Export and bulk update personnel cost rates

When managing personnel cost rates for multiple participants, you can export all rates to an Excel file and bulk update them by uploading a modified file. This is particularly useful during annual salary reviews, budget revisions, or when adjusting rates across your consortium.

In this article:

• Export personnel cost rates
• Bulk update personnel cost rates
• Understanding update options
• Troubleshooting

Export personnel cost rates

The Export function downloads all personnel cost rates as an Excel file (.xlsx). The scope of the export depends on your role:

• Regular users: Exports rates for the selected participant only
• Project Managers and Admins: Exports rates from all participants you have Edit rights on, organized in separate worksheets

How to export

1

Open the Participants section and click on a participant to open the sidebar.

2

Select the Financial Profile tab.

3

Scroll to the Personnel Cost Rates section.

4

Click the Export button below the rates table.

5

An Excel file downloads automatically with the naming format:
YYYY-MM-DD_[workspace-name]_PersonnelRates.xlsx

Exported data

The exported Excel file contains the following columns:

Bulk update personnel cost rates

The Upload to update feature allows you to modify multiple personnel cost rates at once by uploading a modified Excel file.

Step-by-step guide

1

Export the current rates first
Click Export to download the current rates. This ensures you have the correct file format and identifiers.

2

Modify the Excel file
Open the downloaded file and edit the values in the "Rate in €/month" column (Column C).

Important: Do NOT modify the "No." column – this identifier is required to match rates correctly. Only rate changes are detected; other columns are ignored during import.

3

Upload the modified file
Click Upload to update in the Personnel Cost Rates section. A dialog opens with a drop zone where you can drag and drop your modified Excel file, or click to browse.

4

Review the detected changes
EMDESK compares the uploaded rates with current values and shows a preview table:

• Changes are sorted by absolute difference (largest changes first)
• By default, only the first 3 changes are shown
• Click "Show all X modified cost rates" to see all changes

5

Choose an update method and confirm
Select either Update costs or Update efforts (see below), then confirm to apply the changes.

Understanding update options

When applying bulk updates, you have two options that determine how existing budget and expense entries are affected:

Update costs

• Updates the personnel cost rates
• Recalculates the costs in all budget and expense entries that use these rates
• Use this when you want existing entries to reflect the new rates

Update efforts

• Updates only the personnel cost rates
• Existing budget and expense entries keep their current cost values
• Use this when you want to preserve historical costs unchanged

Troubleshooting

Changes not detected

If your changes aren't being detected during upload, check that:

• The rate value actually changed (differences smaller than 0.00000001 are ignored)
• The "No." column matches exactly and hasn't been modified
• The file format is .xlsx (Excel format)
• The file is smaller than 1 MB

Some rates couldn't be updated

Rates that are locked or finalized (e.g., linked to finalized expenses) cannot be modified. You'll see a warning message listing how many rates couldn't be updated. Other rates in the file will still be processed successfully.

Can I add new rates through upload?

No. The Upload to update feature only modifies existing rates. To add new rates, use the Add Personnel Cost Rate button in the sidebar, or use the import feature to add rates from a template file.