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Help with Task Kickstart

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Level 1
I am looking to import historical information into projects, via a task roll up. Can anyone tell me how to import both Planned and Actual Task Hours. When I pull in my data, I get only the planned to fill.

Here is my current data settings on the kickstart:

setWorkUnit = H

setworkRequired = 40

setactualWorkRequired = 40

I also am not having success with this field:

setplannedCost = 3000

I'm trying a single record. I have Task Constraint set to FIXT.

Thoughts?

Janet Bakes Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc.
4 Replies

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Level 10
my initial thought is that you usually don't need to use camelcase in kickstarts. If you download a fresh kickstart file though, you can always doublecheck this. second thought for you: I was trying to kickstart some historical information yesterday and noticed that I couldn't upload a planned completion date. I ended up submitting a helpdesk ticket. I can let you know if that ever goes anywhere. I know it's not related to your problem fields, but figure hey--if one's a problem maybe others are as well. -skye

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Level 8
For actual task hours, you'll have to add a sheet called HOUR Hour. To get an example of the fields you'll need (which include project id, task id, owner id, etc, go Setup -> System -> Kick-Starts -> Export Data and download the Hour spreadsheet. Adina Pierce Cisco

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Level 4
The thing that stands out to me is the camel casing. Should be: setWorkUnit, setWorkRequired, setActualWorkRequired, setPlannedCost, etc... Second thought is that if you are creating a new task, you need a column named isNew and the data row to be 1. James Bender Jackson/JTS

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Level 3
Just checking in on this, as I have done many data conversions for clients through the years. The kick-starts are complex for what you are attempting to do. The obstacle is that you are tinkering with the four objects: project, task, hour, and user. The project record is needed to contain a task. The task record is needed to contain the planned hours. The hours record is needed to contain the actual hours. The user record is needed to associate the actual hours to someone. The kick-start looks like this. Always download an example kick-start file for the formats to use by record type. Never combine record types because you need to audit the results at each step of the data conversion. One step at a time based on the data hierarchy of users-portfolio-program-project-task-issue-hours. Create the target users being used across all records. Do this in the application. Download the user GUIDs for association to the all records when user value is needed. Create the projects that are needed for the tasks. You can do this directly or through a kick-start. The project kick-start can be complicated based on all the field settings. Download all the project GUIDs for association to the tasks and hours records to be imported next. Create the tasks in the projects either in each project or through kick-start using a task specific. Same drill here with the kick-start option as these can be confusing from the field settings. These are fussy because the planned dates align settings on the project and how calculations work on each task loaded; some settings are overridden when not set correctly in the kick-start. Download the task GUIDs for association to the hours records. Create a kick-start for the hours records using the GUIDS for project, task, and user. Note that the hours need a daily entry date value to be successful for historical reporting. These kick-starts are fun for the geeky but not so much for others. Doug Williams