📌Note: Other file types are not covered in this information (.ebq, .txt).
To import an Excel file into ConQuest there must be a corresponding Excel worksheet for each Bill or Sub Bill being imported. Within ConQuest, ensure the Bill Import Options match the Excel file being imported.
The options are set within:
Input/Output menu
Then go and click Bill Import
In the screen that opens, click on Options from the toolbar.
The Excel file needs to be formatted in a specific way and the below details are guidelines for a basic Excel File:
Merged cells must be unmerged.
Items must have a reference, a description and a unit, quantity or both.
Pages must have an End of Page marker (Do not place these in the description column)
The file must have an End of File marker (Do not place these in the description column)
Unwanted content, e.g. headers and footers or pictures must be removed.
There must be no blank cells in the item description column between the reference and the Quantity/Unit: item descriptions must be continuous.
Descriptions only have to be 1 character long to be imported - previously this was 3.
Reference, Description, Quantity, and Unit can be in any column (A-Z) and not just A-D. Columns cannot be shared by 2 values.
PAGE and END can be in any column (A-Z) and not just A-D.
It is still advised not to use the description column for these as this will activate if the text you use is found anywhere in the cell.
If you use END in the description column, your import will stop on encountering end caps, rendering, suspended ceiling etc.
If you choose not to re-reference and the reference contains the characters "/" or "\" then the importer will inform you that the import may not work as expected and that they should re-reference.
If the Excel file contains anything other than alphanumeric characters, i.e. decimals, then the re-reference function should be selected.
The reference from the Excel file will still be available within ConQuest using the Original Reference column.
It is now possible to import items where the description is wrapped within a cell (text-wrapped) or where the description is across multiple lines (non text wrapped). In the latter case, the reference must be on the first line the unit and/or quantity on the last.
Example:
Text Wrapped:
Not Text Wrapped:
📌Note: When importing Excel sheets with tabbed sheets you need to assign the relevant tab name to the bill heading within the Bill Import window.
Once the file has been loaded double click the Sheet cell to open the list of tabs available. By default the Sheet cell will select the first Tab available in an excel sheet even if they are hidden.
To check for hidden sheets in the Excel File, right click on the Tab and see if unhide is available.
If everything in your excel file looks correct but the system reports that there are more than sixty lines of title on an item, it's likely that somewhere you have a cell which appears to be blank but is not (ie. it contains spaces). You should be able to find this by searching for a space with the options set to match entire cell.