Capital Projects / Capital Budgeting
Importing Legacy Data Using the Archibus Connectors
As the Capital Planner, you can use the Archibus Connectors to import capital budgets for past years, and financial year-end feeds for Budget versus Actual Spend analysis. You can then use the Historical Project Analyzer to review details for the cost budgeted versus the actual invoices paid for any construction project.
The Archibus Connectors are a dependable, extensible, database-independent means for integrating Archibus with other enterprise systems. From the Capital Budgeting / Set Up / Historical Project Analyzer task, you can use the connectors to import your legacy project and invoice data. Once in Archibus, this data can be used as the basis for strategic decisions. See Project Budget versus Spend Analyzer.
The information required is stored in two tables:
- Projects
- Invoices
Project data
The Project table holds most critical information, such as the Cost - Budgeted amount for the project and the estimated Start and End Dates. Additional information provided by the Projects table would allow for later grouping of the data and sorting by values such as site, building, program, or project type.
Project data can be compiled from existing project information, and should contain as many relevant fields as possible, the only required fields being the Project Code and Project Contact. The Project budget is derived from the cost_budget field.
Invoices data
The Invoices table is tied to the Projects table through the Project Code, and also contains the vendor, invoice date and amount. Using Connectors, validated values which do not yet exist in the database can be added on the fly. For example, during Invoice import, any new Vendors introduced by the import are added to the Vendor table.
Work packages are automatically generated from the Invoices table. The Total Actual Spend for projects and work packages are summed form the Invoice Amounts.
Procedure: Importing legacy project and invoice data
Legacy data is imported into Web Central using the Import Project Invoices view. After importing the projects and invoices, select a Project in the view to display the Project Profile and its Work Packages and associated Invoices. The Work Packages are automatically generated from the Invoices table.
Note: To create a template for importing data, you can select the Transfer Out option, modify the exported file to fit your needs, and then use the Transfer In option to import the data.
To import legacy data:
- Select the Capital Budgeting / Set Up / Historical Project Analyzer task.
The Historical Project Analyzer form appears.
- Click Import, and then select Projects or Invoices from the list, depending on which you are importing.
The Select a File Path form appears.
- Enter the file path of the import file in the Enter file path fields. For example, enter:
c:\feeds\FY2009-project-legacy-data.xls
- To begin data import, click Import.
- To verify that the data import has completed, click Refresh in the Connector Log pane.
- When the Connector Log section shows a message that the import has completed, click Close.
- In the Import Project Invoices Using Archibus Connectors view, in the Filter, enter criteria that to restrict the view to show only your legacy data. For example, search for all projects that start with PN-2009 by entering PN-2009% in the Filter console's Project Code field, and clicking Show.
The Select Project list now includes your legacy projects.
- Click a project to review its details, such as work packages and invoices.