Populating the Ticket Note and Ticket Time Entry template

SECURITY  Security level with Admin permission for Service Desk (Tickets). This importer does not consider Proxy time entry permissions. Any user with access to the importer will be able to create time entries for anyone else.

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Utilities > Ticket Time Entry & Ticket Note Import > click Import

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  Please review the general instructions for importing and updating data in Autotask in this topic: Importing or updating data.

The Ticket Time Entry and Ticket Note Import Template allows you to import ticket time entries and notes from a .csv file. If a matching time entry/note is found during the import it can be left as it is or updated. A time entry is matched on Autotask Ticket Number + Resource + Start Date/Time + End Date/Time. A ticket note is matched on Autotask Ticket Number + Created By Resource (or Contact) + Create Date/Time + Title.

NOTE  When using the importer to update time entries or notes, please be aware that ticket time entries and notes cannot be moved from one ticket to another, and time entries on submitted or approved timesheets cannot be updated.

The table below provides details on how to populate the import file.

NOTE  If you see a check mark in the Must be looked up in Autotask instance? column, it means that, in the Autotask user interface, a value is selected from a list. You may use selections that are currently inactive, but they must exist. Navigate to the page shown in the Description column and look up the valid options.

*= required field
Fields that are required only for notes or only for time entries are marked as such.

Field Must be looked up in Autotask instance? Description
External (Legacy) Ticket ID   Enter the external ticket ID.
Autotask Ticket Number Yes Enter the Autotask ticket number. This field cannot be updated by an import.
Create Date/Time(required for notes)   This field cannot be updated by an import.

Enter the date in your Autotask date format followed by a space, then time in your Autotask time format, e.g. 10/10/2022 8:00 PM.

  • If only a date is provided, 12:00 AM will be used as the time component.
  • This field will be disregarded for time entries. The End Date/Time value will be used as the time entry Create Date/Time.
Created By Resource
Yes

Enter the name of the resource who created the time entry or note.

If both this field and the Created By Contact field are both left blank, the system will populate this field with the name of the resource who executed the import.

You may use either Firstname Lastname or Lastname, Firstname format.
Created By Contact   Enter the name of the organization contact who created the time entry or note. The contact must be valid and must be associated with the organization or its parent organization. Inactive contacts are acceptable.
  • You may use either Firstname Lastname or Lastname, Firstname format. If you have entered a value in the Created By Resource field, you must leave this field blank.
Resource (required for time entries) Yes You may use either narrative format or Lastname, Firstname format.

Valid resources may be found here: > Admin > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users.
Role Yes Enter a valid role for the resource. If the specified role is not a valid role for the resource, an error message will display upon import. Valid roles for the resource may be found here: > Admin > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users > Associations tab.

If no role is provided, Role will be set as follows:

  • If the resource is Primary or Secondary Resource on the ticket, the role will be set to the ticket's Primary or Secondary Resource Role, respectively
  • If the resource is not associated with the ticket as Primary or Secondary Resource, then the role will be set to the Resource's default queue role
  • If the Resource is not the Primary or a Secondary Resource on the ticket, and has no queue role assigned, then the role is set to the Resource's department role.
  • If the Resource does not have a department role, an error message will display upon import.
Start Date/Time   Enter the start date/time of the time entry. Enter the date in your Autotask date format followed by a space, then time in your Autotask time format, e.g. 10/10/2022 8:00 PM.
End Date/Time   Enter the end date/time of the time entry. Enter the date in your Autotask date format followed by a space, then time in your Autotask time format, e.g. 10/10/2022 8:00 PM.
Billing Offset   Enter the billing offset for the time entry in decimal format. To subtract time, start with a minus. Example: -0.5 will subtract 30 minutes from the time entry.
Title   Enter the note title.

Ticket note titles can be required or optional. Refer to Note Titles.

  • If note titles are optional and you don't enter a title, this field will be blank.
  • If note titles are required for the ticket category and you do not enter a value for this field, Autotask will use the first 100 characters of the ticket note Description as the Title.

If you are importing time entries, Autotask will use the first 100 characters of the Summary Note field as the title.

If there is no entry in the Summary note field, the system will use the first 100 characters of the Internal Note as the title.
Summary Notes  

Enter the summary notes.

  • Summary Notes will be truncated at 8000 characters.
  • If you enter a value for this field when importing a note and you do not enter value for Title, Autotask will use the first 100 characters of the Summary Note as the Title.
  • For details on how Summary Notes are created and updated via import, refer to Internal and Summary Note Creation and Update Logic.
Internal Notes  

Enter the internal notes.

  • Internal Notes will be truncated at 8000 characters.
    If you enter a value for this field when importing a note, and you do not enter value for Title or for Summary Note, the system will use the first 100 characters of the Internal Note as the Title.
  • For details on how Internal Notes are created and updated via import, refer to Internal and Summary Note Creation and Update Logic.
Note Type (required for notes) Yes You can find valid Note Types here: > Admin > Features & Settings > Application-wide (Shared) Features > Note Types.
Contract Yes

Enter the name of a valid contract that is associated with the specified organization or its parent organization. Inactive contracts are acceptable. You can search for contracts here: > Contracts > Search > Contracts.

  • If no value is provided, the field will remain empty. The Contract Name will not be inherited from the ticket.
  • If the value entered in this field is a per ticket contract, the ticket must have the same per ticket contract.

NOTE  The Bill Immediately setting of a contract will automatically post an imported time entry. If you wish to post the time entry, you must provide a valid Posted Date.

Work Type Yes

Enter a valid work type for the time entry. Valid work types can be found here: > Admin > Features & Settings > Finance, Accounting & Invoicing > Billing Codes.

  • If no value is provided, the field will remain empty. The Work Type will not be inherited from the ticket.
  • If you are importing a note, this field will be ignored.
Non-Billable   This field applies to time entries only.

To make the time entry billable, enter No or False.

To make the time entry non-billable, enter Yes or True.

  • If you do not provide a value for this field when creating a time entry, the Billable setting will be inherited from the work type.
  • If there is no entry in the Work Type field, this field will automatically be set to False (billable).
  • If the Work Type has a different Billable setting than the Billable field, the Billable field will prevail.
  • All imported billable time entries, will be set to Show On Invoice, and all imported non-billable time entries, time entries for the zero account, all items on a fixed price contract, and all items on a recurring service contract will have this setting cleared.
Posted Date   Enter the date, if applicable, on which the time entry was posted.

If you are importing a time entry and there is no value in this field, the time entry will be created and marked as not yet approved & posted. If you are importing a time entry and you provide a value in this field, the time entry will be marked as approved & posted.

If you are importing a note, this field will be ignored.

Internal and Summary Note Creation and Update Logic
If you are importing a note and the record contains only a Summary Notes value, the note will be published to All Autotask Users. If a note is being created and it contains an Internal Notes value, the note will be published to Internal Only.

If you are importing a note and the record contains both a Summary Notes value and an Internal Note value, two notes will be created and each note will be published as described above. The internal note will be a reply to the summary note.

If you are updating a note, in addition to updating the Summary Note, the import will update the internal note if it is a match on Ticket Number + Resource (or Contact) + Create Date/Time + Title. If it is not a match, the import will create another Internal Note as a reply to the Summary Note.

To find out how to reverse an import, refer to Rolling back an import.