Importing projects

Projects behave like an umbrella in Scoro. A project includes information about client communication, done and planned activities, as well as financial information. When you start using Scoro and want to transfer past and ongoing projects to Scoro, you can simply import them. Make sure to first import the key information about the projects (name, client, date, etc.). All other details (e.g. actual time spent on the project, actual revenue, and cost) should be imported after the import of projects as separate data files (e.g. first import tasks, then invoices, etc.). This allows you to associate the imported data with the correct project.

 
TIPS: 

• Download the example file and follow its structure. You can find the example file by going to the Import/Export module and selecting the relevant import page (projects).
  
  
  
  Alternatively, you can fill out one project card in Scoro and export it to understand exactly what columns need to be filled out.
  
  
• Insert data about each project on a separate row of the file.
  
  
• Mandatory fields that need to be filled out to import projects:
  • project name
  • contact name – either the name of the company or a person the project is related to. If the company/person already exists in your Scoro contact list, the project is linked to the relevant contact. If the contact does not yet exist in Scoro, a new contact is created during the import.
  • contact type – either a person or a company. It is needed in order for the system to know what type of contact should be added/searched for (a person or a company). 
    
    
• If you wish to tag your projects to easily segment and filter the project list and reports, predefine these tags in Scoro before importing projects. You can use multiple tags for each project. Separate the values with vertical bars (e.g. Tag1|Tag2|Tag3).
  
  
• The project manager is an employee at your company who's in charge of the project. This person must have a user account in Scoro before importing the projects. Add their first and last name to the project_manager column (exactly like written on their Scoro user profile). The same applies to the project members. If you don’t specify the project manager (you don’t import this column), the person importing the projects is selected as the Project Manager.
  
  
• By default, all users (with the relevant rights) can access projects (is_private field should be 0). If you want to limit the access project by project, you can set access for project members only (is_private field should be filled with 1). This means that only selected members can access the project information. The users who do not have the right to see the projects of other users (this can be defined under roles and permissions) do not access the projects either way. 
  
  
• Related contacts are the people from the customer side who are involved with the project. If the person already exists in your Scoro contact list, they are simply linked to the project. If the contact does not yet exist in Scoro, a new contact is created during the import. 
  
  
• Project number. If you wish to use your own numbering, add the project number (Note! This field can contain only numbers). If no special numbering is needed, there is no need to fill out the field, Scoro will automatically create the numbering for you (Scoro assigns the next available number to the project).
  
  
• To define project statuses (in which stage the project is in), the status needs to exist in Scoro. You can predefine/customize the project statuses on your site, go to Settings > Site settings > Statuses. If you don’t specify the status in the import file (you don’t import this column), then the default status of a new project is used. 
  
  
• Normally the projects that are managed in Scoro are work-related (is_personal field should be filled with 0), however, if you want to create a personal project, add 1 to the is_personal field. Activities (tasks, events) linked to a personal project are not shown in the work reports (these activities are not considered as work time). For example, personal holidays can be tracked this way.
  
  
• Add date (start date of the project), deadline (expected end date of the project) and estimated duration (hours you plan to spend on the project) to later compare the actual results to the estimates.
  
  
• If you wish to import the project budgeted amounts (revenue and cost), there are two ways to do that (Note! Project budgets are only available in Work Hub Ultimate and Business Hub Ultimate plans):
  
  
  • Using a simple budget – just fill out the fields for the estimated cost (budget_cost) and estimated revenue (budget_revenue). Field budget_type should be filled with the word "simple". 
  • If you want to use a quote as the basis for your budget, use the budget_type "quote". This means that you should also import quotes to Scoro (and associate those to the relevant projects). In that case, the estimated cost and revenue are taken from the quote, so there's no need to add estimates to the project import file. Note! Only quotes in successful status are included in the budget.
    
    
• If you need to add specific information about your projects, yet neither the tag nor description field is suitable for that, you can create custom fields in Scoro. First, create a custom field for projects, then import the relevant details. Just add an additional column to the import file.    
  
  
• Delete the columns you do not need before the import.     

 
After you have prepared the file, import it to Scoro. 

Now to the mapping phase. Map the columns you filled out in Excel to the fields in Scoro. If you have used the column headers from the template file, most fields are mapped automatically.

You can either update already existing items or add new ones. If you are importing new projects (or just doing the very first import) just deselect the option Update already existing items.

Scoro will notify you once the import is complete. If some import lines contained errors, the lines with errors are not imported. You will get an error report indicating what the issues were. Just download the file, make corrections and import it again.