MS Project Import Question

Steve Z

Hello all!

I did a search, but can't find this exact situation in the community. I'm currently creating and updating a schedule in MS Projects and then importing it into Smartsheet. I've found that when I'm in the schedule in Smartsheet, select "import" and choose the MS Project file, it seems to create an entirely new Smartsheet schedule. Not update the existing Smartsheet schedule with the MS Project file changes.

I would like to manage this schedule in MS Projects since it's complex and requires a lot of scheduling options Smartsheet lacks. However, if importing the schedule into Smartsheet creates a "new" Smartsheet schedule every time, it completely defeats the purpose of collaborating with my project team. Especially since I'll need to send a "new" schedule link every time I import the file.

Has anyone else run into this? Or am I doing something incorrectly? Everyone outside of our PMO uses Smartsheet, so just switching everyone to MS Projects isn't an option. Thank you!

Matt Johnson

Hi @Steve Z

You're not doing anything wrong. Importing an excel file or MS Project file will always create a new sheet. Data Shuttle is the premium app designed to handle what you are describing. Maybe look into this and reach back out if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Matt

Matt Johnson

Hi @Steve Z

You're not doing anything wrong. Importing an excel file or MS Project file will always create a new sheet. Data Shuttle is the premium app designed to handle what you are describing. Maybe look into this and reach back out if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Matt

Steve Z

Thank you @Matt Johnson ! This did work for me. However, after I initially run the upload workflow, every subsequent run deletes the schedule (even using the exact same file), and returns an error message after the run. Do you have any recommended resources for trouble shooting this?

tcleaning

Hi @Steve Z , Matt is right- MS Project has fundamentally different properties than Smartsheet (especially in the dependency settings, predecessors etc.). We typically don't recommend you import MS project files that update frequently into Smartsheet because of the base differences in the program. Matt was also right that if you do want to just update the information in Smartsheet based off what was in MS project, your best bet is to use Data Shuttle (merge mode), and export the MS project file as an Excel file. Then Data Shuttle can match a unique ID (like row number or WBS) and update the changes in Smartsheet. Data shuttle works with Excel files, CSV, or google sheets. It will not work with an MS project file.

Hope that helps!

Matt Johnson

@Steve Z if you want to connect offline, hit me up on LinkedIn via my profile here.

I will say, that in my experience with customers wanting to connect MS Project and Smartsheet, usually the desire is not to update either platform automatically but rather have columns for MS Project dates and columns for Smartsheet dates both in Smartsheet. That way when the MS Project dates get updated in Smartsheet it doesn't just override what the project teams have inputting in realtime throughout the week.

That might not be the case for you but sometimes it's important to think downstream with the PMO Team on the workflow, and how the tasks rollup to milestones in Smartsheet vs how they're set up in MS Project. I hope that helps.

Matt