Import cost items

Importing cost items from other sources, such as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or from InEight Estimate can save time and reduce errors when adding cost items to cost item pricing.

Import cost items from an Excel spreadsheet

When you need to add a large number of plug cost items to cost item pricing, you can add them to an Excel template, and then import them into Change. The import function lets you import new and existing cost items with the cost source Plug into cost item pricing. Any plug cost item that is in the current project is eligible for import.

If you import an existing cost item, the description that is configured in InEight Control is imported by default. To change how the description of the cost item is shown in Change, enter a new description in the Description field of the template. When the Description field is blank, Change uses the description provided by Control. In the following image, the cost item with WBS phase code 1064 has no updates to the description, so the description from Control is imported. The item with phase code 1063 has a new description for this project. A new cost item has also been added on line 6.

The next image shows the items after they have been imported into cost item pricing. The new cost item has been added, the item with phase code 1063 shows the new description, and the item with phase code 1064 shows the description from Control.

Change also calculates the Man-hours per unit, Units per man-hour, and Labor cost per man-hour fields using the Adjusted CB Qty, Adjusted Mhrs, and Labor Adjusted cost values. In the template image above, line 7 shows an Adjusted CB Qty value of 10, Adjusted Mhrs value of 20, and a Labor Adjusted cost of 600. The following image shows the calculated Mhrs/Unit and Unit/Mhr values. To see the Labor cost per man-hour, click the Edit icon.

Step by Step — Import Plug cost items

Importing cost items can save you time when you have to add a large number of cost items. You can enter the items into an Excel template, and then import them into Change.

The import function is for new and existing plug cost items only. If you have changes to make to existing items, you must edit them instead of importing new ones. If you enter a WBS phase code, you must use a code that already exists in Control. New cost items do not have a WBS phase code, and the field in the template must be left blank.

The Excel template reflects the current settings for the organization and project. It is recommended that you download a new template each time you import items. You can refer to the Instructions tab of the template for information about importing, validations, and limitations.

  1. From the Cost item pricing page, click the Import icon in the toolbar. The Import data from template window opens.

  2. Click Import cost item template to download the template.

  3. Open the template, and then add the plug cost items to the template. The columns with orange headers are required. To change the cost category distributions of existing cost items, enter the value in the corresponding field of the template.

    Do not change the names of the spreadsheet tabs.

  4. Save the template with a unique name.

  5. Drag and drop the template to the Import data from the template window, and then click Import. After importing, you receive an email message listing status, the total cost items, the total imported, and number of errors.

  6. If the status is Pending, you can click the Review data link to see the cost items that have completed and those with errors. If the import details page shows an error in the WBS phase code column, you can use the drop-down list to select a valid WBS phase code.

  7. Correct the cost items with errors from the Import history grid, select them, and then click Import to continue with the import process. The import is reprocessed, and Change sends you an email message when the import is completed.

    If there is an error in an interdependent field such as an adjusted cost, the Import history grid shows an error for every related field. When you correct the error in one field, the others automatically recalculate but might still show an error if you did not click in those fields. After you correct the original error, you can click Import.

You can view the import history for cost item pricing by selecting View import history from the Actions menu.

Import cost items from Estimate

An Estimate user can publish cost items that you can then import into Change. Before an Estimate user can publish the cost items, Estimate must be integrated with Change. Refer to the InEight Estimate Integration to Change document for information about integration.

After Estimate has been integrated with Change, the Estimate user can publish the cost breakdown structure (CBS) to Change. The CBS file can contain both Plug and Detail cost items, but only Plug items are imported to Change.

You can access the published file from the Import history page for any issue in the project. The file can only be consumed one time in Change.

On the Import history page, the file name for the imported file is the Estimate project ID followed by the Estimate project description. The file location is InEight Estimate, and the status is Pending. You can then click the link in the Status or Total records column to select the file.

The cost item pricing items are imported with the Import status of Error in the import history Details page because they do not have a Cost pricing value assigned. You can select cost pricing values for the cost items you want to import to the issue. Any cost item that does not have a Cost pricing value selected is not imported.

Each cost item has a WBS code of New. They are assigned WBS phase codes after they are executed in a client change order (CCO).

Import cost items from Estimate

Summary: Import cost items into Change after the cost items are exported from Estimate, so you can use them for cost item pricing in an issue. Refer to Cost items for change management in Estimate for more information about publishing files to be imported into Change.

Considerations: These steps start after the project file has been published from Estimate.

Because the imported file can only be consumed one time in Change, if you want to use cost items that were not imported in another issue, the file must be published again from Estimate.

  1. From an issue's Cost item pricing or Pricing tab, open the Import history page (Pricing > Cost item pricing> Actions > View import history), and then click the link in the Status column to open the import history details page.

  2. From the history page, select the cost pricing type for each cost item you want to import.

  3. Click Import. Only the items that have no cost pricing type errors are imported. Values on the cost item's Details and Cost categories tabs are imported with the cost item. The items show in cost item pricing with a WBS code of New.

What's next: Change sends a confirmation email when the import is complete.