Common RIA use cases

The Replicon Import Add-in (RIA) is useful in many scenarios. Common uses include:

Refer to Adding data using RIA and Editing data using RIA for more information on using the add-in.

You can also use our in-app data import feature to add, edit, or delete projects, tasks, clients, project and task assignments, users, holidays, activities, and groups. It doesn't require installation, and is supported for use on Macs.

Mass adding or editing projects

Use the Project import to add or update the project information fields. To add tasks, resource assignments, rate assignments, or allocations, you’ll need to use the following separate imports:

You can't add a multi-client project using RIA; you'll need to use the Replicon interface to add projects like that.

Adding tasks

Once you’ve created a project, you can add tasks to it. Parent and child tasks must be imported using separate rows (or the parent must already exist in Replicon). The order of those rows doesn't matter. If you attempt to import a child task with no parent, the import will fail.

Assigning resources to projects and tasks

You can use the RIA ProjectResourceAssignment and TaskResourceAssignment templates to mass assign resources to projects or tasks using a single import. You can include multiple projects or tasks in a single spreadsheet, and assign as many resources as necessary.

The Department Name and Resource Placeholder fields are only relevant if you’re assigning a department or placeholder to the project or task. If you aren’t, leave those columns untouched.

The project or task you’re assigning users to must first exist in Replicon before you can use these templates.

Changing rate assignments for a project

In the Replicon application, if you create a new project, all resources added to the project are assigned the project rate by default. If you want to assign the user rate, you have to change the assignment user by user. Or, you can use RIA to speed up the process.

To change rate assignments using RIA:

  1. Log in to RIA.
  2. Choose the ProjectResourceBillingRate - Update template, and click Create Template in the dialog that displays.

All of the fields are required, so all fields are selected by default.

  1. In the spreadsheet that displays, enter the project name and the names of the users whose rates you’d like to update.

The Department Name and Resource Placeholder fields are only relevant if you’re updating rates for a department or a placeholder. If you aren’t, leave those columns untouched.

  1. In the first user row, click the Assign Billing Rates in the Billing Rate column.

And in the dialog that displays, select which rates you’d like to assign.

Then click Assign Billing Rates.

  1. Drag the corner of the updated Billing Rates cell to copy the selected rate to all users it applies to.

 

  1. Click the Update ProjectResourceBillingRate button in the RIA top menu.

The new rate or rates should now be added to the selected project resources in Replicon. Note, adding a rate doesn’t remove existing assignments, it just adds to them.

Refer to Editing data using RIA for more information on performing an update.

Mass adding users

To mass import users, use the Users - Add import to add most fields. Then, if you need to associate the parameters listed below with a date in the future (for example, if you’re assigning two payroll rates with different start dates to a user), use the Add imports listed from Step 6 to 13 on the Import Dashboard:

  • Supervisors
  • Payroll rates
  • Overtime rules
  • Pay rules
  • Validation rules
  • Shifts
  • Cost rates

These imports cover all user profile settings, except notifications, so you shouldn’t need to customize imported users’ settings much, if at all, once they’ve been imported.

You can also set up a custom template if you think you’ll be importing users with similar settings often.

Mass adding timesheets

If you’re moving timesheets from another system into Replicon, or have other historical timesheet data you need to add, you can use the timesheet Add templates in RIA to import timesheets in bulk.

Related links

Using data import to mass add, update, and delete data
Integrating with Replicon
Introduction to the Replicon API
Using the Replicon Import Add-In (RIA)
Getting started with RIA (video)