Bring an Excel tracker into a board

The client kept the closing tracker in Excel, co-counsel sends their checklist as a spreadsheet, or the previous team on Project Beta ran everything from a workbook. Or you exported the board for the client and it has come back with their updates. Either way, the rows belong on the board, where the team can assign and follow them.

One question decides the route: where did the spreadsheet come from?

Start the import

1. Open the board, click Board in the toolbar and choose Import.

2. On the Excel tab, choose how to import.

   

Bring back a board export

1. Choose From Juristic export, then click Upload files and pick the workbook, or drag it in.

2. Click Import.

The export remembers how each task looked when it was exported. A task nobody changed in the workbook keeps any change a colleague has made on the board since. A task that was changed in the workbook overwrites the board, so make sure the workbook is the latest word on those rows. Tasks and columns that are missing from the workbook are not deleted, and a column added in Excel comes in as a text column.

To hand someone a blank sheet in the board's layout to fill in, click Download template on the same screen.

Map any tracker to the board

1. Choose From any Excel file, upload the workbook and click Map columns.

   If the file turns out to be a board export, Juristic says This looks like a Juristic export. Click Switch to Juristic export to keep the column types and existing tasks.

2. Under Import into group, choose where the tasks go: an existing group, Create new group, or Use grouping from sheet. With a numbered tracker, grouping from the sheet turns rows numbered 1 into groups, 1.1 into tasks and 1.1.1 into subtasks; a sheet with full-width section rows becomes one group per section. Groups with the same name as a group on the board are merged into it.

   

3. For each Excel column, choose under Map to board column:

   • Task title, for the column that names the step
   • Task number (No.), for the tracker's numbering (1, 1.1, 1.1.1), which Use grouping from sheet uses to nest groups, tasks and subtasks
   • one of the board's columns. Columns with the same name are matched for you.
   • Create new column, then pick the Column type and the Column name
   • Skip, for what the board does not need

4. Read the warnings before you import. A column marked Sample values may not match this column type or Sample values are incompatible with this column type is mapped to the wrong type: a "TBC" in a date column, for example. Map it to a text column, or tidy the sheet. For a date column, set the Date format the sheet uses, so 03/04 is read as the right day.

5. Click Import. If some cells could not be read, Some values could not be imported lists them by row and column. The rest of the import went through and those cells are left empty, so fill them in on the board.

Let JuristIQ read the sheet

1. Choose AI-assisted import, upload the workbook, and under Extra instructions say how the board should be built: "One group per workstream in column B. Ignore the notes tab."

2. Click Continue. The proposal is built in the background; you can close the dialog and carry on. A notification with Review tells you when it is ready, and the board shows a banner for it in the meantime.

3. In Map columns, decide where each proposed column goes: Task title, an existing column, + Create new column with its type, or Skip. Look hardest at columns marked Low.

   

4. Click Continue to import. If some values would not fit their column, Some values will be skipped lists them: Back to columns to change the mapping, or Import anyway to leave those cells empty.

Tips from practice

• Delete the noise first. Hidden columns, totals rows and a legend at the top of the sheet all look like data. A clean sheet maps cleanly.
• Round trips are for one board. Export, edit and import against the same board. To start a new deal from an old one, use a template: see start from the firm's template or an earlier deal.
• Limited access. If you can only work in some of a board's groups, the import says Your access lets you import into the groups listed here. New columns and groups cannot be created. Ask the board's manager to add any column you need first.

Sending the checklist the other way? See hand the checklist over in Excel. The checklist is in Word? See turn a Word checklist into a board.