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Excel Template Overview

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Stefan Schneider
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This article gives an overview of the Excel import/export template for Meisterplan.

For details about using the Excel import and export, see the Excel Import and Export article.

Supported Microsoft Office Versions

In order to use the Excel template succesfully, make sure you're using a Microsoft Office version supported by Meisterplan. To learn more, click here.

Downloading the Excel Template

You can download the latest version of the Excel template via the Excel import dialog:

  • In the Import and Export menu of the toolbar for the Portfolio Designer view, select the Import from Excel option to open the window of the same name.
  • Click the button at the top of the Import from Excel window to download the template.

Please note that the template can only be generated in the Meisterplan application, because field values vary depending on the Meisterplan system.

Quick Start

  • You may use the QuickStart sheet to enter projects, resources, roles and allocations in one comprehensive view and copy those data to the individual sheets for importing by clicking on Prepare Data for Import.
  • See the QuickStart and AllocationMatrix Sheets article for details.

Data Sheets

  • In the Instruction Manual sheet, you may display additional data sheets by selecting the Show all data option.
  • The following sections of this article provide an overview about what other data you may import via the Excel template.
  • See the Data Sheets article for details about the individual sheets.
  • The sheets for the main data types in Meisterplan, roles, resources, projects and allocations, are colored dark green. You can import additional roles, resources or projects without importing any other data by entering the required data on the respective sheet. Allocations assign roles and/or resources to projects and therefore require at least one project entry and at least one role or resource entry.
  • When working with the QuickStart sheet, the data entered there is automatically transferred to the Roles, Resources, Projects and Allocations sheets when you click on Prepare Data for Import.

  • You may enter additional data on other sheets, e.g., to prioritize projects, assign roles, resources and projects to OBS units, or add one or more calendars with calendar exceptions (holidays) for your resources. 
  • Any additional data you enter is optional and all of them can be manually entered and edited in Meisterplan, with the exception of ID fields and the HireDate and TerminationDate fields for resources (see Resources sheet).
  • On each sheet, the mandatory fields are highlighted with a bold column header. After entering any field in a row, all mandatory fields in that row will be highlighted with a red background. All lookup based fields and fields referencing data from another sheet have a light blue background in the header row. Fields that need a more precise description have comments in the column header for detailed information.

  • ID columns for linked data records listed in other sheets (e.g., the PrimaryRoleId in the Resources sheet) can be annotated with comments displaying the associated proper name when hovering over cells in that column. Press [Ctrl]+[i] for this.

Prioritizing Projects

  • To prioritize projects when you import them, you may enter priority values in the Projects sheet.
  • The project with the lowest priority value will be ranked on top.
  • When two projects have the same priority value, they will be ranked alphabetically.
  • You may also prioritize projects directly in Meisterplan by dragging them up or down in the left hand project list.
  • If you don't enter priorities for projects, all projects will be imported with the top priority zero and will be ranked on top of any existing projects, sorted alphabetically among other projects with priority zero.

OBS

  • If desired, you may define an OBS hierarchy to import into the OBS sheet and assign defined OBS units to roles, resources and projects on their individual sheets.
  • Alternatively, you may define and assign OBS units in Meisterplan later. OBS units are defined and assigned to roles and resources in the resource pool in Meisterplan.
  • To assign an OBS unit to a project in Meisterplan, select the desired project in the project list and click the pen icon to edit the project, then select the desired OBS unit in the associated field.

Calendars and Calendar Exceptions

  • A calendar must be assigned to every resource, defining that resource's working hours and holidays.
  • This can be done by specifying the calendar in the Calendars sheet, entering holidays for that calendar in the CalendarExceptions sheet and then entering the calendar ID in the Resources sheet.
  • If no calendar is specified for a resource in the Resources sheet, the default calendar will be assigned to that resource when it is imported.
  • Newly created empty Meisterplan databases include a 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday Default calendar without any exceptions. Sample databases include 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday calendars for Germany, the UK and the US, with all common public holidays for each country defined as exceptions of the respective calendar.
  • You may change the default calendar as well as edit calendars and create your own calendars in the resource pool in Meisterplan, both before and after importing. Defining calendars via the Excel template is optional.
  • If you wish to edit calendars already existing in Meisterplan or assign such calendars to resources via Excel, you must first export all data to Excel in order to receive the associated ID, which is required to refer to an existing calendar.

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