Merge or deconsolidate Resource Management plans

Both merging and separating plans require you to offload data from a source instance of Resource Management and then import it into a target instance. 

Who can use this?

Plans:

  • Resource Management

Permissions:

  • Resourcing Admin
  • System Admin

Find out if this capability is included in Smartsheet Regions or Smartsheet Gov.

You must be a licensed Resourcing Administrator to complete this process. You must also be a Smartsheet System Admin to use the Resource Management panel integration. 

An acquisition or merger might mean you need to import another Resource Management plan into your existing plan. Or, you might want multiple Resource Management plans to keep projects separate by region, organization, or visibility requirements. 

Merging plans causes loss of project details. Contact your Account Manager before you start this process to learn more about adding Smartsheet to your plan, which helps you retain more data.

Single or multiple plans? 

Each scenario has advantages and disadvantages. 

Single Resource Management plan 

  • Project Editors and higher can see everyone in a plan and assign work to any of those people. They can see everyone's allocation plan-wide, even if they can't see specific projects. 
  • With the Control Center integration, you can automate Control Center blueprints and programs in the same plan.

Multiple Resource Management plans

  • You can account for different working schedules and non-working days, such as regional holidays. 
  • Instances don't share data. You can't tell how much a person is allocated if they are spread across multiple plans. It's easy to keep data separate if you have multiple plans. 
  • Users receive licenses per plan. If a user is on multiple plans, they need more than one license. 
  • The Control Center/Resource Management integration can connect only one Resource Management instance to a Control Center program. You will need a Control Center deployment for each instance of Resource Management. 

Risks when merging or separating instances

Merging or separating Resource Management instances requires exporting data from Resource Management, but this process doesn't export all data. You will lose project and plan details. Once your configuration is complete, you must recreate some data by hand. 

The following items are not included in the export process: 

Plan details

  • List of Roles
  • List of Disciplines
  • Bill Rates
  • Placeholders
  • Phase Names
  • Work Status
  • Expense Categories
  • Time & Fee Categories
  • Official Holidays
  • Clients
  • Locations
  • Leave Types
  • People Tags
  • Project Tags
  • Anything leveraging the Developer API
  • Project Custom Fields
  • People Custom Fields
  • Custom Branding
  • Authentications
  • Images related to projects

Project details

  • Project Assignments and associated dates
  • Project Phases
  • Bill rates associated with Project Phases
  • Project-specific Bill Rates
  • Work Item Statuses
  • Work Item Notes
  • Work Item Tasklists
  • Project Activity Log
  • Project Specific Reports
  • Project Brief

People details

  • Work Assignment Name
  • Work Item Statuses
  • Work Item Notes
  • Work Item Tasklists
  • Project Activity Log
  • Project Specific Reports
  • Project Brief

Process overview

You must be a licensed Resource Management Admin to complete this process. 

The main difference between merging and deconsolidating plans is the target. When you deconsolidate plans, you import data into a new plan. When you merge plans, you import data into an existing plan. The steps are the same. The only difference is where you import your data. 

  1. Export data, people and projects, from the source plan. 
  2. Export historical data from the source plan. 
  3. Use a spreadsheet program to prepare your people file for import.
  4. Import your people file into the target plan. 
  5. Rebuild your projects.
    • Using Smartsheet integration, you can reconnect your sheets, and your project data will appear. 
    • If you don't use the Smartsheet integration, you must rebuild your projects by hand. 
  6. Review your data and perform any cleanup tasks. 

Export data from the source plan

Export users 

  1. Open Settings.
    • In Resource Management in Smartsheet, select the kebab menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings. 
    • In standalone Resource Management, select Settings > Account Settings.
  2. From the list on the left, select People and then select Export People List. The list contains all users associated with your plan and their associated custom fields. 

Export projects

You have to rebuild each project and assignment manually. To limit the scope of manual tasks, focus only on active projects. 

Select Project Import > Export Project List to export Projects and their associated Project Settings, including Project Custom Fields.  

Export historical data

  1. In Resource Management, select Reports.
  2. In the top-right corner, select the New Report button. Use the following settings to specify the correct data:
    • Under View, select Budgets: Hours.
    • For Time Frame, select Custom Date Range. Select the time frame for the duration of your instance. Select a longer time frame if you don't know the exact dates.
    • Under Show, select Everything. You will capture every Active and Archived Project from Resource Management. 
  3. Select Request Underlying Data. Check your email for a zip file containing the historical data. 
  4. Open the email and select Download CSV. Can't find the email? Search your inbox for underlying data csv. The export doesn't include everything. You must recreate some data. Review the list above to see what's excluded.

    Heads up, it's a large file. It includes: 
  • Record type (Expenses or Time & Fees)
  • Project and all related project metadata (Project settings, Project Custom Fields)
  • Associated phase (if applicable)
  • Bill rates for that specific assignment/expense
  • Submitted time 
  • Approved time/expenses, including who approved them and when
  • People Custom Fields for that user

Prepare your data for merging

Importing users

  1. Open Settings.
    1. In Resource Management in Smartsheet, select the kebab menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings. 
    2. In standalone Resource Management, select Settings > Account Settings.
  2. From the list on the left, select People.
  3. Select the Export People List button.
  4. Open the project and people .csv export files. 
  5. Copy and paste the users from your exported people list from Column B to Column R. Don't map Column A ("user_id") into the target since this is a system-generated column based on the associated plan.
  6. Manually copy People Custom Fields (any column beginning in Column S of your export that begins with "CF_XXX") one Custom Field at a time. Each Custom Field ID is unique within each RM instance, even if the names are the same in both plans.