Edition: Professional, Business & Enterprise
User-level: System Administrator
Previous steps: How to Import Projects, Disciplines, Cost Centres, Rate Groups.
In this step, we bring in granular information about the projects that have already been imported, like the Phases, Stages, Fees, Revenue, and Cost.
NOTE: It is highly recommended that you consider the Previous steps above before you attempt to import Projects.
Since the Project headline information needs to exist in Synergy already, the only fields that require your attention for this step are Disciplines and Cost Centres.
Disciplines and Cost Centres need to be understood prior to import. These fields have the potential to connect to your accounting software, and also assist in tracking financial data in your accounting software, so they're important to get right.
Rate Groups will only be relevant to Synergy Enterprise subscribers, but should already have been addressed in previous steps.
With regard to Fee Types, Synergy offers the following system fee types that cannot be customised.
No Billing - You can enter costs, but you cannot enter; fee, invoiced value, contract value or contract %.
Fixed Fee - You can enter the fee, invoiced value and costs, but cannot enter; contract value or contract %.
Capped Rates - You can enter the fee, invoiced value and costs, but cannot enter; contract value or contract %.
Hourly Rate - You can enter the fee, invoiced value, costs, contract value, and contract %
% of Contract - You can enter the invoiced value and costs, but cannot enter; fee, contract value or contract %
All figures should be entered excluding tax
All of these elements are important because the software is looking to match fields that you enter on the Synergy Excel template, with those in the system.
Accuracy is vital, and there are some additional Tips! at the end of this article.
So, how do you import your project's financial information?
1. Download the Synergy Excel template.
Using the Organisation dropdown menu, navigate to Settings > Organisation > Data Import > Excel Import
Check that you are on the Project Financials tab, and click Download.
Your download is the excel file named Synergy data import - Project financials
There should be two sheets (tabs), one with instructions similar to those below, followed by 'Project financials' to populate with data.
Warning!
Do not adjust the column names.
Do not adjust the order of the columns.
2. Check what information can be imported.
Navigate to the sheet (tab) 'Projects financials' to see the column names that will match fields in Synergy.
Importantly, you should notice that some columns, like 'Project Name', 'Fee Type', 'Stage Status', 'Tax Code', 'Cost Centre Name', 'Discipline Name', and 'Rate Group' (for Synergy Enterprise subscribers) will need to match what already exists in Synergy.
3. Export your project financials from your other system.
Use an export feature in your current system to get an excel style output (commonly CSV) with all your existing project details. This could mean you export the project details from your accounting system, or another software package, or maybe you already have it in a spreadsheet.
4. Match your data to the Synergy Excel columns.
Compare the data in your excel file to the columns in the Synergy Excel template and check you have all the required information as well as the optional information that you want to import.
5. Using the Synergy Excel template
Copy and Paste your data into the Synergy Excel template.
Columns marked blue are mandatory.
Columns marked green are optional.
Do not change the formatting anywhere (e.g. number, date, currency etc).
Do not enter data beyond the last column of the table.
Do not rearrange the order of columns.
Do not rename the columns.
Use 'Skip' in column A to skip the record during import. Any row that contains 'Import' or is left blank will be imported.
Do not change the sheet order within the workbook.
If formulas, lookups or a general place to paste data is required, create an additional sheet (tab) and position it as the last sheet (tab) on the right hand side.
6. Double-check the data in the template.
Required information (blue columns)
Project Names should reflect those that already exist in Synergy.
This sheet is only for bringing in details about existing projects.
For every line with detail, the Project must be referenced.
Stage names must be unique per project.
Stages within a phase must be unique.
Stages can be named identically if they belong to different phases
If using phases, all stages must belong to a phase
Fee Types should be chosen from this list.
No Billing - You can enter costs, but you cannot enter; fee, invoiced value, contract value or contract %.
Fixed Fee - You can enter the fee, invoiced value and costs, but cannot enter; contract value or contract %.
Capped Rates - You can enter the fee, invoiced value and costs, but cannot enter; contract value or contract %.
Hourly Rate - You can enter the fee, invoiced value, costs, contract value, and contract %
% of Contract - You can enter the invoiced value and costs, but cannot enter; fee, contract value or contract %
All figures should be entered excluding tax
Optional information (green columns)
Phase names must be unique per project.
(**Available for Business and Enterprise products only**)
Stage Status will be chosen from the Project Status list which you should have already reviewed and customised in the Previous steps.
The tax code will be defined by your regional requirements and should already have been configured in the previous steps.
Contract Value & Contract %
These are only available for per cent of contract fees.
Otherwise, they should be left blankContract value should be entered excluding tax and should be the full value of the contract fee.
The contract per cent should be the portion of the whole contract fee that is assigned to this stage.
Stage Fee (ex tax)
Available for 'Fixed fee', and 'Capped rates' fee types.
Enter the total excluding tax.
Invoiced (ex tax)
Available for all fee types.
Enter the totals excluding tax.
All entries in this column will be marked as 'paid' once imported.
An invoice contact on the project is required prior to importing the invoiced amount.
Costs (ex tax)
Available for all fee types.
Enter the totals excluding tax.
Total to include the sum of all WIP, bills and expenses that have been invoiced and paid per stage.
7. Import Synergy data import - Projects
Using the Organisation dropdown menu, navigate to Settings > Organisation > Data Import > Excel Import
Check that you are on the Projects tab and click Upload.
Select 'Add files' and navigate your files selecting your completed Synergy data import - Projects. Or you can drag and drop the file into the browser.
An import preview will display your data to review before the import.
In event that you get errors, click on the red and orange triangle for instructions on how to correct the error.
Skip any lines in the preview window that you don't want to import. Any lines that have an error are automatically skipped.
Click the Import button to import all the valid data.
After this import, your Projects will be in Synergy and you'll be ready to load the rest of the project information, like the Phases, Stages, Fees, Revenue, and Cost.
Importing Project Financials Tips!
Tip: It is usually a good idea to enter one lot of Project financials and check it before doing any bulk data uploads.
Tip: While it is possible to upload a minimum requirement, and you can run the upload multiple times, you cannot use this Import function to Update records, so the more you can enter in one go, the more efficient you will be at populating your Synergy organisation.
Tip: Time and expenses that have not been invoiced should be entered separately so that you build transaction-level data that can be invoiced at a later date.
Tip: Use the example records to understand how the entries should look. Then delete them so they don't confuse matters.
Where to next?
N/A
What other features does this relate to?