---
title: "Copy, templates and import"
url: "https://docs.4hse.com/copy-templates-and-import"
description: "The three ways to avoid entering the same data twice: copying between offices, starting from a model, and importing from a file."
---

# Copy, templates and import

Safety data repeats itself. Two offices of the same company run similar activities, use similar equipment and need similar courses. This area is about not typing all of it twice.

There are three ways in.

What it does

When

**Copy from…**

replicates an element from one office to another, keeping its relations

the same thing already exists somewhere in your projects

**Create from template**

replicates it from a **model office**, pre-filled by 4HSE or by a partner

you are starting from scratch and want a ready structure

**[Import](/copy-templates-and-import/import-a-list)**

loads a list from a `.csv` file

you already have the data in a spreadsheet

## What “template” means here

[Section titled “What “template” means here”](#what-template-means-here)

A **template office** is a model: an office, created for the purpose, holding standardised and pre-filled data to copy from. Templates can be provided by **4HSE**, by a **partner** — and partner templates are visible only to that partner’s clients — or exist inside your own project.

## Copying is not duplicating

[Section titled “Copying is not duplicating”](#copying-is-not-duplicating)

The copy carries the **relations** of the element with it, and on arrival each related item is handled separately: something already present in the destination office is **linked**, not duplicated, and only what is missing is created.

This is what makes copying safe on a populated office, and it is the reason the procedure has a step in the middle where you decide item by item — see [Copy an element](/copy-templates-and-import/copy-an-element).

## Import writes, export does not

[Section titled “Import writes, export does not”](#import-writes-export-does-not)

Importing creates records in 4HSE from a file; [exporting](/reports/export-a-list) produces a file from data that is already there. The two buttons are symmetrical in the toolbar but not in effect: only the import changes data, so the file has to be checked before confirming.

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