Best approach to migrate an Excel project plan with 600+ tasks and dependencies to Smartsheet

Question

Hi Community Members,

I’m planning to migrate a project plan from Excel to Smartsheet. The sheet currently contains 600+ tasks, and many of the tasks are connected using predecessor/successor dependencies.

I would like to clean up the Excel file before importing it into Smartsheet by removing around 200 completed tasks.

However, I’m facing a challenge with the task dependencies. The predecessor/successor relationships are currently based on row IDs/numbers. When I delete the completed rows in Excel, the row numbers shift, which causes the predecessor references to become misaligned with the dependent tasks.

For example, if Task 50 has Task 45 as its predecessor, and I remove several completed tasks above Task 45, the row numbers change and the dependency references may no longer point to the correct tasks.

My questions are:

What is the recommended approach for migrating an Excel project plan with 600+ tasks and existing dependencies into Smartsheet?

Should I import the entire Excel sheet into Smartsheet first and then remove the completed tasks?

Is there a Smartsheet-supported way to preserve or remap predecessor/successor relationships when removing rows?

Is there a better way to restructure the Excel file before importing so that the dependencies remain intact?

Are there any best practices or tools/scripts that can help with this type of migration?

I want to avoid manually checking and recreating hundreds of dependencies after the migration.

Any guidance or recommendations from someone who has handled a similar Excel → Smartsheet migration would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jose

SmartSamMilton · Answer

Hi Jose,

The cleanest and least error-prone approach is to import the entire sheet into Smartsheet first rather than cleaning it in Excel.

Here’s why and how:

* Why not Excel: Excel treats row numbers in text columns as static text, so deleting rows breaks your references.
* Smartsheet’s Dependency Engine: Once you import the sheet, enable Dependencies under Project Settings and map your predecessor column. Smartsheet tracks dependencies dynamically—if you delete or move rows inside Smartsheet, it automatically recalculates and shifts the remaining row numbers for you.
* Watch out for hard breaks: If an upcoming active task depends directly on one of the 200 completed tasks, deleting that completed row will clear the predecessor link.

Recommended Best Practice:Instead of outright deleting the 200 completed rows:

* Group them under an indented parent row (e.g., "Completed Phase") and keep it collapsed.
* Or use a Sheet Filter (e.g., Status != "Complete") to hide them from view.
* If you must remove them, use the Move Row to Another Sheet automation to archive them cleanly.

(Note: Cleaned up and formatted with AI assistance for readability.)

Philip Robbins · Answer

@Jose Aloy I think you'd need to get the whole plan into Smartsheet and then strip out what you don't need. This will likely create some broken references, which you'll need to clean up, but a 600-row plan (stripped down to 400 rows) isn't actually that large and should be straightforward to rip through.

This does raise the question of why you need to remove the completed items in the first place? If they truly are part of the overall schedule, don't they contribute to its state of completeness and are worth preserving?