

Where a checklist actually appears depends on its usage context:

  • Asset prestart — attached to an Asset Category in Asset Configuration, with a priority so you can layer more than one. When a worker starts a Prestart, Subgrade uses the highest-priority template assigned to the asset's category, or — if none is assigned — falls back to whichever Asset prestart template has Default template turned on.
  • Toolbox talk — picked per talk when a supervisor toggles Include a checklist on a Toolbox Talk. By default only Toolbox talk templates are offered there; your workspace can widen that list to include other usage contexts in workspace settings.
  • Induction — set tenant-wide, not per-record: turn on Enable worker induction and pick one Induction template in Workspace Settings. It only applies when your workspace's onboarding isn't already using a Training Module for induction instead.
  • Timesheet — Payroll Settings has a Mandatory Timesheet Checklist field that can point at any of your templates (not restricted to a particular usage context) — when set, it appears as Step 1 of the Timesheet Wizard for every timesheet.
  • Incident report and General form — available as usage contexts, but not yet wired into a specific Subgrade page. Use them if you want a checklist ready for a future workflow, or as a general-purpose template.

Site Inspection checklists are not built here. The checklist used in Site Inspections is a single, fixed, global template maintained by Subgrade — it isn't one of the usage contexts offered on this page, and your workspace can't edit or replace it.

Connected pages

Tips & common mistakes

  • More than one Default template for a context? Only the most recently created one is used as the fallback — don't rely on having several.
  • Question types are the same list regardless of usage context — there's no special set of types just for, say, toolbox talks.
  • Bulk add appends, it doesn't replace — check the Checklist items list afterwards for duplicates if you run it more than once.
  • Editing a template that's already assigned changes the live form for everyone using it — check where a template is used (prestart category, toolbox talk, induction, timesheet) before making major changes.