Using the ‘Financial Upload’ import utility – Pl

The data grid within the Performance Leader platform allows you to store data for each user account in a grid format. The rows and columns of the grid can be defined as you require.

The data can then be pulled into reviews and included in the report created from the review.

The data will also be visible to the user by clicking on their avatar in the top right hand corner of their dashboard and selecting ‘view financial info’. Admins can also view the data from within user manager, and line managers can view the data for their direct reports.

The ‘financial upload’ import utility allows you to upload some or all of the grid data from a file in spreadsheet or comma-separated format. The data stored can be financial data or time-keeping data or whatever you want! This article will describe the upload process and also point you towards related articles.

Key outcomes from this guide:

Understand the applications of the financial data grid

Learn how to prepare the import data

Become familiar with the upload process

There are 8 steps to uploading the financial data -

Ensure the rows and columns of the grid are defined correctly. There is a separate article describing this in detail which will help you present your data so it is easy to read.

Decide which data you want to import. You can import all fields on the grid or select those you want to import and leave the rest as they are. You can also select the user accounts whose data will be imported.

Create the file of data to upload. This can be in a spreadsheet format which you can later convert to comma-separated text format for the import.

Begin the financial upload within the platform.

Specify the columns in the grid to be used. This step gives the import utility flexibility as you can leave columns untouched if you want.

Match the fields in the spreadsheet to those on the grid. This step allows further flexibility as you can choose which fields to import.

Check the user accounts whose data will be imported.

Import the data.

Access the financial upload tool

To access the financial upload tool,

Click on the ‘imports’ option on the left hand menu (2).

Select the ‘Financial upload’ tab (3).

Restricted Admins do not have access to the ‘imports’ menu.

Step 1 : Ensure the rows and columns of the grid are defined correctly

The rows and column names of the grid are defined within the system settings. This allows plenty of flexibility when deciding how to present your data.

You can split the grid into sections using empty rows as subheadings (1), and you can accommodate more than one set of data by using a row to hold a set of column headings (2). The data grid below illustrates both these situations.

The grid above is defined in the settings as shown below.

If your grid is not already set up, go to this article ‘Defining the financial data grid’ for a full description of how to design and set up the grid.

Note that some of the text has HTML tags around it to make it appear as bold when the data is used in a review. If you would like to use HTML tags, please ask your CSM for assistance.

Step 2 : Decide which data you want to import

You can import all fields or select those you want to import and leave the rest as they are. You can also select the user accounts whose data will be imported.

For example, in the grid illustrated above, you might decide to only import the data in the Quarter 4 column for the rows of billable data. Or you may only be importing data for certain user accounts.

Step 3 : Create the file of data to upload

This can be in a spreadsheet format which you can later convert to comma-separated text format for the import.

You can begin by extracting the current financial data set. This will produce a spreadsheet which you can use as a template. It gives you a starting point for your data.

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If you keep a copy of the spreadsheet before you start amending it, it can also act as a backup.

To extract the financial data, log on as admin and click on the ‘Reporting’ link on the menu on the left hand side (1). Scroll down to the ‘Explore’ section and click on the ‘view’ button in the ‘exports’ card (2).

On the ‘Exports screen, select ‘employee financial data’ from the drop-down list (3). Apply filters as required and click the ‘generate report’ button (4).

The resultant spreadsheet will have one row for each user account. It will have columns for the employee ID, email address, first name and last name.

It will also have one column for each field on the grid. The name of these columns are formatted with the grid row and grid column names. For example, spreadsheet column ‘active-potential : q1’ contains data for the grid row ‘Active + Potential’ and the grid column ‘Q1’.

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If you are not going to use a column on the spreadsheet, you can delete it to make the spreadsheet easier to handle. It will make things easier in step 6 when you match the fields in the spreadsheet to those on the grid.

You can make the matching process in step 6 even easier by ensuring that the spreadsheet column names are reasonably short so that the whole name appears in the box once selected, making it easier to check you have selected the correct field.

For example, the name ‘active-potential : q1’ is short enough but anything more than about 25 characters is likely to be partly obscured once selected.

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Note that if a field on the grid is empty for all user accounts, that field will not appear on the data extract spreadsheet as a column, so you will have to add that column if required.

Using the exported spreadsheet ensures that the employee ids and emails are correct, which is important as you will have to use one of these as the unique identifier for the user accounts.

But of course you can also create your own spreadsheet from scratch if that is easier, for example if you have extracted that data from another system.

Just make sure that the spreadsheet contains the user’s name (to make it easier to check) and either the employee ID or email address, plus a column for each field of data you want to upload, with meaningful column names of 25 characters or less.

Once the spreadsheet has been created, fill in the data.

If you are adding an extra row (or rows) of column subheadings, as in the example in step 1 above, you will need to fill in these columns with the sub heading text. In this example I have added HTML bold tags to the text so that they will show up as bold when pulled through to a review and in the review’s report. Please ask your CSM for assistance if you would like to change the appearance of the text in the import.

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In the example above, fields ‘totals-and-targets : q3’ and ‘totals-and-targets : q4’ will always be blank as those fields on the grid are not being used. If there are several columns like that you can delete them and just have one empty column called something like ‘blank’ and use that for all the blank columns. It will make the field matching process easier.

Once your spreadsheet is ready, save it as a comma-separated text file, ready for the import.

Step 4 : Begin the financial upload within the platform

Select the ‘Imports’ item from the menu on the left hand side and then select the ‘financial upload’ tab.

Click the green ‘+’ button to create a new financial upload.

Drag and drop the csv import file onto the ‘select file’ step, or click on the grey bar in the centre and select the file. This will take you automatically to the ‘specify columns’ step.

Step 5 : Specify the columns in the grid to be used

At this point you can select how many columns you would like to use for the grid. Many clients have a single 'Value' column, others may utilise multiple columns (e.g. 'Target Value', 'Realised Value'). This step gives the import utility flexibility as you can leave columns untouched if you want.

Click on the ‘Add’ button to add as many columns as you want to import, then select the column name from the drop down box. You can remove columns that you have added using the red bin icon by each one.

When you have finished adding the columns you require, click on the ‘next step’ button.

Step 6 : Match the fields in the spreadsheet to those on the grid

This step allows further flexibility as you can choose which fields to import.

Begin by deciding whether to use the ID or email address to identify the user accounts. Either is fine so use the one you are most certain is correct on your import spreadsheet.

Next tick the rows you want to use, then align each field with a column from your CSV file.

Finally, click on the green ‘next step’ button.

Step 7 : Check the user accounts whose data will be imported

The import utility will attempt to match the user accounts on the import with those on the system. If there are any not found, check the import for the invalid matches.

If all are matched, click on the green ‘next step’ button.

Step 8 : Import the data

Lastly, you need to decide whether you will …

Add/update data for any matched employee. Keep the existing data for the matched employee so only the fields selected in the ‘align csv’ step will be affected. This is useful when making partial updates to data (e.g. adding just a row, column or cell)

Clear and add for any matching employee. Clear all the old data but only for matched employees. This is the most common selection when adding data before a review, as this will replace past data with this new set.

Clear all existing financial data and upload. This will clear all data across the firm (not just these users). This is commonly used when cleaning up data.

Once you have decided and selected the option from the drop-down list, click on the ‘upload financial data’ button to complete the process. The import will only happen once you have clicked this button so you can cancel the process here or at any of the earlier steps.

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And the import is complete!