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Import/ Export Phases
Tina Chan avatar
Written by Tina Chan
Updated over 6 months ago

Only Admin users can access the CSV Import/Exporter.

Project phases are a high-level way of looking at your project timeline. They divide your project into smaller sections so you can group similar tasks and assignments together.

You can learn more here.

You can use the CSV Import/Exporter to:

  • Add new phases to projects

  • Export existing phases in projects

  • Update existing phases in projects

You cannot delete Phases in Runn with the CSV Tool. You will have to delete them manually in Runn.


First-Time Account Setup

You can bulk-add existing phases of your projects to your Runn account.

1. Downloading Templates

  1. Hover your cursor to the top right-hand corner, click Settings

  2. Click CSV

  3. Click on the Projects Tab, expand Phases

  4. Click Download Template CSV

You will see some samples from the template for your reference. You can remove them and add your actual data to the file.

2. Preparing your data in the CSV file

Data Format and Requirements

Refer to the Data Format and Requirements section to prepare your data.

Here are some points to note:

Column headers

  • It is recommended that the column header names stay the same as those you see in the file downloaded from Runn

Remove all unrequired columns

  • If you have other columns on your spreadsheet that are not listed in the downloaded CSV file, please remove all these columns before importing

Ensure no duplicated records

  • Make sure that there are no duplicated phases

3. Importing Phases

Jump to the Importing CSV file in Runn and follow the steps to import your CSV file.


Updating/Exporting Existing Data

If your account already has Phases and you want to add new phases or update existing phases (e.g. change the start/end date, color), you can easily download the existing data, make the changes and re-import the CSV file to Runn.

The data in the newly imported CSV file will overwrite/add to existing data in Runn.

1. Exporting Existing Data

  1. Hover your cursor to the top right-hand corner, click Settings

  2. Click CSV

  3. Click on the Projects Tab, expand Phases

  4. Click Download Existing Phases CSV


Phase ID column

The downloaded file contains a numeric Phase ID column, which is a unique identifier for phases in Runn.

Please do not make any changes to this column, or the CSV importer may not be able to identify which data point you would like to update.

2. Preparing your data in the CSV file

Data Format and Requirements

Refer to the Data Format and Requirements section to prepare your data.

Here are some points to note:

Column headers

  • It is recommended that the column header names stay the same as those you see in the file downloaded from Runn

Do not change the Phase IDs

  • When updating existing data, please do not make any changes to the Phase ID column, or the CSV importer may be unable to identify which data point you want to update.

  • If you would like to add new phases to your projects, you can leave the Phase ID blank and just enter the project data in a new row

Remove all unrequired columns

  • If you have other columns on your spreadsheet that are not listed in the downloaded CSV file, please remove all these columns before importing

Ensure no duplicated records

  • Make sure that there are no duplicated phases

3. Importing CSV file in Runn

After preparing the CSV file, you can import the updated data in Runn.

  1. Hover your cursor to the top right-hand corner, click Settings

  2. Click CSV

  3. Click on the Projects Tab, expand Phases

Click Import Phases CSV


4. Upload Project Phases

Drag your file to the screen or click Import Phases CSV

5. Matching the columns

On this screen, the items on the left are the column headers in your CSV file, while the items on the right are the column headers required in our CSV Tool.

If you haven't changed the column headers, they should be exactly the same. In this case, click Confirm

6. Reviewing Entries

Carefully scroll through the page and check if all the information is correct.

❌ What to do if there is an error?

Check out this article to learn more about how to fix errors.

If everything looks good, click Complete Import

Congratulations! You have successfully imported phases! 🎉

7. Validating the data

You can validate if the data are successfully uploaded by following the steps below:

  1. Go to the Project Planner

  2. Look for a project in which you have updated the phases

  3. Check if the phases are updated accordingly

Do NOT re-import the Phases CSV file immediately if you discover errors after the import

If your file has new phases (No Phase ID), and you have noticed some errors in Runn AFTER the import, do not just fix your original CSV file and re-import. This will duplicate all the new phases without Phase ID.

Please download the Existing Phases CSV, make the changes, and re-upload the file.


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