Importing Expense Groups

How to load expense groups in bulk

As with all imports, the first step for importing expense groups is to export your budget as XLSX, and that will be your template.  You will see all existing expense groups populated as examples.  

When you import, the only rows imported are those that have the word "Add" in the first column.  All other rows will not be reloaded.  It is also important to note that importing adds new expense groups, and does not update existing expense groups.  Once you put "Add" in the first column, conditional formatting will come alive, indicating potential errors in the row.  Purple background in a cell indicates that a required value is missing.  Purple text in a cell indicates an invalid value.

When considering import, it can be helpful to note that column headers are in different colors to indicate which columns are mandatory (purple), and which are optional (blue). 

For expense groups import, these columns are mandatory:

• Expense Group Name - must be unique.
• Expense Group Type - this must match one of the valid expense groups types for your budget.  Values are validated against the hidden Expense Group Type tab.
• Budget Segment - this must be a valid budget segment, and is validated against the list on the Budget Segments tab.  Please note that if you have shared cost rules, then this is called "Budget Segment (if no Shared Cost Rule)", placed next to the column "Shared Cost Rule (if no Budget Segment)".
• Status - the expense group status, which is Open or Closed.  
• Owner - this is the email address of the owner of the expense groups. Values are validated against the hidden Owners tab.

For expense groups import, these columns are optional:

• Parent Goal (if no Campaign) - this is the goal which is the parent of the expense group.  An expense group cannot have two parents.  Values are validated against the Goals tab.
• Parent Campaign (if no Goal) - this is the campaign which is the parent of the expense group.  An expense group cannot have two parents.  Values are validated against the Campaigns tab.
• GL Code - values are validated against the hidden GL Code tab.
• PO Number - the purchase order number
• Timeframe - there will be a column per timeframe, where the allocated amount can be specified if there is a budget segment specified
• Notes
• Tags - tags will be created on import if they do not already exist.  If there are multiple tags, then put each tag in double quotation marks, and then put commas between each tag.  For example: "Product X","Demand gen"
• Expense Group ID - this is the unique identifier of the expense group.  If left blank, then a unique ID will be generated during import.  Please note that if you try to import an expense group with a duplicate expense group ID, then the import will be rejected ... so if copying another expense group as an example, be sure to clear the expense group ID.

Once you have saved the XLSX file with one or more expense group rows with "Add" in the first column, you are ready to import.  Select "Expense Groups" from the dropdown list under the Import section of the Import / Export Data page.

Then click Upload, and select your XLSX file from your local machine. 

Finally, click the Import button.

At this point the import will begin.  If there are any errors, they will be listed.  You can address the errors in your XLSX, clear the errors, and try agin.  Otherwise your expense groups will be loaded, and you'll be notified upon success!