4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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Home » Video: Excellerate your Updates. How to Import Your Subcontractor’s Primavera

Updates from Excel!

Video: Excellerate your Updates. How to

Import Your Subcontractor’s Primavera

Updates from Excel!

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012 BY MICHAEL LEPAGE — 22 COMMENTS

Occasionally we revisit some of our

reader’s favourite posts from the

annals of the PlannerTuts tutorial

library, and today we’re revisiting a

topic that is always hot – importing

updates from excel. This video

tutorial was first published on

September 30th, 2011 and was very

popular. Let’s take a look!

Often large projects demand many sub-teams or subcontractors update a portion

of the master project plan on an on-going basis.

If your subcontractors are not up to speed on their primavera skills, you may need a

Mem ber H o m eBlo gA bo utH o m e

Br ows e Cou r s es & Vi d eos Pr i c i n g FAQ Fr ee T u tor i a l s

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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Filed Under: Excel, Import / Export, P6 Professional, Tutorials, Videos

solution that simplifies gathering updates and getting them into Primavera.

Enter Excel….and Primavera’s export- to-excel feature.

This video tutorial will walk you through the process of filtering and exporting a

subcontractor’s activities to excel and reimporting the updated spreadsheet into P6.

About Michael Lepage

I help people from all over the world learn planning, scheduling and

everything about Oracle Primavera P6. I've spent years teaching

classroom courses and consulting on Primavera P6...and for some of the

heaviest users around. Two things I enjoy most are teaching and

technology...and the odd strum of my guitar.

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

https://www.plannertuts.com/excellerate-your-updates-how-to-import-your-subcontractors-primavera-updates-from-excel/ 3/17

Comments

Paul bycok says

December 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm

Your Comments

Hi Micheal

When building a new project in P6, I will usually will receive my data in Excel

format. I create a project in P6 with 1 activity then export the fields that I need to

Excel. Next I copy and paste activity names etc. (trying to save key strokes) from the

Excel data. I can import the names etc. but the dates/resource qty’s will not import

properly to P6. I watched your tutorial and appear to be doing what you have

done. I input the qty’s as a text file but it still does not import properly….help

Paul

Reply

Michael Lepage says

December 7, 2011 at 3:00 pm

Paul,

One thing to note is that not all fields can be updated from Excel. If you

look at exported data in Excel, you’ll notice that in Row 2 (the 2nd header

row), some fields have an asterisk (*) in the column name. Those fields with

an asterisk can’t be populated with Excel data. “Start Date” and “Finish

Date” or two likely candidates that can’t be updated. That’s because

Primavera calculates those fields and populates them. So, my first question

is – Are you trying to populate data into a field that is non-updatable?

If the answer to the above is “no”, then I would probably ask if every cell

that has data in it in the excel import file has a leading aspostrophe? EG:

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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‘A1020 or ’4 or ‘Paul McCartney . Those leading apostrophes need to be

there for the import to work. In the tutorial, I mentioned a free excel plug-

in called ASAP tools that has a feature to help with this.

One last mention would be about import the right data on the right excel

tab. For example, to import resource assignments, the resource must

specified on the TASKRSRC excel tab. If you don’t have this tab in your file it

might be because of the options you picked on the first export. You have

to make sure to check the appropriate data on the “Export Type” screen

when running the export wizard.

Paul, hopefully, some of these suggestions point you in the right direction.

Please reply back if you’re still having problems and I will see if I can dive in

some more to help you out.

Happy planning!

Michael

Reply

Bruno says

December 14, 2011 at 9:09 pm

Hi Michael,

Greetings from Brazil !

I try to use the SDK in Primavera. My version is 8.1.

I already conclude the installation process, but when I need to enter the name

and password I can´t stablish a connection with the database.

Can you help me ?

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I need to solve this situation very quickly because I need to convert my WBS into a

activity-code basis, using the tutorial displayed in this website.

Regards,

Bruno.

Reply

Michael Lepage says

December 15, 2011 at 1:19 pm

Hi Bruno,

You’ll need to send me more information – are you getting an error message?

What is happening on login?

Before you can login using the SDK, the user you are logging in with (most likely

“admin”?) needs proper security privileges – make sure the user has the Global

Profle .

FYI: Bruno’s question relates to another post here ->

http://www.plannertuts.com/tutorials/how-to-convert-a-projects-wbs-to-activity-

codes-in-oracle-primavera-p6-464/

Send me more info Bruno…and would you mind posting your next comment on

the other tutorial…thanks!

Michael

Reply

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Aftab Khan says

June 13, 2012 at 1:59 am

Dear Michael-

Thanks for your Tutorials.

Question->

As per Comment above-

For Updating via Excel-Should not the following be “Editable” in Excel-

Actual Start/Actual Finish/Percent Complete/Remaining Duration/Expected Finish?

Just as an Example-the Expected Finish when Exported has an Asterisk in the

Column Header->Which should not be.

expect_end_date

(*)Expected Finish

Could you please confirm in your reply which of the above Fields are “Editable” In

Excel by Sub-Contractors-that is not having an Asterisk in the Column Headers?

Thanks Very Much-

Aftab Khan

Reply

Michael Lepage says

June 13, 2012 at 4:21 pm

Hi Aftab,

Unfortunately, many fields that you think would be editable in Excel for

reimport are not. I do not know why Expected Finish has an asterisk and is

not editable.

However, for me there is no asterisk on

- Actual Start / Finish

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- Activity % Complete

- Remaining Duration

- Activity Status

Meaning that these ARE editable in Excel for re-import.

Hope that helps,

Michael

Reply

Aftab Khan says

June 15, 2012 at 1:08 am

Thanks Michael-

Question->Did the Field for “Expected Finish” Give You an Asterisk in concerned

“Column” when Exported from P6 to Excel?

Thanks.

Aftab Khan

Reply

Michael Lepage says

June 15, 2012 at 8:57 am

Hi Aftab,

Yes there is an asterisk on Expected Finish when exporting that field to

Excel. It cannot be updated through excel export / import in P6.

Michael

Reply

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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VIJAY KUTTY says

June 20, 2012 at 9:13 am

Hi,

I tried importing to Excel. I have a small problem when I do it.

Some of the activities that primavera imports from excel loose their place on the

WBS and move to the top of the program. Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks,

Vijay

Reply

Michael Lepage says

June 20, 2012 at 11:40 pm

Hi Vijay,

Not completely sure. The only thing I can think of is that the data in the

wbs_id column in excel was edited so that on the import, P6 doesn’t know

the data in that field or can’t link it to an existing WBS. I would check that

field before you import to make sure it has valid data in it before you

import.

Let me know how it works out,

Michael

Reply

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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javad says

September 23, 2012 at 1:48 pm

Hi

I have a question about WBS UDF in P6 . How can i write thise kind of fild with

excel import and export or excel sdk?

Reply

Michael Lepage says

September 25, 2012 at 8:52 pm

Hi Javad,

The only way to import WBS is either using the xer parser

http://www.plannertuts.com/tutorials/using-primaveras-xer-file-parser-

import-wbs-from-excel-without-the-sdk-840/ or using the SDK

http://www.plannertuts.com/tutorials/how-to-import-wbs-from-excel-to-

primavera-p6-using-the-sdk-722/ . I would try either of those to import a

UDF for WBS.

Hope that helps!

Michael

Reply

Bob E says

October 16, 2012 at 8:57 am

Michael, It is my first time viewing your website. It is very helpful. It unlocked the

export update door for me. Can I highlight rows and add text to make it easier for

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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my subs to know the locations they are updating.

Reply

Michael Lepage says

October 16, 2012 at 9:37 am

Hi Bob,

I’m sure you can highlight rows by changing cell colors, but adding text is

not recommended. P6 is finnicky and won’t import if you edit the column

headers, tabs, and add text around. I would do some testing to make sure.

Let us know how you make out.

Michael

Reply

Wiwid says

March 25, 2013 at 7:48 am

Hi Michael,

I’ve problem with the import process from excel to Primavera 6.2.1. The total

number of activities that will be imported is around 10.000 – 30.000 activities with

21 fields for each activities.

Currently I’ve to split the data into small number around 2000 activities with 10

fields data and it took around 20 minutes per excel import. I’ve to conduct the

process twice a week.

kindly need your advise, may be you have a better way to do this.

Thanking you in advance.

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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Reply

Mohamed saeed says

April 14, 2013 at 11:51 pm

Dear Michael,

Iam trying to import percentage to P6 but i cant , what i did before is exporting xls

sheet from P6 then i load the required data including percentage ( physical &

duration ) then import to P6 but no percentage come out .

So can you help me ? I just want to know how to transfer percentage from xls to

P6 ?

Thanks alot

Reply

Michael Lepage says

April 15, 2013 at 3:47 pm

@Mohamed,

Unfortunately both Physical and Duration % complete can’t be imported from

Excel (look for the asterisk in the column name in Excel – indicates that it can’t be

updated). The workaround is as follows:

1) Create a User Defined Field for each column and export them to Excel

2) Update the %’s in Excel and re-import

3) Create a Global Change (Tools-> Global Change) to copy the UDF imported-

values back to the original fields.

Hope that helps!

Michael

Reply

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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Emerson says

June 19, 2013 at 6:36 pm

@Michael:

Would this UDF workaround work for setting predecessors and successors?

What about non asterisk fields not importing? In my case, activity codes are not

importing.

Thanks.

Reply

Gihan says

June 26, 2013 at 12:51 am

Hi Michael

With reference to the Physical % Completion, it is a (*) filed in Primavera and it is

not a calculated field.

I need to import Physical % completion in Primavera from Excel becaues I need to

calculate the EV based on that.

Is there a way to import that instead of entering that manually ?

Thanks

Gihan

Reply

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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sha says

August 15, 2013 at 10:18 am

When i am updating progress , By going to tools – updated progress,suppose my

schedule has 50 activities ,out of that only 10 activities is started actually at site

,when i update the that activities ,the remaining activities dates is taking as base

line dates only

Reply

Michael Lepage says

August 23, 2013 at 3:05 pm

@Sha.

This is going to be a bit more than we can troubleshoot over comments. If you’d

like to contact me directly about this issue, I can offer some consulting help at a

reasonable rate. michael@plannertuts.com

Reply

Hany MElegy says

January 3, 2014 at 10:33 pm

Our case is we have a custom form in oracle EBS this form is a progress sheet for a

projects, and its calculate the % of completion for each task (Activity).

What we need is to update % of complete for each activity in primavera , we try to

search for a API’s or Interfaces for Primavera but we didn’t have luck .

Our objective is to update multiple activities % of complete programmatically or by

API’s or Interfaces to prevent update each activity manually so if there any way to

4/12/2014 How to Import Your Subcontractor's Primavera Updates from Excel!

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achieve this objective it will be appreciated .

Reply

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