This article refers to releases and features. Depending on your workspace type, you may see "schedules" and “activities" in your workspace.
Whether you are setting up your Aha! account for the first time or creating a new workspace in an existing account, one of the first things you need to do is to populate your workspace with your own data. Aha! allows you to import and modify data using a CSV import.
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Select the type of information you would like to import
To start importing your information into your Aha! account, first navigate to the workspace or team where you want to import. Then navigate to your import settings.
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For Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Ideas accounts, navigate to Settings ⚙️→ Workspace → Import from CSV.
While you cannot import data from a CSV file at the workspace line level, you can import data to a workspace line.
For Aha! Develop accounts, navigate to Settings ⚙️→ Team → Import from CSV.
You can import the following record types by CSV file.
Aha! Roadmaps
Workspaces*
Goals
Initiatives
Competitors
Personas
Releases / Schedules
Epics
Features / Activities
Ideas
Idea votes
Contacts
To-dos
Aha! account users
Key results (Enterprise+ only, when OKRs are enabled)
Custom table records (Enterprise+ only)
*You can import workspaces but not workspace lines.
Aha! Ideas
Workspaces*
Ideas
Idea votes
Contacts
To-dos
Aha! Ideas account users
Idea organizations (Advanced plan)
*You can import workspaces but not workspace lines.
Aha! Develop
Teams
Releases
Epics
Features
To-dos
Aha! Develop account users
Items to note when importing
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General notes
You can import records by their unique IDs or their Names. But since two records could have the same name, you should be careful when importing records with a parent/child relationship by Name. For example, if you import features and include a link to an epic, you should ensure that epics in your workspace or team have unique Names, or use the unique epic ID instead.
If you are importing formatted text (such as a feature description or comments on an Aha! record), you will need to use HTML formatting, e.g. <br></br> for line breaks, <p></p> for paragraph breaks, or <strong></strong> for bold formatting. List items <li></li> must be enclosed: <ol></ol> for numbered lists or <ul></ul> for bulleted lists.
If you would rather update existing records than import new ones, include the records’ Reference # or ID in your import. A record’s Reference # is the alphanumerical code that refers to it in your Aha! account, such as FEAT-123. A record’s ID is its unique numerical identifier, such as 2134987987. You can find a record’s ID by adding that field to a list report. If you change a record’s type (such as converting a feature to an epic), its Reference # and ID will both change.
We do not recommend updating the same record more than once in the same CSV import. If your import fails, first remove duplicate rows from the CSV file and then import again.
Users notes
Importing users requires an administrator with billing privileges. Aha! Roadmaps Enterprise+ customers can also assign paid seat groups to users upon import. You also have the option to choose whether or not to send those users an email invitation to the Aha! account.
If the total users being imported exceeds the account's available paid seats, every user will still be imported so that Aha! administrators can activate/deactivate the users as needed.
Aha! Roadmaps notes
Hierarchy
You can import child workspaces, but not workspace lines.
Initiatives, goals, and custom table records can be imported to a workspace line.
Initiatives
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When importing initiatives, you may also import scorecard metrics. If you leave a metric blank, a score of zero will be imported for that metric. If you set a metric value above or below the metric's range, the import will error.
You cannot import custom scorecard fields.
Features / Activities
When importing features, you may also import your requirements' names and descriptions, if applicable.
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When importing features, you may also import scorecard metrics. If you leave a metric blank, a score of zero will be imported for that metric. If you set a metric value above or below the metric's range, the import will error.
You cannot import custom scorecard fields.
To import epics, you must have them enabled for the workspace you are importing to. Enabling epics requires owner access and is done through Settings ⚙️ → Workspace → Configure.
Ideas
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When importing ideas, you may also import scorecard metrics. If you leave a metric blank, a score of zero will be imported for that metric. If you set a metric value above or below the metric's range, the import will error.
You cannot import custom scorecard fields.
When you import ideas, the CSV importer will ask you Choose to the ideas portal where idea creators will be added as portal users. If the ideas you are importing have all been created by users in your Aha! account, you should select None. Otherwise, select an ideas portal.
Importing contacts also requires an administrator with customization user permissions.
Capacity planning (Enterprise+)
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The Schedule ID is a required field for you to import capacity planning teams. There are two ways to find the ID of a work schedule.
First, navigate to Settings ⚙️ → Account → Capacity planning → Work schedules, then hover over a schedule's name. Note the numerical ID in the URL in the bottom left corner of your browser. Copy this numerical ID into your CSV import file.
Second, navigate to Settings ⚙️ → Account → Capacity planning → Teams, then click on the View all teams report. This will generate a list report based on Teams as the primary record type. Click the Customize view dropdown, then Edit data. Add the Schedule record type to your report, then add the Schedule ID field. Copy the Schedule ID you need into your CSV import file.
Organizations (Aha! Ideas Advanced plan)
If you include a one-to-many custom table field in your Organizations import, a new custom table record will be added to your currently selected workspace.
Aha! Ideas notes
Ideas
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When importing ideas, you may also import scorecard metrics. If you leave a metric blank, a score of zero will be imported for that metric. If you set a metric value above or below the metric's range, the import will error.
You cannot import custom scorecard fields.
When you import ideas, the CSV importer will ask you Choose to the ideas portal where idea creators will be added as portal users. If the ideas you are importing have all been created by users in your Aha! account, you should select None. Otherwise, select an ideas portal.
Importing contacts also requires an administrator with customization user permissions.
When importing organizations from another tool, we recommend adding a custom field called Account ID (number custom field) or Account URL (URL custom field) to your Organizations custom layout. This way your Aha! Ideas organizations have a field that uniquely identifies them in your external system.
Aha! Develop notes
Features
When importing features, you may also import your requirements' names and descriptions, if applicable.
Choose where you would like to import the data
Select where you want to add the information. The selection available depends on your choice in the first step.
For Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Develop customers:
If you are importing new features, they will be associated with the release that is selected in this step.
If you are updating existing features, it is possible to update their release by including a column named Release in your CSV file. You can then use the Release ID or Release reference fields to specify the desired release you wish to move your features to when importing. The Release column in your CSV should be mapped to the Release Aha! field in the final step of the import process.
Prepare your CSV file
We know that importing information into a new tool can be painful. That’s why we have provided templates and guides to make this process as easy as possible. Click the What fields can I import? button and take a moment to review the supported fields for your workspace. We have also provided a template you can use by clicking Download template CSV.
The import will fail if the CSV file is too large. If your file has many hundreds of lines, consider breaking it up into multiple imports.
If you are importing fields that have values already configured in your Aha! account, you should ensure that the data that's in your CSV file will match the data in your Aha! account — otherwise you will get an error on import. Examples of these fields are feature status fields, or pre-defined custom fields.
Be sure to convert any dates to YYYY-MM-DD format before importing.
Upload your CSV file
When you upload your CSV file, you will be prompted to map the Aha! fields to your fields. After you confirm the right column headings, click the Import button. The import will happen automatically; when it is complete, you will see a confirmation message with a link to the location of your newly created Aha! data. If there are any errors during the import, an error message will be displayed with instructions on how to correct the problem.
The import will fail if the CSV file is too large. If your file has many hundreds of lines, consider breaking it up into multiple imports.
Success!
Your import was successful. You can add more information or view the information in your Aha! account that was just added.
File format issues
The Import from CSV feature only supports files which have UTF-8 encoding. UTF-8 encoding supports all writing systems around the world, including special Asian and European characters. However, there are some characters that are often found in exports from bug tracking systems that are not valid for UTF-8. In that case, you may see this error message during the import:
CSV file is invalid: invalid byte sequence in UTF-8The most common cause for this message is the existence of curly quotation marks and apostrophes — often with text that was created in MS Word or Outlook. There are two ways to convert your CSV file to UTF-8 encoding:
If you are using Windows, you can get Excel to save in UTF-8 encoding.
If you are using Excel on a Mac, you can save as MS-DOS Comma separated. This will convert to 7-bit ASCII, which is compatible with UTF-8.
If you get stuck, please reach out to our Customer Success team. Our team is made up entirely of product experts and responds fast.