How do I mass update reporting group or WBS item data? – Help Center

Question

How do I mass update reporting group or WBS item hours, expense or asset entry data?

Answer

Background

System administrators might need to update historical time, expense or asset data. Cases might include:

An R&D department merging Project 1 and Project 2 together as Project 1.
Users might have entered an incorrect Task or Cost Code for a significant number of entries.

Mass Update Wizard

The Mass Update Wizard is a tool that will walk you through updating multiple time, expense and asset entries for a past period of time. You might use this wizard to make mass changes to project, department, etc. values for historical employee data. The wizard will not alter timesheet hours, expense or asset entry amounts, nor will it create or delete time, expense or asset entries - it will only change how those entries are classified. For example, you could use this wizard to change all time recorded against Project 1 to Project 2 for the past 3 months.

Note that the Mass Update Wizard does NOT update bill or pay rates and amounts based on any new values. For instance, if your bill rate depends on the project, and you are mass updating a new project value, the original bill rates and amounts for the affected records will be left unchanged.

Warning: You cannot undo the changes made by the Mass Update Wizard - use extreme caution when running this wizard and verify every setting before clicking the Run button!

The wizard will collect the following information from you before running:

Mass Update (Wizard)
'Include' Fields	Specify one or more entry field values to determine which time or asset entries will be included in the mass update. To select a value start typing a name or ID: a list of matching items will appear for you to choose from. If you do not choose any value for a particular 'include' field then ALL entries will be matched for that field. For instance, if you leave the Project 'include' field blank then entries with [NULL], Project 1, Project 2, etc. project values will match. To select or match the null value, start typing the expression 'null' (without the quotes) to see the [NULL] value option. The [NULL] value will match entries where the particular field was left unset or blank by the employee.
'Set As' Fields	Specify the new value for the field for the records specified by the 'Include' fields property. To select a value start typing a name or ID: a list of matching items will appear for you to choose from. Leave the 'Set As' field value blank for it to be ignored and left unchanged. To set the field to a null value, start typing the expression 'null' (without the quotes) to see the [NULL] value option. The [NULL] value will clear out any previous value the record contained.
Entry Types	If you have assets enabled you can specify whether time entries, asset entries or both types of entries are included in the mass update. If you do not have assets enabled then you will not see this option and time entries will always only be updated.
Employees	This is an optional filter that allows you to limit the mass update to specific employees. If you don't specify any employees then ALL employee records with specified 'Include' field values will be updated. To select an employee start typing a name or ID: a list of matching employees will appear for you to choose from (you must type at least 2 characters for the list to show).
Date Range	Select the date range for the entries to be included in the mass update. Processing runs from midnight at the start of the date range to 11:59 PM (23:59) at the end of the date range, in your time zone (the time zone of the system administrator running the wizard, not the time zone of the employees whose records are being updated).

Once this information is collected you will be given a chance to review all of the settings before running the wizard. This wizard will process both submitted (locked) and unsubmitted entries. If mass-updating a date range that has unsubmitted data you should consider running this wizard during off-peak usage hours, e.g. after 5:00 PM if most users finish work by then.