Cloning and Versioning Review Templates

Cloning a Performance Review template is the safest way to evolve your review process without compromising historical data. By creating a new version of an existing template, you keep prior reviews intact while introducing the updates you need — preserving clean, comparable reporting across review cycles.

Who this is for: Administrators only

Read time: 5 minutes

Why clone instead of edit?

Once a Performance Review template has been used in even one live review, editing it directly creates problems:

Reporting integrity breaks. If you change a question or rating scale after reviews have been completed, you can no longer compare data cleanly across the cycle.
Historical reviews can be misrepresented. Completed reviews may appear to reference questions that have changed meaning.
In-progress reviews may behave unexpectedly. Reviewers part-way through a review can lose context if structure shifts beneath them.

Cloning solves this. You produce a new template that inherits everything useful from the original, make your changes safely on the clone, and then switch over by disabling the old version and enabling the new one.

When to clone

Clone a template whenever you need to:

Roll forward into a new review cycle (for example, FY26 H1 → FY26 H2).
Add, remove, or reword questions.
Change a rating scale or answer type.
Add or remove a Manager Rating on a question.
Adjust sections, audience (admin only), or review type.
Test a structural change before rolling it out broadly.

Prerequisites

You must have Administrator or Manager permissions in Prosper.
The Performance Reviews module must be enabled for your organisation.
You should have a clear view of what's changing between the current and new version before you start.

How to clone a Performance Review template

Step 1 — Open Manage Templates

From the Prosper main menu, navigate to Performance.
Select Manage Reviews.

Step 2 — Locate the template you want to clone

Find the template in the list. Cloning works on both active and closed templates.

Step 3 — Clone the template

Under the Actions column for the template, select the Clone icon.

A new template is created as a draft copy. It contains every section, question, answer type, rating scale, and Manager Rating from the original.

Step 4 — Rename the cloned template

By default, the clone is named with a suffix (for example, Onboarding Discussion (15 May 2025)). Rename it immediately using a clear convention.

Examples of good naming:

FY26 H2 Frontline Onboarding Discussion
Onboarding Discussion — v2 (Capability scale updated)
Onboarding Discussion FY27

Avoid generic names like Copy of Onboarding Discussion — they create confusion six months later.

Step 5 — Make your changes on the clone

Edit the cloned template as needed:

Update question text, answer types, and rating scales.
Add or remove sections.
Adjust Manager Ratings on relevant questions.
Refine audience, review type, or description.

Because this is a fresh draft, no live reviews are affected by any change you make here.

Step 6 — Preview the new version

Scroll to the bottom of the review and select Preview to step through the updated template from a reviewer's perspective. Check that every change reads as intended and that nothing was missed.

Step 7 — Save the clone

Select Save Draft. The new version is stored as a draft in your Manage Reviews list.

Step 8 — Switch the version live

When you're ready to make the new version available:

End the original template.
Open the new template in draft by selecting Edit, scroll to the bottom of the review and Save and Publish.

The new version is now an active template. Any new reviews will use it. Reviews already in progress or completed against the original version remain untouched.

Versioning conventions that work

A consistent naming and versioning approach makes your template library easy to navigate at any point — even years later.

Date the cycle, not the day

Use the review cycle in the template name (FY26 H1, Q2 2026, Annual 2026) rather than the date you built it. Cycles are what users and reports care about.

Version structural changes explicitly

If you're changing the structure of a template mid-cycle — for example, adding a Manager Rating you forgot — version it: FY26 H1 Frontline Review — v2. This makes it obvious in reporting that two versions exist for the same cycle.

Keep the library tidy

Old, disabled templates accumulate. Once a cycle is closed and reporting is complete, leave the templates in place (they're tied to historical reviews), but make sure their names clearly indicate they're from a past cycle so they don't get confused with current ones.

One enabled template per audience per cycle

This is the single most important rule. If you have two enabled templates targeting the same audience, managers will choose inconsistently, and your reporting will fragment.

Working with Manager Ratings on cloned templates

Manager Ratings are cloned along with the rest of the template — including the rating questions, answer types, and any associated scales. After cloning, review every Manager Rating to confirm it still reflects what you want to measure in the new cycle. This is often where templates evolve most over time as your performance framework matures.

Tips and best practices

Plan changes before you clone. Spend 10 minutes mapping out what's changing and why. This makes the actual build much faster.
Communicate the switch. When you enable a new version, let managers and HR business partners know via your usual channel — especially if questions or rating scales have changed.
Don't clone unnecessarily. A small wording fix in an unused draft template can be edited in place. Cloning is for templates that have already been used or are live.
Archive old templates with care. Disabled templates remain linked to their historical reviews — keep them in place rather than deleting.
Run a calibration refresh after major changes. If you've updated a rating scale or added Manager Ratings, brief managers before the next cycle so they apply the changes consistently.

Troubleshooting

I cloned a template but the clone is missing some questions.
Refresh the page and reopen the clone. If questions are genuinely missing, check whether the original template had unsaved changes when you cloned — the clone reflects the last saved state.

Both the old and new version are enabled — what should I do?
Disable the old version immediately. Any reviews started against it in the meantime will complete against that version, but new reviews should be on the current template.

A manager has started a review on the old version. Can I move them across?
In-progress reviews stay on the version they were started against to preserve data integrity. If the change in the new version is critical, the manager can cancel the in-progress review and restart against the new template.

How many versions of a template should I keep?
There's no hard limit — keep every version that's tied to historical reviews. The goal is traceability, not minimalism.

Administrator's Guide to Publishing Performance Reviews
Creating a Performance Review Template
Setting Up Manager Ratings
Exporting Performance Review Data

Related to