Have you been working on a project schedule offline that is now ready to be saved and published into Project Online? Were you preparing for a big, upcoming project by starting the schedule before the project was approved to move forward? No need to worry! Existing project schedules can be imported into Project Online.

These are the steps for importing your project:

  1. Open Microsoft Project connected to your Project Online environment.
  2. Open your project schedule from where you have it stored locally.
  3. Click on File → Save As. Check the Use Import Wizard box. Click Save.
Figure 1: Check the Use Import Wizard box. Click Save.
  1. The Import Wizard panel on the left-hand side of the screen will display. The Import Wizard will walk through a 5-step process for importing the projects and mapping objects in your schedule to the enterprise.
Figure 2: Import Wizard panel
  1. Click on Map Resources… to map the resources in your project to the enterprise resources.
Figure 3: Click on Map Resources
  1. In the Map Local to Enterprise Resources dialog box, switch the Map to Enterprise? flag to Yes then match the Local Resource (in your project only on left side) to the Enterprise Resource (on the right side). Each Enterprise Resource can map to only 1 Local Resource.
    • This is an important step in allowing publishing resource assignments once complete. If the resources are not mapped to the enterprise, then the resource will continue to only live in your project. No task assignments will be sent, or data updated for that resource in utilization and capacity planning views.
    • If there are resources that do not map to an enterprise, work with a Project Online Admin to decide if the resource needs to be added as an enterprise resource.
    • If there are multiple resource in your project that mean the same person, such as “John”, “John S.’ and “John Smith” then update your schedule and resource sheet to consolidate them. This would include replacing assigned tasks with only one of the resources then removing the rest from the Resource Sheet.
Figure 4: Switch the Map to Enterprise? flag to Yes then match the Local Resource (in your project only on left side) to the Enterprise Resource (on the right side).
  1. Once mapped, click on Continue to Step 2.
Figure 5: Continue to Step 2.
  1. Step 2 alerts you of any errors when mapping resource. Confirm there are no errors. If there are, they will be displayed in the list with a description of what is incorrect.
Figure 5: Step 2 alerts you of any errors when mapping resource
  1. Click on Continue to Step 3
Figure 7: Click on Continue to Step 3
  1. Step 3 maps Task level local fields to enterprise fields.
Figure 8: Step 3 maps Task level local fields to enterprise fields.
  1. This will bring up the Map Custom Fields Box. Select the local field on the left then select the enterprise field on the right to map.
    • If the fields are in your local schedule but not mapped to enterprise, they will not roll up for reporting!
Figure 9: Select the local field on the left then select the enterprise field on the right to map in the Map Custom Fields Box
  1. Once completed, click Continue to Step 4.
Figure 10: Once completed, click Continue to Step 4
  1. Step 4 will display any errors in mapping the task level custom fields. If there are any errors, they will display in the count and detailed in the grid on the right.
Figure 11: Step 4 will display any errors in mapping the task level custom fields
  1. When ready, click Continue to Step 5.
Figure 12: When ready, click Continue to Step 5
  1. Click Save.
Figure 13: Click Save
  1. Name the project and complete the required custom fields.
    • Any required project level custom fields are noted with an asterisk (*).
Figure 14: Name the project and complete the required custom fields
  • If you are prompted to overwrite an existing schedule, be absolutely certain that you want to overwrite a schedule! Once you click OK, there is no undo or recovery of the previous schedule. It will overwrite the schedule and most of the custom fields with blanks.
Figure 15: If you are prompted to overwrite an existing schedule, be absolutely certain that you want to overwrite a schedule! Once you click OK, there is no undo or recovery of the previous schedule. It will overwrite the schedule and most of the custom fields with blanks.