Importing Proposal Line Items from a CSV File Documentation

Importing line items brings a quote, a rate sheet or a vendor's price list into a proposal without retyping each line. Every row in the file becomes a new line item on the proposal you import into. The wizard itself is described in the introduction to Data Import.

Before You Start

You need to be an event admin on the event the proposal belongs to. Save the sheet as a CSV file with one header row and one line item per row, up to 2,000 rows.

Line items cannot be imported onto a proposal that is Accepted, Paid or Canceled, because its prices are locked. Bill new scope with a change order instead, or move the proposal back to Sent to edit it.

What a File Can Set

Field	What the column holds
Name	The line item's name. Required on every row.
Quantity	How many.
Unit cost	What one unit costs you.
Unit charge	What one unit is charged to the client.
Target margin %	The margin the line aims for.
Public note	A note the client can see.
Internal note	A note for your team only.
Adjustments	One column for each adjustment on the proposal, holding that line's amount.

Quote headers rarely say "Unit charge", so headers such as Price, Rate, Unit price or Sell are mapped to Unit charge, Cost to Unit cost, and Qty to Quantity. Check these on the Map columns step: a price column mapped to cost reverses every margin on the proposal while still looking plausible.

Import Your Line Items

Open the import

Open the proposal's line items, open the menu beside the add button, and choose Import from CSV.

Upload file

Drop your CSV file onto the upload area, or select Choose a CSV file.

Map columns

Check that each column points at the right field, especially the price and cost columns.

Review values

Look over the values in each mapped column. You can replace a value before it is imported, or exclude every row that carries it.

Preview import

Every row shows whether it will create a line item or be skipped, and why.

Start import

Select Start import. The new line items appear on the proposal.

Rows That Are Skipped

Line item imports only create. They never match or update existing line items, so importing the same file twice adds every line twice.

A row with no name is skipped. A row with a name but no number in any quantity, cost, charge, margin or adjustment column is treated as a section heading from the quote and skipped; it does not create a group. A number that cannot be read is left blank on that line rather than skipping the line, and the preview names the cell that was dropped.

How Rows Are Matched

Planned outcomes and every reason a row is skipped.

Procurement

Where proposals sit in an event's resourcing.