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Bring your team into an imported plan

All plans Member

An imported schedule usually knows exactly who was meant to do the work. It just cannot prove who they are.

Microsoft Project stores a resource’s email address only when that resource came from an address book or an enterprise resource pool. A file built on someone’s laptop, which is most files, carries names: J. Smith, Site Supervisor, Excavation Crew. Onplana matches resources to your members by email, so when there is no email there is no match, and those tasks arrive with nobody on them.

This is a mapping gap, not lost data. Every task, date, dependency and cost arrived. The names are held on the tasks themselves until you say who those people are.

Two places to do it

Section titled “Two places to do it”

During the import, on the wizard’s Resources step, which lists everyone the file named and could not be matched, busiest first.

After the import, from the amber banner on the project. Same list, same result, so skipping the step during the wizard costs you nothing.

Inviting someone the file named

Section titled “Inviting someone the file named”

  1. Open the Resources step in the wizard, or the banner’s Review unmatched resources on an imported project.

  2. Find the people who matter. Rows are sorted by how many tasks they hold, so a resource carrying thirty tasks is at the top and a walk-on part is at the bottom.

  3. Type their email address on their row. This is the step that was missing before: where the file carried no address, you supply it. The domain from your own address is offered, so usually you type a name rather than a whole address.

  4. Leave the rows that are not people. Excavation Crew and Design Team are placeholders for groups, and nothing needs an address. Skipping a row is not an error.

  5. Send the invitations. On the wizard step they go out when the import commits; from the banner they go immediately.

When the person accepts, every task the schedule gave that name is assigned to them automatically. You do not go back and re-match anything, and you do not need to remember which tasks were theirs.

If they are already in your organization

Section titled “If they are already in your organization”

The banner’s list also lets you pick an existing member instead of typing an address. Use that when the person already has an Onplana account and the file simply spelled their name differently from their profile.

Assigning to an existing member takes effect immediately, because there is no invitation to wait for.

What Onplana will not do

Section titled “What Onplana will not do”

It never creates an account for someone without inviting them. A name in a file is not consent, and a resource called Contractor TBC is not a person. Everyone who ends up in your workspace received an invitation and accepted it.

It never guesses an address from a name. A wrong address is worse than a blank one: the work would look assigned while sitting in a stranger’s inbox.

Why some tasks stay unassigned

Section titled “Why some tasks stay unassigned”

Three ordinary reasons, none of which needs fixing:

  • The resource is a group, not a person. Crews, teams and roles have no inbox. Assign those tasks to a real person when the work is scheduled.
  • The invitation has not been accepted yet. The tasks attach on acceptance, so an outstanding invitation means outstanding assignments.
  • You skipped them deliberately. Plenty of imported plans carry historical resources who are not on the project any more.
Section titled “Related”