Migration guide
Save each Excel worksheet as CSV, upload the files to Pike templates, and connect the accounting system you invoice from. Budget three to four weeks.
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Excel saves only the active sheet when you save as CSV, so you save each worksheet as its own file and map each file to a Pike template.
Do not reopen a saved CSV in Excel before upload. Excel interprets each column with its default data format when it opens a CSV, which can reorder date parts or drop leading zeros from client and project numbers.
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An Excel workbook has no ledger, so your invoice history exists in the accounting system finance invoices from. Connect that system to Pike before you upload the first worksheet.
Pike syncs with your accounting system every 3 hours after the first import, or in real time on the Enterprise plan.
Entity map
Column one uses common worksheet names for a services workbook. Your names will differ. Each row says which Pike columns that worksheet’s CSV must end up with.
Pike: Customers and contacts
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. The CSV must end up with a client name and a unique client number per row.
You set in Pike: Currency and VAT ID where the worksheet has no column for them.
Template columns: customerName, customerNumber, taxVatId, mainCurrency
Pike: Projects
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. The CSV must end up with a project number, title, client number and lead email per row.
You set in Pike: Team and project template.
Template columns: projectNumber, title, customerNumber, status, billingType, startDate, endDate, leadEmail
Pike: Members
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. The CSV must end up with each person’s work email, the same email they sign in to Pike with.
You set in Pike: Workspace role and cost profile.
Template columns: email, displayName, team, position
Pike: Time entries
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. The CSV must end up with one row per entry: date, decimal hours, person email and project number.
You set in Pike: Nothing, once billable, approval and invoiced columns use the Pike values.
Template columns: date, hours, email, projectNumber, taskTitle, note, billableStatus, approvalStatus, invoiced
Pike: Project rate and cost profiles
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. Bill rates must end up as an hourly rate on each project row.
You set in Pike: Cost rates as member cost profiles. The CSV templates have no cost rate column.
Template columns: hourlyRate
Pike: Project budget
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. Each budget must end up on its project row as money, hours or both.
You set in Pike: Retainer period and allowance for recurring budgets.
Template columns: projectNumber, budgetAmount, budgetHours
Pike: Invoice history from accounting
Carries over: Pike imports invoices from the accounting system finance sends them from, so this worksheet is not uploaded.
You set in Pike: Nothing. The CSV route does not import invoices.
Pike: Deals
Carries over: The columns you keep on this worksheet. The CSV must end up with a deal title, client number, stage, value and probability.
You set in Pike: Deal statuses that match your pipeline stages.
Template columns: title, customerNumber, status, value, probability, closeDate
Copy bill rates from the Rates worksheet into `hourlyRate` on each project row. Where one project bills people at different rates, an admin sets task rates in Pike after the upload.
Move each budget from the Budgets worksheet onto its project row: money in `budgetAmount`, hours in `budgetHours`. Set `billingType` to `fixedFee`, `timeAndMaterials` or `nonBillable`.
Pike calculates profit from cost profiles, so an admin creates them from the cost rates in your workbook before the pilot.
The plan
The same steps as the main migration guide, with this tool's screens and settings.
Week 1
Migration owner, finance
Week 1 · Migration owner, finance
The CSV route copies a snapshot of each worksheet. Any edit in the workbook after save day needs retyping in Pike.
Done when: One CSV per worksheet and the original .xlsx in a dated folder, and a cutover Friday on the calendar.
Week 1
Operations lead
Week 1 · Operations lead
Pike takes one row per record and no merged cells, so remove totals and notes from each worksheet before you save it as CSV.
Done when: Every timesheet row has a date, decimal hours, an email and a project number that exists on the projects file.
Week 1 to 2
Workspace admin
Week 1 to 2 · Workspace admin
Admins set up Pike before the first upload, so they can give imported projects a team and a rate on day one.
Done when: Finance sees the ledger’s invoices in Pike. Every billable person has a cost profile.
Week 2
Workspace admin
Week 2 · Workspace admin
Customers, then projects, then members, then time, expenses and deals. Pike reports a row it cannot match with its line number.
Done when: Client, project, person and last-month hour totals match the workbook.
Week 2 to 3
Delivery lead, finance
Week 2 to 3 · Delivery lead, finance
CSV has no ongoing sync, so the pilot team moves fully to Pike while everyone else fills in the Timesheet worksheet.
Done when: One invoice sent from Pike. Pilot time in Pike matches what the team logged.
Week 3 to 4
Migration owner
Week 3 to 4 · Migration owner
Close the workbook on Friday evening by marking it final and locking its structure.
Done when: Time admin shows every active member by Monday afternoon. The workbook opens marked as final.
Week 4 to 6
Finance
Week 4 to 6 · Finance
Done when finance closes a month without opening the workbook.
Done when: Month closed in Pike. Workbook marked final and archived with two owners.
Rebuild
Questions
Excel’s CSV formats save only the active sheet, and Excel shows a reminder when you save. Select each worksheet in turn and save it as its own CSV.
Choose CSV UTF-8, which Pike expects so accents in client and people names survive. Microsoft describes CSV (comma delimited), CSV (Macintosh) and CSV (MS-DOS) as files for use on those operating systems.
When Excel opens a CSV, it applies its default data format to each column, which can change date order and drop leading zeros. Save the CSV from the .xlsx and upload it without reopening it in Excel, or edit it in a text editor.
Pike reads comma-separated files. Excel takes the CSV list separator from Windows Region settings, so a region set to semicolons produces semicolon files. Change the list separator back to a comma, then save again.
It makes the file read-only and turns off editing commands, but Microsoft states that Mark as Final is not a security feature. Anyone can remove the flag, so combine it with Protect Workbook and tell the team Pike is now the record.
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