Importing Expenses

How to load expenses in bulk

As with all imports, the first step for importing expenses is to export your budget as XLSX, and that will be your template.  You will see all existing expenses 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 expenses, and does not update existing expenses.  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 import, these columns are mandatory:

• Expense Name - does not need to be unique, but is helpful to use unique names.
• Expense Type - this must match one of the valid expense types for your budget.  Values are validated against the hidden Expense Type tab.
• Timeframe - this must be a valid month name for a monthly budget or a valid quarter for a quarterly budget.
• Currency - this should match one of the valid currencies for your budget.  Values are validated against the hidden Currencies tab.
• Status - the expense status, which is Planned, Committed, or Closed.  Note that if you enter "Planned", the cell will remain highlighted until you have a non-zero value in the Planned column and no value (or 0) in the Actual column.
• Planned - this is the planned amount, which can be 0 (zero) as long as the status is not Planned.
• Actual - this is the actual amount, which can be 0.
• 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 column not required (and not purple), and is called "Budget Segment (if no Shared Cost Rule)", placed next to the column "Shared Cost Rule (if no Budget Segment)".
• Owner - this is the email address of the owner of the expense.  Values are validated against the hidden Owners tab.

For expense import, these columns are optional:

• Parent Campaign (if no Expense Group) - this is the campaign which is the parent of the expense.  An expense cannot have two parents.  Values are validated against the Campaigns tab.
• Parent Expense Group (if no Campaign) - this is the expense group which is the parent of the expense.  An expense cannot have two parents.  Values are validated against the Expense Groups tab.
• Vendor - if the vendor does not exist in Planful for Marketing then it will be created.
• GL Code - values are validated against the hidden GL Code tab.
• PO Number - the purchase order number
• Invoice Number
• 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 ID - this is the unique identifier of the expense.  If left blank, then a unique ID will be generated during import.  Please note that if you try to import an expense with a duplicate expense ID, then the import will be rejected ... so if copying another expense as an example, be sure to clear the expense ID.
• Relation Group - this is a unique ID of a group of related expenses.  If you specify an existing relation group ID when importing an expense, then it will be related to other already existing expenses.  If you create a new relation group ID then you can upload multiple expenses and make them related to each other.

Once you have saved the XLSX file with one or more expense rows with "Add" in the first column, you are ready to import.  Select "Expenses" 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 again.  Otherwise your expenses will be loaded, and you'll be notified upon success!