The CPQ repository, or a subset of it, can be exported using the Excel format. This export outputs a single Excel file made with several sheets describe in the table below:

Users are free to update cells, add/delete columns and rows of any Excel sheet. Nervertheless, when the goal is to reimport the Excel with the updated information; guidelines detailed in the paragraphs below must be strictly respected.

GLOBAL CONVENTIONS

An export sheet (whatever its content) is made with the following elements:

A header part which contains: the CPQ logo, the title of the sheet as well as a dark row with a hyperlink to the “table of content” sheet:

• A header part which contains: the CPQ logo, the title of the sheet as well as a dark row with a hyperlink to the “table of content” sheet:
  
  
  information: Nothing at this level will be taken into account by the import function and thus it is recommended to not change it

One or several tables which are designed as follows:

• A parent part which is made with one or several rows, each row containing a label colored in orange and a value:
  
  
  information: Only the creation of a new table (by copy and paste) should induce the update of the cells composing the parent identification
• A title part which is made with several columns and one or several rows containing labels colored in blue:
  
  
  information: Titles of table and more generally cells colored in blue cannot be updated
• A content part which is made with several columns and rows containing various types of cells:
  
  
  information: More generally “white” cells can be updated with the respect of the expected format. Refer to paragraph “cell formats” below in this chapter.

UPDATE CONVENTIONS

As the import function has been optimized in order to treat only the changes, the following convention has been established in order to identify the information having being created/updated/deleted.

Excel sheets are made with tables of data, in each table one or several “Action” cells colored in yellow can be found according to the following cases:

Action referencing the entire table:

How-To:

• Put a “* ” (star/asterisk character) in case any cell of the table has been changed and thus must be treated by the import function
• Put a “x” (cross character in lower case) in case of the object(s) referenced in the table must be deleted by the import function

  Action referencing a given line:

  
  
  

  How-To:

• Put a “* ” (star/asterisk character) in case of a new line has been inserted or any cell of the line has been changed and thus must be treated by the import function
• Put a “x” (cross character) in case of the object referenced in the line must be deleted by the import function

  Action referencing a given column:

  
  
  

  How-To:

• Put a “* ” (star/asterisk character) in case of a new column has been inserted or any cell of the column has been changed and thus must be treated by the import function
• Put a “x” (cross character) in case of the object referenced in the column must be deleted by the import function

CELL FORMATS

The format of the cells depends on their expected type of value.

ENUMERATED VALUES

Cells referring to an enumerated list of values are detailed in the table below:

UPDATING THE DEFAULT DESCRIPTION

The default description of the objects can be edited/updated in the sheet where they are respectively declared as well as in the translation sheets but this latter will override the preceding one in case of a double update.

UPDATING A CELL WITH DUAL FORMAT

Several cells have a dual format consisting of either a fixed value or a reference to the BRC name.

• Fixed values must be entered with the respect of their value type
• BRC names must be entered using the Primary Key (PK) format : “wks/BRC/BrcName”

ADDING A NEW BPSET

The new BPSet will be added as new columns filled-in with the identifiers of the business property set and its properties as shown in the example below (focus on the information colored in red):

How-To:

• Do not forget to point out the added BPSet with an “*” character in its associated “Action” cell
• Business properties can be filled-in for all existing products in the table or a sub set of them :
  • Each update must be also pointed out with an ”*” in the left “Action” cell
• Additional products can be also inserted by adding new rows
  • Each new row must be pointed out with an ”*” in the left “Action” cell

ADDING A NEW PRICING/DISCOUNT PERIOD

The new period will be added as new columns with the identifiers of the new period as shown in the example below (focus on the information colored in red):

How-To:

• Do not foget to point out the added period with an “*” character in its associated “Action” cell as well as in the cell “Action” located in the top of the table
• Pricing information can be filled-in for all existing products or a sub set of them
  • Each update must be also pointed out with an ”*” in the “Action” cell of the period records
• Additional products can be also inserted by adding new rows
  • Each new row must be pointed out with an ”*” in the “Action” cell of the product records
• In case of a new range is added in the table, the cell ”ranges” located in the top of the table must be consequently adjusted

ADDING A NEW RICH MEDIA OBJECT

A rich media object is split into several business types and each of them in several lines containing optional Image, Text, File, Plug-in, Report information. A new rich media object will be added with new rows in the table as shown in the example below (focus on the information colored in red):

How-To:

• Do not foget to point out the added rows with an “*” character in the “Action” cell
• The cell « business type » is optional – empty cell refers to the default one
• The cells “RMO name” and “RMO description” are optional on creation – they will be automatically computed by the import function
• The cells “#” are mandatory, the number is a unique sequence for each element whatever the business type which it belongs to
• The cell “text id” is indicative

  Warning:

  The Rich Media Object is an object which is updated all at once even if you use the update action only on 1 line.

  For example, when you use the ‘*’ action on 1 line, you not only modify the content of the businessType corresponding to the line but the full RMO object. The resulting updated RMO object will only contain the data contained in the updated lines (all other information will be removed).