Import Your Plan

You can either create a plan from scratch, or if you've a plan already somewhere, you can just import it to Cascade. The Plan Importer helps you move your plans to Cascade in an easy and fast way so that you can get started with executing your strategy straightaway. No matter which tool your team was using previously, we can do the heavy lifting for you in just a few steps so that you can save your time and effort to focus on aligning your team to achieve your vision. 

While with Import Plan, you can only import one plan at a time, you can use the Bulk Importer option to import multiple plans and users at the same time. See Bulk Importer - Users and Plans.

From the icon on the top-right corner of any pages, click Import Plan. The Plan Importer page opens.

Enter the name and select the team you want the plan to be assigned to. You can skip selecting the team at this point, if you wish. Click Go to next step.

You can now select either the Focus Areas or the Objectives, and click Go to next step.

Depending on what you choose, copy either the Focus areas or your objectives from the document that you've, and paste it here.

Import Focus Areas

If you selected Focus Areas, it'll take you to the "Bring your Focus Areas to Cascade" page.

Now, copy the Focus Areas from your document (can be spreadsheet, word, or any tool), and paste them here. Click Convert to Focus Areas.

You can keep adding focus areas in this page, and as you convert them, you'll see them added to the list of focus areas. You can add any number of focus areas by a simple copy-paste operation.

Once you've added all your focus areas, click Go to next step, and this will now ask you to import objectives. You can click Skip this to add objectives at a later point in time - you'll just see focus areas with no objectives.

You can also add focus areas and objectives here. Click Import Plan, and your plan gets imported. If you need to add any more focus areas, do not worry. You can still do it the usual way from the Planner page.

Import Objectives

You'll be taken to this page either when you select Objectives in the plan page or once you've imported your focus areas.

Copy the Objectives from your document (can be spreadsheet, word, or any tool), and paste them here. Click Convert to Objectives.

You can keep adding objectives in this page, and as you convert them, you'll see them added to the list of objectives. These can be added later from the Planner page as well.

Click Go to next step, and this will now ask you to import focus areas. You can click Skip this to add focus areas at a later point in time - you'll see objectives listed under an Untitled Focus Area.

Here, you can add actions and measures, edit the dates, assign owners or delete - see Finish your Plan for details. Click Import Plan, and your plan gets imported.

Group your Objectives

Depending on what you choose in the initial steps, you'll import either focus areas or objectives. If you do not wish to skip any step, then you'll automatically import the other one too which you did not choose. i.e., if you chose focus areas first, then after adding focus areas, you'll now add objectives, and vice versa.

Select the focus area and the objectives that you want under that focus area, and click Confirm objectives.

The selected objectives will be added to that focus area. Once selected, those objectives will be grayed out and you cannot select them again for another focus area.

If you wish not to add any objectives to a focus area, you can just select the focus area, and without selecting any objectives, just click Confirm Objectives. This focus area will be displayed with no objectives. You can also leave out some objectives by not choosing them for any focus area, and these would display under an Untitled Focus Area.

Once you've grouped the objectives, click Go to next step. Click Go Back to go to the previous pages.

As you can see, there is a focus area with no objectives, one with objectives, and the left out objectives grouped under an untitled focus area. 

Finish your Plan

You've grouped your objectives, and now wish to assign different owners, or change dates - all these can be done from the Finish Your Plan page.

	Click the X icon to discard the import, and return to your home page.
	Select the objective(s), and click to assign owner. The users in your workspace will be listed, and you can select the user you need to assign the objective(s) to. Once selected, you can see their profile initials/picture alongside the Owner of the objective(s). Hover the mouse over the "Owner" of an objective, and click to change the owner for that objective.
	Select the objective(s), and click to change the dates. You'll see that the added objectives default to one month from the created date. You can back-date or future-date this to suit your needs with no restrictions. The dates will now be updated to reflect the changes you made. Hover the mouse over the "Start Date" or "End Date" of an objective, and click to change the dates for that objective.
	Select the objectives you wish to delete, and click the trash icon. You can delete objectives in bulk from here.
	If you've selected a couple of objectives, and want to redo the selection, click Clear Selection, and start with the selection action again.
	Click + Add Focus Area to add a new focus area. If you need to add objectives to this focus area, you need to do it from the Planner page.
	Click + Add Objectives to add objectives. These objectives will get added under an untitled focus area.
	Edit the focus area name by clicking on the text, or delete the focus area by clicking the trash icon. This will delete the objectives under that focus area as well. Click the arrow to expand or collapse the focus area.
	Click the icon to drag and drop the objective under a different focus area.
	Click the trash icon to delete the objective. This will delete only that particular objective.
	Click Import Plan to successfully import your existing plan into Cascade.

The imported plan will be listed under the All Plans tab in the Plans and Teams page. It might take a little time to reflect if you're importing a plan with large number of focus areas and objectives. If your plan does not reflect here, or if you receive an error message, please contact us.

Now that your plan is imported, you can add plan principles, if you wish to, assign the plan to a team, and start tracking your objectives. A mere Ctrl C - Ctrl V operation lets you start strategizing right away without much effort.

FAQs

I have the focus areas and objectives in a Word document, how do I import from this?

Be it any tool, all you need to do is copy the relevant items and paste them here. We do the heavy lifting for you.

Can I copy multiple columns from my spreadsheet?

Yes, you can select any number of focus areas or objectives that are spanned across in your document. Depending on what you choose, they'll be considered as individual items, and converted accordingly.

I imported the plan but still not seeing it under the Plans page.

It might take a while to reflect depending on how huge the data is. However, if you do not see it even after a few minutes, or get an error, please contact our live support.

I deleted the focus area, and all my objectives under that are gone.

Yes, deleting the focus area will delete the objectives under it as well. You can either go back and do the import again, or add them manually from the Planner page once the plan is imported. Be cautious while deleting as there is no revert option here.

I selected an objective by mistake for the first focus area but this needs to be under the third focus area, what should I do?

Not a problem. You can drag and drop the objectives under the correct focus areas from the Finish your plan page.