Importing Historical Hours from a .CSV File

When you first implement Deltek CRM and any other time when you need to add the actual hours your employees have charged to projects, you can export the information from the application in which you maintain project labor transaction information into a .CSV (comma-separated values) file and import it from that file into Deltek CRM.

For example, if you track actual hours worked on projects in a time entry application, it is likely that you can export that data into a .CSV file. If so, you can then import it into the Deltek CRM database.

Deltek CRM uses the historical hours to provide comparisons of planned hours to actual hours and to calculate job-to-date (JTD) and estimate-at-completion (EAC) values.

The option to import historical hours is only available if you activated the Resource Planning module.

Alternatives

An alternative to importing data from a .CSV file is to use the Deltek API to integrate the source application for historical hours with Deltek CRM so the hours in the two applications stays in sync automatically.

Dependencies

Before you import historical hours, run both the employees import process and the project information import process or use alternative methods to add your employees and projects. To add historical hours records for an employee and project, a record for that employee and that project must already exist in Deltek CRM.

What the Historical Hours Import Does

When you import historical hours, the import process adds a historical hours record in Deltek CRM for each valid record in the .CSV file. Before you start the actual import process, you map the fields in your .CSV file to fields in Deltek CRM.

In addition, after all records have been imported, the JTD date for Deltek CRM is updated to the date of the latest historical labor record in the database. The JTD date displays on the Planning tab in the General area of the Configuration workspace. That date is used to calculate JTD hours and amounts, which in turn are used to calculate estimate-to complete (ETC) and estimate-at-completion (EAC) hours and amounts.

Preparing the .CSV File

After you export your historical hours to a .CSV file, open that file in Microsoft Excel® or other compatible application, and verify that the first row of data in the file contains field names. The import process assumes that the first row contains field names, not actual data. It uses those field names during the field mapping step of the import process. You should also review the records in the file and delete any that you do not want to import into Deltek CRM. Make sure that the file does not contain records that were imported previously; the process assumes all valid records should be imported and does not check for duplicate records in Deltek CRM. Finally, carefully review the data in the .CSV file to make sure it is correct. In particular, make sure that the employee numbers and project IDs already exist in Deltek CRM. Also verify that all project IDs are at the lowest level of their respective branches of the work breakdown structure (WBS) in Deltek CRM; you can only import historical hours for the lowest level projects.

Because you explicitly map the .CSV fields to Deltek CRM fields during the import process, the field names in the file do not have to match the field names in Deltek CRM, and the order of the fields in the .CSV file does not matter. It also does not matter if the .CSV file contains fields that have no equivalent field in Deltek CRM or fields that you do not want to import for some other reason. The import process ignores fields in the file that you do not map to a Deltek CRM field.

Starting the Import Process

Only users with access to the Configuration workspace can run the import process. In addition, tablets and other devices that use the iOS operating system cannot upload files through the browser. As a result, you must run the import process using a different device, such as a laptop or an Android tablet. If you are using an iOS device, the import option is disabled on the Imports tab in the Integrations & Imports area.

To start the historical hours import process, click Historical Hours on the Imports tab in the Integrations & Imports area of the Configuration workspace.

Mapping .CSV Fields to Deltek CRM Fields

The import process first asks you to select the .CSV file from which you want to import data and then displays the Import Historical Hours From CSV dialog box so you can map .CSV fields to Deltek CRM fields. The first time you display this dialog box, Deltek CRM attempts to provide default field mappings based on the field names in your .CSV file and the field names in Deltek CRM. Review those default mappings and change any that are incorrect. Thereafter, your previous field mappings display by default.

For each .CSV field in the SOURCE FILE FIELD column that you want to import into Deltek CRM, select the corresponding Deltek CRM field in the DELTEK FIELD column. If the .CSV file contains fields that you do not want to import, select Do not import for those fields.

Updating Existing Records

Unlike most other import processes, you cannot use the import process to update historical hours records that were previously imported. All historical hours records you import, even if the employee, project, and transaction date match an existing record in Deltek CRM, are treated as new records.

Import Errors and Warnings

If the import process is unable to import one or more employee skills (because of required data that is missing from the .CSV file, for example), a message displays at the top of the Deltek CRM page: Could not import all...records. Download the CSV file with all records that failed and the reason.

Click the Download the CSV file link in the message to review the records that were not imported and the reasons why the imports failed. A Download the CSV file link is also available near Historical Hours on the Imports tab itself.

In some cases, the import process may successfully import a record but display a warning message. This can occur, for example, when a record contains invalid data that is not required. Often in that case, the import process creates the new record in Deltek CRM but omits the invalid data and warns you of that action. As with errors, you can click Download the CSV file either in the warning message or on the Imports tab to review the affected records and explanations of the warnings.

The errors and warnings for your latest historical hours import process remain available in the .CSV file until the next time you run that import process. At that point, they are replaced by any errors and warnings from the more recent process.