Overview
If you want to make Limble your one-stop shop for your team’s work history and work performed on your assets, you may want to import completed tasks from other CMMS or programs you’ve used prior to joining Limble.
While you can import completed tasks that meet the minimum requirements, we recommend importing quality data. Having completed tasks in the system just for the sake of having them will not do much for you unless you have a lot of great information that can inform forecasting and lay the groundwork for data-rich work history.
This article will walk you through how to import completed tasks from an Excel spreadsheet.
Table of Contents
Getting Started
Import Steps
We'll cover each step in detail, but here's the steps of how to perform a bulk import of your completed tasks:
Follow the steps in the import screen, first by downloading the sample import file.
Add data in the required fields and desired optional fields
Import your completed tasks
Importing Requirements & Best Practices
You are limited to 2000 completed tasks per import. If you have more, be sure to split up your import spreadsheets and label them accordingly.
.csv and .xlsx files are the recommended file types for your upload. .xlsm files are not accepted by Limble.
Photos, documents, or other files cannot be bulk imported. You must upload those manually.
Be mindful of spelling and formatting mistakes. If something is formatted incorrectly in your spreadsheet, you’ll receive an error message about what went wrong, but checking for errors before you upload will save you any hassle.
Dates can be in one of the following formats: YYYY-MM-DD, MM-DD-YYYY, MM-DD-YY, or M-D-YY.
Download & Modify the Sample Import File
Now you're ready to modify the spreadsheet.
Navigate to the Completed Tasks page, Locations > Select Your Location > Manage Work > Completed Tasks.
Click the “Import/Export” button from the toolbar. From the dropdown, select “Import Completed Tasks.”
You will be taken to a new window with a list of instructions.
Download the spreadsheet by clicking on Sample Import File.
(Note: Limble will recognize your file even if you decide to rename it. Feel free to change the file name to something you can easily find later!)
Once you've opened the spreadsheet, you're ready to edit.
Hovering over a column name will show you an explanation of what it’s for, and how you need to format the data to import properly.
The sample file includes sample data so you can see how to add information. Be sure to remove the sample data and enter your own information here.
Required Fields
The following fields are required, and the columns should not be moved or renamed:
The task name is what your task will be called in the system.
Instruction 1; you need at least one instruction per task.
By default, instructions are imported into Limble as a checkbox instruction unless syntax is used to create other instruction types. Since this is a completed task import, many customers do not opt to set up instructions as they would with a template or open task.
Completed On (date format) is when the task was completed, and can be any date format as long as the excel cell type is in a date format.
Completed By (user login) is the user who completed the task. You should use their user login for this, which is typically the email associated with the user’s Limble account. The user must be active and have a role at the location you are trying to associate the completed PM with.
Optional Fields
You can also include the following optional fields:
Task Description and Custom Tags allows you to 1) add a description of what the task is intended to accomplish and 2) associate existing custom tags with a task.
Instruction 2 to 100 are additional instructions if a task had more than one instruction. You can include up to 100 instructions per task in a single import.
Should you choose to configure instructions in this spreadsheet, additional instructions can be added here by duplicating the Instruction 2 column and naming it Instruction 3, Instruction 4, etc.
Created On (MM/DD/YYYY) is when the task was created, and should be in the MM-DD-YYYY format.
Due On (MM/DD/YYYY) is when the task was due, and should be in date format.
Assigned To User (user login) is the user that was initially assigned to a task. Since this can be different from the user who completed the task, they are treated separately. You should use their user login for this, which is typically the email associated with the user’s Limble account.
Assigned To Team (team name) is the team that was initially assigned to a task.
You can find your teams under Locations > Select Your Location > Teams.
It’s important to note that you can only assign a single user or a team to a completed task, but not both.
Estimated Time is the estimated time it should take to complete the task.
Task Type (unplanned WO, planned WO or PM) is the type of work performed for this task. This is important because it tells you what kind of work was being performed, and may indicate if an asset was pulling time, labor, and resources that were not planned for.
Unplanned WOs (work orders) are tasks that were not scheduled or planned
Planned WOs (work orders) are tasks that were manually planned, but not through a scheduler
PMs are planned maintenance tasks that were planned and scheduled
WRs (work requests) are tasks made from issues that were reported to your maintenance team
Asset ID lets Limble know which asset the task belongs to.
This will ensure that you have as much work history associated with your assets as possible, which provides a more accurate picture of asset performance and how to plan maintenance in the future.
Your asset IDs can be found by exporting your list of current assets, or in the individual asset card.
(Note: optionally, you can use the asset name, but it is highly recommended to use the asset ID. Any spelling or grammatical errors may bypass the intended match in the system.)
Completion Time (in minutes) lets Limble know how long a task took to complete.
If you do not enter the time for a task, it will default to a 0.
This needs to be imported in minutes - so, for example, a task that took an hour and a half should be entered as 90 minutes.
Downtime Caused (in minutes) is how much downtime occurred, or the amount of time an asset could not perform work before maintenance was completed.
If you do not enter downtime for the task, it will default to a 0.
This needs to be imported in minutes - so, for example, downtime that occurred for two hours should be entered as 120 minutes.
Completion Notes will link any completion notes with a task.
Part ID lets Limble know which parts were used on a task. Your part IDs can be found by exporting your list of current parts, or in the individual part card.
(Note: optionally, you can use the part name, but it is highly recommended to use the part ID. Any spelling or grammatical errors may bypass the intended match in the system.)
Part Used Qty is how many parts were used on a task.
This will not make changes to your current part inventory. If you are interested in consistently adding tasks and changing your part inventory, talk to our support team about our API integrations.
Invoice Cost indicates that the completed task has an associated invoice, and how much the invoice was worth.
Invoice Description provides additional details about invoices associated with the task.
You must enter the invoice cost in order to include an invoice description.
Advanced Optional Fields
There are three advanced optional fields you can include that take a little more configuration to import. These require specific syntax to import into Limble, which you can learn more about here.
Multiple Labor (Time Spent) allows you to add time spent on a task by more than one user.
Multiple Parts allows you to add more than one part to a task.
Multiple Invoices allows you to add more than one invoice to a task.
Import and Upload
Once you have included all of the necessary information, save your .csv file and import your file.
Navigate back to the Completed Tasks page and click the “Import/Export” button from the toolbar. From the dropdown, select “Import Completed Tasks.”
In the new window, select “Upload File.”
Then, select your file and click “Open.”
If your spreadsheet has any errors, Limble will define where those errors are, and what you need to do to fix them.
If your import does not have any errors, Limble will list which PMs you have successfully imported.
It will give you the option to delete a newly imported entry by clicking on the X icon.
Once you are satisfied, exit the pop-up window. Your completed tasks will now be in Limble!
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Still don’t see what you’re looking for? Check out our YouTube channel for more tips and tricks! You can also reach out to us anytime at support@limblecmms.com.