Is there a way to use record templates (or a similar feature) to generate grouped child records for an existing parent record—without using automations?

Hey ​@ktj17,

May I ask why you are trying to stay away from automations for this use case?

Just to get the full picture.
 

Completely different matter, but would love to have you join the March 2026 AT Community led Hackathon! Make sure to sign up!!

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation 
YouTube Channel

Hi Mike,

We are trying to stay away from using automation so that we can utilize our automations for other use cases in our program. I don’t mind using a few automations for this but how I currently have it set up uses a large portion of our automations and I want to reduce that or find another solution.

The way I have my automations set up are one of two ways,

1. The first is used mostly for our event planning logistics since all of our events are different, we have fields called advertisement, agenda, food/drink catering, food/drink delivery, registration, etc. that are all set up as single select fields and when the record matches “yes”. Each field we need to track logistics for has an automation associated with it because I am telling it to find records of a specific template group name.
   • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - specific field (single select) is “Yes” ], Actions [ Find records in Tasks Templates table where the field “Template Group” has any of “Enter specific template group name”, then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)
   • Example: Field name → Advertisement Needed?
     • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - Advertisement Needed? is “Yes” ], Actions [Find records in Tasks Templates table (list of tasks associated with a template group) where the field “Template Group” has any of “Event Advertisement” (a list of 6 tasks related to advertising the event), then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)
2. The second type is used per parent table to generate the post- tasks therefore for every parent table we have that has post- tasks, there is a specific automation because we are having it trigger off specific fields in that parent table.
   • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - specific field (single select) is “Generate Tasks (Automation)” and “Post-Award Template Group” field is not empty], Actions [Find records in Tasks Templates table where the field “Template Group” has any of (Dynamic) “Post Award Template Group (Using data from the “When a record matches conditions” trigger”, then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)
   • Example: Parent table is Awards
     • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - “Task Trigger (Post Award) is “Generate Tasks (Automation)”  and “Post-Award Template Group” field is not empty], Actions [Find records in Tasks Templates table where the field “Template Group” has any of (Dynamic)“Enter specific template group ID (Using data from the “When a record matches conditions” Trigger”, then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)

Hi Mike,

We are trying to stay away from using automation so that we can utilize our automations for other use cases in our program. I don’t mind using a few automations for this but how I currently have it set up uses a large portion of our automations and I want to reduce that or find another solution.

The way I have my automations set up are one of two ways,

1. The first is used mostly for our event planning logistics since all of our events are different, we have fields called advertisement, agenda, food/drink catering, food/drink delivery, registration, etc. that are all set up as single select fields and when the record matches “yes”. Each field we need to track logistics for has an automation associated with it because I am telling it to find records of a specific template group name.
   • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - specific field (single select) is “Yes” ], Actions [ Find records in Tasks Templates table where the field “Template Group” has any of “Enter specific template group name”, then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)
   • Example: Field name → Advertisement Needed?
     • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - Advertisement Needed? is “Yes” ], Actions [Find records in Tasks Templates table (list of tasks associated with a template group) where the field “Template Group” has any of “Event Advertisement” (a list of 6 tasks related to advertising the event), then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)
2. The second type is used per parent table to generate the post- tasks therefore for every parent table we have that has post- tasks, there is a specific automation because we are having it trigger off specific fields in that parent table.
   • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - specific field (single select) is “Generate Tasks (Automation)” and “Post-Award Template Group” field is not empty], Actions [Find records in Tasks Templates table where the field “Template Group” has any of (Dynamic) “Post Award Template Group (Using data from the “When a record matches conditions” trigger”, then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)
   • Example: Parent table is Awards
     • Trigger [when a record matches conditions - “Task Trigger (Post Award) is “Generate Tasks (Automation)”  and “Post-Award Template Group” field is not empty], Actions [Find records in Tasks Templates table where the field “Template Group” has any of (Dynamic)“Enter specific template group ID (Using data from the “When a record matches conditions” Trigger”, then repeat for each in the list from the find records - Create a record in Tasks table (with a set of fields I have chosen)

Hm, I think I’m not understanding something about your setup.  We’re able to use Record Templates to create a set of records linked to an existing record like so:

I’ve set it up here for you to check out

If you could let me know which bit of this doesn’t work for your flow I’ll see what I can do to help!

Thank you so much! I think this is exactly what I need but every time I looked up if this was possible, I was told that the native record template couldn’t do this. How did you set up the tasks in the record template tool so that with one click of the button two tasks are generated? In your example, are you able to include start and end dates of tasks and can they be dependent on each other the same way you can set it up in the parent->child record template set up?

I was able to figure it out how to add the tasks and attach to the parent record, thank you so much!!