Getting more serious about your Wrike setup means running into the question of whether to use Templates or Blueprints. They both serve a similar purpose and give you a starting point for new work, but they work differently and have different capabilities. My preferred choice is Blueprints.
How templates work
A template in Wrike is a folder that you have designated as a template by putting it somewhere, usually a folder called zTemplates, and then duplicating it when you need to start new work. To set tasks to a holding state before the project is active, you change task statuses to On Hold, which sends notifications to anyone assigned. You cannot add dependencies to tasks in On Hold status. Duplicating the project to start work does not send any notifications. Templates work since they are simple. But they have some limitations.
How blueprints work
Blueprints have their own dedicated section in your Wrike workspace, separate from your active project structure. Inside a blueprint, you can assign users without triggering any notifications. Nobody knows they have been added to a blueprint. You can set any status on tasks, including active statuses, and no notifications will go out. You can add dependencies. Creating items from a blueprint sends smart notifications based on the item that has just been created.
Blueprints are the mechanism that connects with Request Forms. A submitted request form can trigger the creation of a task or project directly from a blueprint, with all the standard steps already in place.
A marketing team that receives requests for email campaigns, blog posts, and paid advertising from other departments can create a separate form for each request type, linked to a corresponding blueprint. Each time someone submits the form, a task or project is created with all the information from the form pre-populated, the right people already assigned, dependencies in place, and the standard checklist ready to go.
Using a form with a blueprint lets you capture additional project information, keep certain fields consistent or required, prepend the project name to all task names, and even select different blueprints or add elements to a blueprint based on how someone answers form questions. That flexibility is not available with templates.