In this User Guide, we’ll cover how OAE import adds Work and Line Items, with or without estimates, into a new project or an existing project.
Table of Contents
Using OAE Import Templates
Using OAE import, whether it’s for an entire project or just new work items for an existing project, is easy with a template file.
To download the template, first hit the Add Project button in the upper right.
When the Add Project screen pops up, switch to the Import tab, and hit the Download Import Template button. The import template .xlsx file will download. Note that this template is dynamically generated based on the project’s settings, so always download a fresh one.
Work Item Import Template
There are several ways to use the import template, both for what you import and where you import it to. You can add just Work Items (without estimates), or Work and Line Items (without estimates), or Work and Line Items with estimates. And you can add those to an existing project, or create a new project on import.
Note that the system does not check for duplicates in the import file, or check whether the items in the file already exist.
Importing only Work Items
When adding Work Items, you can use the following columns in the import file.
- *Item# – The item “code” – e.g. “100-00-001”
- *Rate – The rate card, e.g. “A” or “B”
- *Item Name – The Work Item Title or Line Item text
- Estimator – The e-mail address of the assigned estimator
- Remarks – Notes about the Work Item or Line Item.
* Item#, Rate, and Item Name are required fields when importing work items.
The import template provides a sheet, Work Item Template, you can use to fill in the work items you want to add.
Importing Work Items and Line Items
If you would like to import line items and work items, there’s an additional column to fill in.
- *Line – This is used to differentiate between “Work Items” and “Line Items”.
- 1 indicates a Work Item
- An empty cell will become a Work Item
- 2-n indicates a Line Item
- 1 indicates a Work Item
- *Item# – the item “code” – e.g. “100-00-001”
- *Rate – The rate card, e.g. “A” or “B”
- *Item Name – The Work Item Title or Line Item text
- Estimator – The e-mail of the assigned estimator
- Remarks – Notes about the Work Item or Line Item
* Item#, Rate, and Item Name are required fields when importing Work Items.
The OAE import template provides a sheet, Full Estimate Template, you can use to fill in the Work and Line Items you want to add. Be sure to delete the extra columns if you don’t want to import estimates.
Importing Work Items and Line Items with Estimates
Any columns in the worksheet aside from the above standard columns are assumed to be estimate parameters.
- For Work Items (where the “Line” column = 1), all other columns are ignored, since they reflect totals that OAE calculates internally.
- For Line Items (where the “Line” column >1), additional columns are compared to the “Short” values in the structure – e.g. “PD” gets assigned to “Production Hours” labor. All other columns get ignored.
You can see an example of this on the Full Estimate Template tab in the import template.
Running OAE import
Once you’ve filled in your import file as shown in the template, you can leave it as a .xlsx file, or save it as a .csv file. OAE import supports both. If you do import as .xlsx, note that the first tab of the spreadsheet is the one that will import.
Importing into a New Project
To import into a new project, use the Add Project button on the Projects page, then switch to the Import tab.
Enter the name and description of the new project, then use the Browse button to select the file you’d like to import.
You don’t have to wait until the import file is processed to find out you formatted something incorrectly. Use the Preview Import… button at the bottom of the Add Project screen to confirm that the system recognizes the expected number of Work Items, Line Items, and estimators. It will summarize what it sees. If something doesn’t look right, just Cancel.
After hitting Go to import, continue through the standard project creation process to create the project with the estimate details included in your import file.
Adding to an Existing project
To add to an existing project, navigate to the project’s Home page, then hit the blue + button and choose Import items....
Then Browse for the file you’d like to import.
As noted above, use the Preview Import… button to confirm that the system is parsing your import file correctly, then hit Go to import.
Note that there is no logic to remove existing items, so you’ll easily end up w/ duplicates.
Learn More
Check out the rest of our User Guides to learn more about OAE.