Bulk Importer - Users and Plans – Cascade

Only Admins can do bulk import of users and plans.

You've your plans in a spreadsheet somewhere and want to get it into Cascade - do not stress. We can do this without much hassles with our "Bulk Import" in just a few clicks. This feature will make your work easier when you've multiple plans to be created at once. If you're an Admin, you can do this from the Admins > Bulk tools > Bulk import.

Before you import your plans, it's advisable to first get the user bulk import done, so that you can assign ownership right away, and get to the strategy execution quick.

Bulk Import - Users

Click Download File in the Import Users section - this will download the "users template" for user management. The template is easy to use, and is straight-forward.

Here, you'll fill these columns:

(Optional) Teams - Enter the name of the team. This is not mandatory, however, if you fill this column, then its mandatory to have a team owner, and their mail address. Please note that you cannot have duplicates of teams.
(Mandatory) Team Owner - This'll default to the user who downloaded the template. If you wish to change, you can enter the mail address of the team owner, and not their name.
(Optional) Parent Team - Choose from the list populated from the "Teams" column. This is not a mandatory field. But if you choose a parent team, then just remember that this team cannot be its child too. For example, if you've chosen Sales team's parent team as Go-to-market, then for Go-to-market, you cannot choose Sales team as its parent team.
(Optional) Full Name - Enter the full name of the user.
(Mandatory) Email - Enter the mail address of the user. This is to create new users if the workspace is new, and there's no team owner available.
(Optional) Job Title - Give the user's job title.
(Mandatory) Role - It is mandatory to assign a role to the user (Admin, manager, contributor, viewer). To more on these roles, please see User Roles in Cascade.
(Optional) Team - Choose from the populated list of teams, the user must be assigned to.

If you need to change any of the users' profile details, you can do that later from the Admin > Users tab. See Edit a User.

If you're in a Free tier plan, you can invite only up to 4 users, and assign them only Admin roles. If you're in a Premium tier plan, you can invite only up to 25 users, and assign any roles other than Viewers.

Once done, rename the file to make more sense, and upload to Cascade. You'll see a success notification if everything is right, and if there's an error, it'll be notified. Fix the error, and re-upload the file. While the Teams page will list the teams and its members, the Users tab in Admin page will list all the user details.

Bulk Import - Plans

Click Download File in the Import Plans section - this will download the "strategy template" for adding plans and its relevant details. While the template is pretty straight-forward, you need to keep in mind these points for these columns:

(Mandatory) Plans - Enter the name of the plan. Plan names must be unique and no two plans can share the same name.
(Optional) Parent Plan - While "Parent Plan" is not mandatory, if you add them, just remember that you cannot add a plan's child as its parent. For example, if you've chosen Sales plan's parent plan as Go-to-market, then for Go-to-market, you cannot choose Sales plan as its parent plan too.
(Mandatory) Focus Areas - Enter the focus area names. If you add the same focus area names but choose different plans for them, then they'll be shared across those plans as a shared focus area and will not be duplicated.
(Mandatory) Plan- Assign the focus area to a plan (this'll be a populated list of plans).

Objectives, measures, projects, and actions are not mandatory. But if you're adding measures, projects, or actions, then it is mandatory to have objectives to group them under for defining alignment and strategic contribution.
(Mandatory) Objective Name - Enter the title of the objective. They can be shared across focus areas and plans, i.e., they can share the same names/titles.

You cannot create shared objectives, nested or contributing objectives with this bulk import option.
(Optional) Objective Owner - If the users are existing in the workspace, then those will be auto-populated under "Owners" column. If there're no users, then this column will default to the user who imported this file.
(Optional) Objective Start Date and Due Date - While start and due dates are not mandatory, if entered, due date must be greater than the start date. If not entered, it'll default to one month from the date of import.
(Mandatory) Focus Area - Plan - It is mandatory to choose a Focus Area (this'll be a populated list of focus areas) to which this objective belongs to.
(Optional) Project Name - Enter the name/title for the project. They can be shared across objectives and plans, i.e., they can share the same names/titles.
(Optional) Project Owner - If the users are existing in the workspace, then those will be auto-populated under "Owners" column. If there're no users, then this column will default to the user who imported this file.
(Optional) Project Start Date and Due Date - Enter the dates. Remember that they must fall within the parent objectives' dates.
(Mandatory, if project is available) Contributes to Objective - It is mandatory to choose the objective (this'll be a populated list of objectives) to which this project must be assigned to.
(Optional) Action Name - Enter the name/title for the action. They can be shared across objectives and plans, i.e., they can share the same names/titles.
(Optional) Action Owner - If the users are existing in the workspace, then those will be auto-populated under "Owners" column. If there're no users, then this column will default to the user who imported this file.
(Optional) Action Start Date and Due Date - Enter the dates. Remember that they must fall within the parent objectives' dates.
(Mandatory, if action is available) Contributes to Objective/Project - It is mandatory to choose the objective or project (this'll be a populated list of objectives and projects) to which this action must be assigned to.
(Optional) Measure Name - Enter the name/title for the measure. They can be shared across objectives and plans, i.e., they can share the same names/titles.
(Optional) Measure Owner - If the users are existing in the workspace, then those will be auto-populated under "Owners" column. If there're no users, then this column will default to the user who imported this file.
(Optional) Measure Start Date and Due Date - Enter the dates. Remember that they must fall within the parent objectives' dates.
(Optional) Initial, Target, Unit- Either you leave the initial, target, and unit columns blank, or fill every one of these mandatorily. The initial and target values of the measure, and the unit of measurement.

While tracking for actions (checklists or milestones) can be done only from Cascade, you can just define manual tracking for measures here. You can enable integrations only from Cascade.
(Mandatory, if measure is available) Contributes to Objective - It is mandatory to choose the objective (this'll be a populated list of objectives) to which this measure must be assigned to.

Once done, rename the file and upload. If you adhere to the above pointers, you'll not see any errors on upload. If there's any, fix it and re-upload the file.

While the All Plans page lists all the plans, the Planner page will list the specific plan and its details. You can add collaborators or edit any of the details from here.

The file must be in .xlsx format. If you wish to enter details in Google Sheet to enable collaboration, once the details are filled, you need to download the file so that it's in the preferred .xlsx format, and then upload it to Cascade.
The upload might take a while depending on the data. If you do not see any data after a while, please contact us.

Some tips:

Always fill the columns from the left to right.
Wherever there is a dropdown, select the values from the list and do not type new details into those columns.
It's best to fill the user template first so that you can assign initiatives to them while importing a plan.
If there're users already added to the workspace, then the users list will be populated automatically when you work on the downloaded plan template.

Troubleshooting:

User import:

Error	Error description	How to resolve?
Invalid Email format	Email is not in @xyz.com format.	Please correct the mail id.
Invalid Role	Role is not selected from the dropdown.	Select a role from the list. The roles must be those that're available in Cascade - Admin, Manager, Contributor, Viewer.
Invalid Team	Parent team is not selected from the dropdown.	Choose from the populated list of teams that're available in Cascade or those added in the first column "Teams".
Invalid Team Owner Email format	Email is not in @xyz.com format.	Please correct the mail id.

Plan import:

Error	Error description	How to resolve?
Parent plan has an invalid value	Alignment chosen is not an option from the auto-populated dropdown.	Select the parent plan from the drop-down list, and do not enter it manually. Also, you cannot add a plan's child as its parent. For example, if you've chosen Sales plan's parent plan as Go-to-market, then for Go-to-market, you cannot choose Sales plan as its parent plan too.
Focus Area Plan has an invalid value	Alignment chosen is not an option from the auto-populated dropdown.	Choose the focus area from the populated list, and do not enter it manually.
Objective owner has an invalid value	Owner is not selected from the auto-populated dropdown.	Select the "owner" from the drop-down list (existing user) or leave it blank in which case, it'll default to user who is doing the import.
Objective Focus Area has an invalid value	Alignment chosen is not an option from the auto-populated dropdown.	Choose the focus area to which the objective must belong to, from the drop-down list.
Project owner has an invalid value	Owner is not selected from the auto-populated dropdown.	Select the "owner" from the drop-down list (existing user) or leave it blank in which case, it'll default to user who is doing the import.
Project Objective has an invalid value	Alignment chosen is not an option from the auto-populated dropdown.	Choose the objective from the drop-down list to which the project needs to be associated with.
Project Objective is required	Alignment is left blank and is not chosen.	In the "Contributes to" column, it is mandatory to choose the parent objective to which the project needs to be associated with, from the auto-populated list.
Action owner has an invalid value	Owner is not selected from the auto-populated dropdown.	Select the "owner" from the drop-down list (existing user) or leave it blank in which case, it'll default to user who is doing the import.
Action Objective or Project has an invalid value	Alignment chosen is not an option from the auto-populated dropdown.	Choose the objective or project from the drop-down list to which the action needs to be associated with.
Action Objective is required	Alignment is left blank and is not chosen.	In the "Contributes to" column, it is mandatory to choose the parent objective or the project to which the action needs to be associated with, from the auto-populated list.
Measure owner has an invalid value	Owner is not selected from the auto-populated dropdown.	Select the "owner" from the drop-down list (existing user) or leave it blank in which case, it'll default to user who is doing the import.
Measure Initial type must be a number	The measure initial value is not a number.	Make sure to enter the value in a number-format.
Measure Target type must be number	The measure target value is not a number.	Make sure to enter the value in a number-format.
Measure Objective has an invalid value	Alignment chosen is not an option from the auto-populated dropdown.	Choose the objective from the drop-down list to which the measure needs to be associated with.
Measure Objective is required	Alignment is left blank and is not chosen.	In the "Contributes to" column, it is mandatory to choose the parent objective to which the measure needs to be associated with, from the auto-populated list.
Unable to parse file content	The importer is unable to read the uploaded file.	Check if the formatting is right, and recheck if you've gone from left to right while adding entries. Also, see if you've only selected data from the dropdown list.

FAQs

Is there a user limit while doing the import?

There is no limit if you're in an Essentials and Enterprise+ tier, however with Free and Premium, once you reach the 5 users and 25 users limit, it'll prompt you to upgrade and will not let you to add any more users.

I already have some plans built out, but do not see these plans in the downloaded plan template.

Yes, that's the intended behavior. The purpose of this import is to bring in plans in bulk from their original sources. Unlike users, the built out plans will not be populated in the downloaded plan template.

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