Importing budget
With EMDESK you can plan and create budget for projects and each individual activity of your work plan. Every budget entry is scheduled for a specific project/activity and participant in the "Resources" section.
If you have already developed your project budget outside EMDESK, you can import your budget data into your EMDESK workspace.
Note:
- To run the import, you must have Manage access rights to the "Resources" section and at least Read access rights to those activities and participants, you want to assign the budget items for (see "Roles, access levels, and access rights"), also the current plan version must be in the Edit mode (see "Manage workspace plan versions").
- Before running the import, make sure that at least one activity, one participant (with at least one personnel cost rate), and one cost category is already set in your workspace (read further how to create activities, how to create participants, and how to create cost categories).
Tip: It is recommended to create projects, activities, and participants before importing project budget, because budget entries are assigned to them.
Follow the instructions below on how to import budget into an EMDESK workspace.
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To import budget items, prepare your data file for importing:
- The file must be in the XLSX format, max 2MB, and have only 1 sheet (find more technical file requirements here)
- The XLSX file must contain required columns with the following headers:
Unit For cost categories of the type "rate": - To import costs, enter EUR (or leave it empty)
- To import personnel effort, enter PH (person-hour), PD (person-day), or PM (person-month)
Note: If not set, default is EUR.
For the cost categories of the "fix" type: leave empty
Amount Depending on the unit you choose the amount can be either costs or personnel effort. Enter the amount in the following number formats: 1000,00; 1000.00; or 1.000,00 (if not set, default is 0.00). Activity Linked project or activity for a budget entry – enter the exact name or ID of the project or activity as defined in the "Workplan" section of your workspace*, e.g. Task 1.1 or "Screening and Analysis"
Participant Linked participant of the budget entry – enter the exact ID, short name, or name of the participant as defined in the "Participant" section of your workspace*, e.g. P1, BWE, or Wayne Enterprises
Cost Category Cost category of the budget entry – enter the exact short name of the cost category as defined in your workspace* (read here where to find the overview of your workspace cost categories), e.g. Personnel, Material, Travel
Personnel Cost Rate Name
For cost categories of the type "rate": enter the exact name of the personnel cost rate in the financial profile of the linked participant (read here where to find participants' personnel cost rates), e.g. Marilyn Smith, project assistant
For the cost categories of the "fix" type: leave empty
* value must exist in your workspace, imported record is assigned to the first found item with this value
- The XLSX file can also contain additional information in the following optional columns:
Start month Start month for the budget entry, it must be within the duration of the respective activity (if not set, by default the budget entry is assumed to be spent evenly over the activity duration), e.g. M02 or M16
End month End month for the budget entry, it must be within the duration of the respective activity (if not set, by default the cost entry is assumed to be spent evenly over the activity duration), e.g. M05 or M23
Description Description for the budget entry
Tags Add tags for the budget entry, separating them with comma without space, e.g. tag1,tag2,tag3
* value must exist in your workspace, imported record is assigned to the first found item with this value
This is an example of how your data file may look like:
Note: Any hidden rows in the excel file will be recognised for the import and if those rows are not supposed to be imported they must be taken out. Tip: To download a sample excel file, go to the "Resources" section, click the "+ Import" button at the bottom of the section, and then click the "Sample spreadsheet" button:
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When the file is ready to be imported, click Resources in Home menu to open the "Resources" section.
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Click + Import at the bottom, this will open the "Upload your file" dialogue box.
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Click on the "Select or drop file" area to upload the file from your computer or simply drag and drop the file into this area.
Note: The import only supports XLSX files. - 5
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Map column headers from your file to the budget properties in the appeared window.
- Some of the columns may be already mapped based on their names, these are marked as green:
- To map the other columns, click the dropdown menu on the right and choose the respective property:
Note: Columns that are not mapped will not be imported into the workspace. - 6
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Click Import now at the bottom of the window.
- If import is completed without any problems, a green message will appear meaning that all records in your file were successfully recognised:
- If import is completed with some problems, an orange message will appear meaning that not all records in your file were recognised (values for properties were not in the correct format or were not able to be matched with existing records) and stating that an error file was downloaded:
Note: The imported budget entries are in the currency that is set in your general workspace settings. Tip: All budget entries from the import have a tag "import_[Date]_[Time]", e.g. "import_2022-10-20_12-10-13". To quickly find and update/delete records from the import, use the tag for filtering the data. The error file contains only those budget entries that were not imported and indicates with a red colour the error values. Edit the incorrect data and repeat the importing process for the new data until all records are accepted.
- If import is completed without any problems, a green message will appear meaning that all records in your file were successfully recognised:
Note: Read further how to import project activities and events, participants, personnel cost rates, and expenses records into an EMDESK workspace.