This article describes the QuickStart and AllocationMatrix sheets of the Excel template for preparing the Excel import for Meisterplan.
For details about the Excel import and export, see the Excel Import and Export article.
For general information about the Excel template, see the Excel Template Overview article.
QuickStart Sheet
The QuickStart sheet lets you enter projects, resources, roles and allocations without having to work with the individual sheets.
Settings
- The view starts with hours as work effort unit, 8 hours per day, a recent start date and a weekly scale.
- You may change any of the first three settings by editing the yellow fields.
- To switch the scale between weeks and months, click the Switch to Month-View or Switch to Week-View button.
- Please note that when you switch scales, you will lose all allocation data not prepared for importing. Projects, resources and roles you have already entered on this sheet will be retained when switching scales. Before you switch, click Prepare Data for Import. If you have done this, the allocation data will automatically be reloaded when you switch.
How it Works
- When you open the template after an export or when you already prepared some data you can Update Data from Allocations.
- Enter a project name in the Project field.
- To allocate a resource, enter the resource's name (last name, first name) in the Resource or Role field. Enter the resource's project role in the Works as a (Role) field.
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To allocate a role, enter the role's name in both the Resource or Role and Works as a (Role) fields.
Please note that entering multiple projects, resources or roles with the same name (e.g. if you have two resources called "Jack Johnson") in the QuickStart sheet does not work and can lead to import errors. Consider using the Projects and AllocationMatrix sheets instead.
- Enter the desired work efforts per period in the matrix to the right.
- Once you are done entering data, click the Prepare Data for Import button to copy the data to the Roles, Resources, Projects and Allocations sheets.
- The sheets with roles and resources will be updated with newly entered roles and resources. Existing data will not be deleted.
- The sheet with projects will be updated with newly entered projects. When a project is no longer mentioned in the QuickStart sheet, it will also be deleted from the project list. This includes linked segments, allocations, milestones, dependencies and financials.
- Resources, roles and projects are matched by name. When entering resources “John Smith” and “Smith, John” will be treated as the same resource.
- The Excel status bar shows the progress
- See the Excel Import and Export page for an overview of other data that may be added via an Excel import. Please note that you may enter and edit most of this data directly in Meisterplan without an import.
Adding Custom Fields to the QuickStart Sheet
- In case you want to add custom columns that will not be transferred to Meisterplan, unhide columns D and E and add columns between them.
AllocationMatrix Sheet
This is an input sheet for the Allocations sheet: assign resources to projects more intuitively and have the entered allocations transferred to the Allocations sheet by a macro.
Help
See Help on this sheet for details. Please note that different from the QuickStart sheet, projects, roles and resources you enter here must first be entered in the associated data sheets.
Load Data from Allocations
After exporting data from Meisterplan, you can update the AllocationMatrix sheet with the allocations currently entered in the Allocations sheet. To do this, click the Load Data from Allocations button on the top left.
Prepare Data for Import
To import data into Meisterplan you first have to transfer the data from the AllocationMatrix sheet to the Allocations sheet. You can do this by clicking the Prepare Data for Import button. Before transferring you can select whether you want to delete the old data on the Allocations Sheet or expand it by adding the data below existing entries.
Group Identical Allocation Values
You can choose if neighboring Excel cells containing identical allocations should get imported into Meisterplan as separate allocation segments or as one segment. If you want to import them as one segment select the Group Identical Allocation Values checkbox.
Troubleshooting
Issue: When I click Prepare Data for Import in the AllocationMatrix sheet, I receive an error stating "XX allocations outside the project range(s) were not copied."
Possible Solution: Remove all spaces before and in the ProjectID.