Importing Generic Staff from a .CSV File
Your resource planners may not know which employees will staff a project, particularly prospective projects. Generic resources enable a planner to assign a placeholder for a type of employee without having to select an actual person, while they determine whether to fill staffing needs with existing employees or to hire new staff for the project. When you first implement Deltek CRM and any other time when you need to add multiple generic resources, you can either export the information from the application in which you maintain generic resource information into a .CSV (comma-separated values) file or enter the information into the .CSV file manually, and then import it from that file into Deltek CRM.
The option to import generic resources 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 CRM API to develop your own process for importing the data into Deltek CRM.
Dependencies
If Deltek CRM is configured to use organizations and you want to associate generic resources with organizations, make sure all organizations exist in Deltek CRM before you run the generic resources import process. If necessary, use the organization import process to add the organizations, or add them individually in the General area of the Configuration workspace.
In addition, if you want to assign generic resources to labor categories, they must already exist in Deltek CRM. If they do not, create those records before importing generic resources.
What the Import Does
When you import generic resources, the import process adds a new generic resource record in Deltek CRM for each generic resource in the .CSV file that does not already exist in Deltek CRM.
Preparing the .CSV File
After you export your generic resources information to a .CSV file or when you manually create the .CSV file, make sure 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. Finally, carefully review the data in the .CSV file to make sure it is correct, particularly generic resource codes and names.
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 Import tab in the Integrations & Imports area.
To start the generic resources import process, click Generic Staff 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 Generic Staff 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
- Select Do not import duplicate records if you do not want to import any information for a generic resource that already exists.
- Select Update duplicate records if you want the import process to update fields in Deltek CRM for a generic resource that already exists. If a field in the existing record is blank or contains information that is different from information in the mapped field in the .CSV file, the field in the existing record is updated with the information from the .CSV file. If you maintain generic resource information in another application, this option enables you to use the import process to keep the corresponding information in Deltek CRM up to date.
- Select Delete existing records and import if you want to delete all existing generic resources currently in Deltek CRM and then import a complete set of your generic resources. The exceptions are generic resources for which resource assignments exist. Those are not deleted, but if you include updated data in the import file for any of those generic resources, their records in Deltek CRM are updated.
The import process checks for an existing generic resource with the same generic resource code. If the code matches, the generic resource in the .CSV file is considered a duplicate.
Import Errors and Warnings
If the import process is unable to import one or more generic resources (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 Generic Staff 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 generic resources 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.