Review the Workbook

Understand how the migration workbook is organized and what to check before importing it.

The workbook is not a report to read — it is a set of instructions PEARS will follow. Reviewing it is the point of the whole exercise, because it is the last moment before records exist.

How the Workbook Is Organized

Each worksheet corresponds to one kind of record that will be created, and the sheets are ordered so that a record's parent always appears before it. The first sheet holds the export's notes and the filters that were applied.

Worksheet	Creates	Appears in
Partner Data	One Partner per row	Both
Partner Uploads	A copy of each attached file, on the Partner	Both
Partner Activities	Meetings, events, and contributions on the Partner	Both
Partner Sharing	Sharing grants on the Partner	Both
Partner Contacts	A CRM contact per coalition member	Coalitions only
Contact Interactions	One internal note per contact	Coalitions only
Partner Report Data	One Partner Report per legacy record	Both
Report Activities	Selects an activity onto a report	Both
Report Action Plans	Links an action plan to the Partner and its report	Both
Report Assessments	Assessment rows on a report	Both
Report Accomplishments	Accomplishment and lesson rows on a report	Both
PSE Partners	Links the Partner to PSE Site Activities	Partnerships only
Program Activity Partners	Links the Partner to Program Activities	Partnerships only
Success Story Partners	Links the Partner to Success Stories	Partnerships only
Indirect Activity Partners	Links the Partner to Indirect Activities	Partnerships only

TIP: The four link sheets at the bottom are left out of the workbook entirely when there is nothing to put in them, so a Partnerships workbook may have fewer sheets than the list above.

Temporary IDs Versus Real IDs

Some ID columns point at records that do not exist yet; others point at records already in PEARS. Mixing them up is the easiest way to break a workbook.

Column	Kind	What it means
partner_id	Temporary	Numbered 1, 2, 3… inside this workbook only. It is how the other sheets say which Partner they belong to.
activity_id	Temporary	Same idea, for activities.
contact_id	Temporary	Same idea, for coalition-member contacts.
partner_report_id	Temporary	Same idea, for reports — though the number used is the legacy record's real ID, which makes it handy for tracing a report back to the record it came from.
site_id, upload_id, action_plan_id, reporting_period_ids, pse_id, program_activity_id, success_story_id, indirect_activity_id	Real	These already exist in PEARS. The workbook round-trips inside one organization, so they are unambiguous — but they are not something to hand-edit without knowing the record.

What You Can and Cannot Change

Safe to edit:

• Names, comments, and any free-text or notes column.

• Dates, types, units, program areas, and other list values — as long as the value matches a name on your organization's list. Matching is case-insensitive, but the spelling has to be right.

• Deleting an entire row you do not want imported — a duplicate partner, a meeting that should not travel.

Do not change:

• Sheet names, the header row, or the order of the columns. The importer checks the header row of every sheet and refuses the sheet outright if it does not match. A sheet whose name does not match is not recognized at all, so none of its rows are imported.

• ID columns, unless you are doing so deliberately and consistently. Renumbering a partner_id on the Partner Data sheet without updating every sheet that refers to it will orphan those rows.

• A Partner Data row that other sheets reference. Delete the Partner and its reports, activities, and contacts go with it — rows pointing at a missing Partner are silently skipped.

NOTE: See Workbook Columns for the exact header row each sheet expects.

A Review Checklist

Sheet	What to look at
Partner Data	Did the same real-world partner get split into two rows because of a typo or a different site? Is the partner type right? Do the start and end dates look sensible? Is the unit the one that should own the record?
Partner Report Data	unit (the report's Responsible Unit) is required — a blank or unrecognized value will fail. relationship_depth may legitimately be blank. Program area names must match your current or past program areas.
Report Assessments	A filled-in assessment_tool_other means the legacy tool had no equivalent in the Partner Reports list and was mapped to Other. result is required — blank cells will fail on import.
Partner Activities	Check dates. An activity dated outside its report's reporting period will still be created on the Partner, but it will not be attached to the report.
Partner Sharing	Every email has to belong to a user in your organization.
Partner Contacts / Contact Interactions	Coalition workbooks only. Look for the same organization appearing as a member of several coalitions — those become separate contacts.
Link sheets	Partnerships workbooks only. Contribution names must match the list.

Next Step

• Import the Workbook — Upload the reviewed workbook and resolve any errors.