Editing contracts via spreadsheet upload

The following guidance explains how to create, edit and then upload a spreadsheet of contracts to the Contracts Register.

This may be useful for adding or making changes to a large number of contracts at once.

You can only add or edit contracts for their own Trust.

Required Access Levels:

  • You must at least have “Edit” access in order to successfully upload a spreadsheet of edited contracts.
  • You must at least have “Admin” access in order to successfully upload a spreadsheet containing new contracts.
STEP 1: Get the spreadsheet

Option 1 (of 2)

If only adding new contracts to the Contracts Register you can download a spreadsheet containing the column headings needed for importing:

  1. click on “Import Spreadsheet” > “Contracts” in the top menu
  2. click on the “Get Upload Template” button at the bottom of the page
  3. save the .xlsx file to your computer
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Option 2 (of 2)

Alternatively, if editing existing contracts (or if editing and adding contracts simultaneously) you’ll need to download a spreadsheet containing those contracts you wish to edit:

  1. use the search function to filter the contracts you’d like to edit
  2. click the ‘Download Spreadsheet’ button at the bottom of the list of contracts
  3. save the .xlsx file to your computer
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STEP 2: Edit data in spreadsheet
Edit the spreadsheet (probably using Microsoft Excel). The column headings in the spreadsheet are the same as the fields in the Contract Register.

Take care to enter the correct format of data in each column, the Contract Register will reject any data not entered correctly (explained in Step 3).

Note: some fields are mandatory – see field descriptions for detail. To see a list of all available categories click on the ‘Categories’ menu link in the Contract Register.

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STEP 3: Upload your data

3.1 Test your spreadsheet – The first step is to make sure the spreadsheet with your data is correctly formatted.  To do that:

  1. click on “Import Spreadsheet” > “Contracts”
  2. click on the “Replace attachment” button
  3. click on the “Browse” button and choose the file you prepared in Step 2
  4. click on the “Save New File Attachment” button
  5. click on the “Update and Process” button

The system will now check your data.

If the importer finds no errors in your data, it will present a “Do Import” button and you can skip to 3.4 below.

3.2 Deal with any errors – If there are any errors with the data, a message will appear at the top of the page in red saying “There were the following errors in processing the import:” with a further message indicating what specifically is wrong.

If the error is in the column headings it will list those headings that do not conform.

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If the error is with a particular contract in your data then scroll down the page (it may be quite long) to look for red text in the ‘Errors’ column.  This will state what is wrong with a particular contract.

There may be several of these errors, so check the entire page.

Return to Step 2 for guidance to ensure your data is in the correct format.

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3.3 Re-check your data – Once you have corrected the errors in your spreadsheet by returning to Step 3.1 (you can skip the first bullet if you still have the page open – as shown here).

3.4 Upload your data – If there are no errors in your spreadsheet after clicking “Update and Process”, a “Do Import” button is displayed. This means your data is ready to be imported into the Contract Register.

At this point no data has yet been changed on the Contract Register.

You can scroll down the page and view summaries of the contract records that will added or edited.

Once you are happy to make these changes, click on “Do Import”.  This will perform the changes and cannot be undone. You should now see the confirmation text “Import completed”.