If you are moving into Precursive, but you were already running projects using spreadsheets or another tool, you can use Salesforce Data Import Wizard to import tasks from your open projects into Precursive. Here you can find a guide on how to import Tasks into a Precursive Board in bulk.

⚠️ We recommend importing tasks in bulk for open projects that have already started. For future projects, we recommend creating templates to populate the tasks your project will need ⚠️

How to Prepare for Data Import

Before any data can be imported into Precursive with the Salesforce Data Import Wizard, the import file must be cleaned and mapped to the relevant Precursive data fields.

Prepare the import file by copying the existing data in a Spreadsheet format and replace some of the column headers with new columns which will map to Precursive OBX data fields. Some data fields are required and others are optional. The required fields to map are:

1. Precursive OBX Board: To which Board are the Tasks going to be imported? You will first need to create one or more Precursive OBX Boards where those tasks will be nested.

2. Precursive OBX List: Which List on the Board should the Task belong in? Every Precursive OBX Task is nested under a List, which in turn, belongs to a Board.

3. Task Name: What will be the Task be named?

Other fields are optional and you may include them if you wish, such as Owner, Start Date, Due Date, Detail information, etc.

Mapping the Tasks to a Board and a List

Start with the three required data fields: Board, List, and Task Name.

1. If you have not already done so create a new Board for the Project you are about to import Tasks for.

2. Create three new columns in your Spreadsheet titled Board, List, and Name respectively.

3. Use the Board’s Salesforce Record ID instead of the Board’s Name, since there is a chance that there could be more than one Board with the same name.

The easiest way to grab the Board’s and List’s Salesforce Record Ids is to create a report using the standard Precursive OBX Boards with Precursive OBX Lists report type and including both the Precursive OBX Board Id and Precursive OBX List Id fields onto the report. A summary report format group by Board Name should look like this:

Alternatively:

1. From Salesforce, find the Precursive OBX Boards tab. From one of the List Views, find and click on the Precursive OBX Board created for these Tasks to go to the Board’s record detail.

1. 1. In your Web Browser Address/URL bar copy the Record ID part of the URL. This is the code following ".com/"

   2. E.g. If your URL looks like this: https://na1.salesforce.com/a1BC230000000ABCDEFG - copy the highlighted section.

   3. Copy this value into the Board column in your spreadsheet as a value against each task you want to import.

2. You will also need to find the Salesforce Record ID for the List instead of the List Name. This is particularly important because Lists have the same name across many boards, but their Salesforce Record ID is unique for each Board. In order for Salesforce to identify exactly which List to match against your Task record, you must provide its unique Salesforce Record ID.

   1. From that Precursive OBX Board's record detail page in step 3, go to the Related section, and find Lists.

   2. Select the name of a List to go to that Precursive OBX List's Salesforce Record Detail Page.

   3. Copy its Record ID from the URL as you did earlier for the Precursive OBX Board.

   4. Copy this value into the List column on the spreadsheet.

   5. If you want different Tasks to appear in different Lists on import then repeat to get the Record ID for each separate List.

Mapping the Task Name

The next step is to define the name each Task will have in Precursive OBX. One thing to note is that the Name field in Salesforce cannot be longer than 80 characters.

Mapping The Owner

In order to assign an Owner, you need to provide the Salesforce Record ID for the person’s Salesforce User record. Create a Column in your spreadsheet which will map to the Owner field in Precursive OBX. The column name should be “Owner”.

To get each User’s Record ID, you can create a report using the standard report type Users and include the User Id field in the report.

Alternatively, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Setup > Manage Users > Users

2. Select the User’s Name to open the Users Salesforce Record Detail page.

3. Copy the Salesforce Record ID from the URL as shown before for the Board and List record Id.

Mapping the Detail field

The Detail field in Precursive OBX is a long text field that can contain up to 30,000 characters. If you have a few different cells containing notes then it can be useful to concatenate these into the Detail field.

Creating the Import File

Once you have enough information mapped onto the spreadsheet, the file is ready to import. Save the file as a CSV (“CSV UTF-8” if using Microsoft Excel) and go back to Salesforce.

Import the Tasks using the Salesforce Data Import Wizard

1. Navigate to Setup > Data Import Wizard.

2. Select the Launch Wizard!

3. Select the Custom Objects tab.

4. Then select Precursive OBX Tasks.

5. Select Add New Records.

6. For each of the questions provided select an option for how Salesforce should find the corresponding field value.

   1. Match by can be left blank as you will be creating new records

   2. As you are using Salesforce Record IDs for Board, List and Owner, set the picklist value Salesforce.com ID, for these.

   3. If you have mapped other fields set those as appropriate.

7. Finally, check Trigger workflow rules and processes?

8. Drag and drop your file or select CSV and then choose your file to the designated area.

9. Click Next.

10. Map any fields that have not been mapped automatically to Precursive OBX fields. If you have some marked in red as Unmapped, select the blue Map link to the left and pick the field you wish to map.

11. Click Next, and then Start Import.

In just a few moments you can check your Board and it should be full of Tasks! Precursive OBX will also create a Board Team Member for each task owner.

If your tasks have dependencies on other tasks or need to be Parented so that you can utilize our Task and Subtask functionality you will need to do a further export and data load.

Creating dependencies on other tasks

You will need to create an additional CSV file that contains the information below for each task that you want to add a dependency on. Then the file is ready to import. Save the file as a CSV (“CSV UTF-8” if using Microsoft Excel) and go back to the how-to import, but this time you will be using the update feature of the Data loader to update the Precursive OBX Task record.

1. Task Record Id: Into which Tasks are you going to be importing the dependency too?

2. Predecessor Reference: What is the reference of the task which will be the predecessor? Don't forget to also add in the “Lead/Lag Days” also

Creating task contributors on other tasks

You will need to create an additional CSV file that contains the information below for each task that you want to add a dependency on. Then the file is ready to import. Save the file as a CSV (“CSV UTF-8” if using Microsoft Excel) and go back to the how-to import via the Data loader section to create a Task Contributor record.

1. Task Record Id: Into which Tasks are you going to be importing the dependency too?

2. User ID: What is the ID of the user who is the task contributor

Role: what is the role of the task contributor? Make sure you use a value that is the same as those in the role picklist set.
 

Migrating Data

Example Use Case:

Populating several existing Precursive OBX Tasks with a new Team Role

"We needed to create a new Team Role for the Boards after the Boards were generated, which meant that the Tasks didn't have those Roles for placeholders and now won't assign the people to tasks based on their role on the Board Team. Is there a way to update these existing tasks with a role placeholder so when we add a Board Team Member it will automatically assign these people to the tasks?"

This is an example where simply adding these roles to a Precursive OBX Template after several Boards have been created will not help. When you modify a Precursive OBX Template, the changes are only applied to the Boards you create in the future.

To retroactively populate existing Tasks with a new Team Role:

1. Export all the Precursive OBX Task Salesforce Record Ids to the tasks you wish to retroactively assign. This can be done by exporting a report created with the standard Precursive OBX Task report type.

2. include the Precursive OBX Task ID field on the report.

3. Copy to a spreadsheet with the following columns: 

• Task
• Role

4. Paste the IDs under Task column and the Role name(s) under Role column.

5. Save as CSV.

Use Data Loader or Data Import Wizard to insert the data into the Task Contributor object, which is a custom object included in the Precursive OBX Managed Package.

Related Resources