Sample File & Results (Projects)

This page covers how to fill out your project import file and what your projects look like once they're in Mosaic. For the steps to upload and run the import, see the import walkthrough.

Throughout this page we use one example file with five projects — three fee-based and two hours-based — to show how everything fits together, including how both budget styles can live in the same file.

What one import can create

A single file can build a full project hierarchy:

• Projects — name, client, description, budget/fee, cost, currency, and rate settings
• Phases and subphases — up to 10 nested levels, with start/end dates, budgets, contract type, and milestones
• Work categories — the activity breakdown within each phase, with their own dates and budgets

Portfolios and rate groups are referenced, not created — they must already exist in Mosaic before you import.

How the file is structured

Each row is one line of the structure, and you repeat the project across its rows. A project with three phases uses three rows that repeat the Project name and vary the phase columns. Mosaic groups rows into the same project when the Project (and Project Ref#, if used) match.

How the example file is laid out

The example file has 16 rows that build 5 projects. The first three track budgets in fees/dollars; the last two track in hours:

Notice how the Portfolio, Project, Ref#, Client, and Description columns repeat identically on every row of the same project — that's how Mosaic keeps them together. The phase and work-category columns are what change row to row.

Here's a trimmed slice of the file — the three 125 Bluestone Way rows, plus the first row of the next project:

What to notice:

• Rows 1–3 repeat 125 Bluestone Way and 210050 — every row of the same project repeats its Project and Ref#, which is how Mosaic groups them into one project. Row 4's Project changes, starting a new one.
• Dates use YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. 2026-03-01) — any other format is rejected.
• Row 3 is a milestone (Phase Is Milestone = TRUE) — a single date (start = end) and no fee or budget.
• Project is the only always-required column — the dashes mark cells you can safely leave blank.

The hours-based projects (rows 10–16)

The last two projects — Riverside Community Center (1200 hrs) and Harbor Point Renovation (2400 hrs) — track budgets in hours using the Project Budget Hours column instead of the fee/budget columns. A few things they show:

• Hours-based projects leave the fee/dollar columns blank (Project Fee, Project Budget, phase budgets). Their contract types are Hourly and the "Budget With" values are time-based (Total Member Time Budget, Total Spent + Planned Time).
• A phase with more than one work category repeats the phase across rows — Harbor Point's "Construction Documents" appears on two rows so it can carry both "Drafting" and "Specifications."
• Milestones ("Design Approval", "Final Handover") use the same start and end date and leave budget/contract/work-category cells blank.

Column reference

Only Project is always required. Include just the columns that apply to your data — leave the rest out. These are the columns used in the example file.

Project columns

Phase columns

Accepted "Phase Budget With" values: Use Entered Budget · Total Spent + Planned Time · Total Member Time Budget · Subphases + Work Categories Budgets

Work-category columns

Accepted "Work Category Budget With" values: Use Entered Budget · Total Spent + Planned Time · Total Member Time Budget · Use % of Phase Budget

Rules that keep your file valid

Getting these right up front prevents almost every import error:

• Dates must be YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. 2026-03-15). Any other format is rejected.
• End dates must fall on or after the matching start date. (A milestone uses the same date for start and end — see "Permit Approval," 2026-05-15 to 2026-05-15.)
• Repeat project values consistently. The Portfolio, Client, Description, Fee, and Budget must be the same on every row of a given project — mismatches are flagged.
• Milestones (Phase Is Milestone = true) can't carry a budget, fee, contract type, budget status, or work categories — leave those cells blank, as the example does.
• Don't set both a fixed budget and a "budget as % of fee" for the same item.
• Duplicate project names need a unique Project Ref# to tell them apart.
• "Budget With" and "Contract Type" must be spelled exactly as listed above.

What your import looks like in Mosaic

The clearest place to see an imported project is its Budget. Open the project and click Budget — the budget modal lays out everything the file created in one table, mirroring your rows almost one-for-one. Here's where each column lands:

• The phase hierarchy becomes the rows of the budget table — phases, their subphases nested beneath, and work categories under those. Oakridge Office Fit-Out shows Design Development (with Space Planning nested under it) and Construction; Lakeside's Design Development nests Structural → MEP Coordination.
• Phase Order sets the order those rows appear in.
• Fee and Budget columns carry your Phase Fee / Phase Budget and Work Category Fee / Budget straight into the table — e.g. Oakridge's Design Development at 60,000 fee / 55,000 budget. The project-level Fee, Budget, and Budget Cost roll up as the project total at the top.
• Contract Type shows each phase and work category as Fixed Fee or Hourly.
• Budget With sets how each row is budgeted — Use Entered Budget, Total Member Time Budget, Total Spent + Planned Time, or Use % of Phase Budget.
• Phase Is Milestone = true appears as a milestone marker on a single date — e.g. Bluestone's Permit Approval and Lakeside's Permitting.
• Phase Budget Status shows each phase's status (e.g. Active, Not Started).
• Start / End Dates populate the date fields for each phase and work category, which also drive the bars on the Project Planner / Timeline.

The two hours-based projects (Riverside Community Center, Harbor Point Renovation) show their budgets in hours rather than fees, using the Project Budget Hours you set.