Last Updated on June 20, 2022
Creating a Liquid Planner Task CSV
- Task CSVs should be uploaded in LiquidPlanner on the first business day of every month. All task descriptions should be entered by the 3rd business day of every month.
- Start by copying your CSV from the month before, or if it your first time from the template. These should be saved in the MC Resources folder within the LiquidPlanner Uploads folder for each MC.
- Make sure the Client name is listed under the client column, and that the depth is 1, to indicate this is a project. For the rest of the project row, put the client name under name, the owner of the project, and a 0 to 0 time estimate. Under Ip_type, write project, and leave the description blank.
- Underneath each project, there should be a line item for each task you plan to complete that month. Under the name column, write the task type (e.g. On Page SEO, PPC Optimization, etc.) Update the owner column with the name of the person you are assigning the task to. Also, fill in the low effort and high effort columns with estimates of how long you think each task will take to complete. Ip_type should say task. You should also provide a short description of the task under the description column.
- For Monthly Communication tasks, please put the last day of the month under the delay_until column so these tasks show up at the bottom of your task list.
- Save the spreadsheet as a CSV
- Go to Liquid Planner in to Projects tab, click the pencil sign near the top left of the page, and click Import From a File
- Import your CSV from a spreadsheet and upload the CSV you just created
- Review the CSV columns by making sure each category lines up and then review the assignments for each task line up
- Before finishing the upload, make sure the CSV is uploading as one Package instead of one Project
- After the upload is complete, drag and drop only the projects into the correct package, which is your folder within Current Month’s Tasks. Then, delete the package that you uploaded to get rid of any clutter
- Go through each project and assign them to the correct client in the Planning section of the project
Please follow these best practices for uploading your Liquid Planner CSV as closely as possible:
- When creating tasks for clients, there should only be one task per package. If the client is paying for one Off-Site SEO package, there should be one corresponding Off-Site SEO task for that month.
- All tasks in the upload should match what the client is listed on the invoice and what is included on the “What We Pay For” page in the monthly report.
- Every task should have an accurate time estimate. For the most part, tasks shouldn’t be included in the CSV unless you are planning on spending some time on it.
- For the most part, all tasks you are going to complete that month should be in the CVS upload. Try to avoid adding a lot of tasks throughout the month so you and your team can organize their time well and complete all tasks on time.
- Put your client master and SEO/PPC master in the description of each task!
When creating monthly communication tasks in Liquid Planner:
- The time estimate for the task should match what the client pays for, which is listed in the monthly report
- Only set the estimate to 0 hours if you aren’t planning on communicating with the client at all that month
- Set the start date for all monthly communication tasks to the last day of the month, so they always show up at the bottom of your task list
- Monthly communication tasks should not be placed on hold, since you are planning on completing those tasks during the month
- Throughout the month, log communication time within those tasks
- At or near the end of the month, check off communication tasks when they are complete (if you know you won’t be spending any more time communicating with that client)
- If you are going to be taking any time off during the month, it’s important to log that time in Liquid Planner to have a more accurate view of your available time for tasks.
- Within your Day’s Off folder in Liquid Planner, create an all-day event
- Add a description, the owner, and the dates that you’ll be gone
- Then, log the number of billable hours you work for the days you’ll be gone (50% capacity of your daily hours)
- This will then adjust your total capacity hours in Liquid Planner and Grow
In order to keep our Company Meeting Dashboard accurate, please follow these best practices for task time estimates:
- When creating your monthly Liquid Planner CVS, please keep time estimate gaps small. Instead of a 2 or 3 hour difference between low level and high level effort estimates, try to keep those hours as accurate and close as possible. Be realistic about how much time you think that task will take.
- Once all your monthly tasks have been assigned, each person on your team should go through their own task lists and assess the time estimates against their personal skill level and familiarity with the task and adjust the time estimates as needed to make them even more accurate.
- For tasks that you log time on throughout the month and come back to a few times, like PPC and Monthly Communication, make sure to log your time and scale down those time estimates as the end of the month nears and you have a better understanding of how much longer you need to spend on those tasks.
- To log time start the timerWhen you begin a task, but please pause it if you take any breaks while you work on the task. When you finish working on a task for that day (even if you haven’t completely finished the task) log the time in LiquidPlanner.
- Once the task is complete, mark it as complete.
MCITs do not get use the Fulfillment Team unless they have permission from the Fulfillment Director. Once you become an MC you may start assigning out tasks to the Fulfillment Team.
On the first business day of the month, after you have uploaded your Task CSV, you then need to choose which tasks you want assign to the Fulfillment Team. Do not assign tasks to individual, just assign them to Fulfillment Team user. The Fulfillment Director will then assign out tasks to individuals.
If you assign out tasks after the first week of the month let the Fulfillment Director know via chat or email.
Part-time members of the Fulfillment Team are not Real Users in LiquidPlanner. This means that when you comment with @Their Name, they don’t receive the email, the Fulfillment Director does. If you need them to do something urgent on your task please email or chat them directly.
You may @FulfillmentTeam in comments. The Fulfillment Director will make sure that the employee sees the comment. This is way to have the Fulfillment Director check in on the task as well.
To edit your email preferences in LiquidPlanner click on the arrow next to your picture in the top right corner. Many MCs choose to notified any time a comment is made on their task. If you receive the notifications in your email you can respond to them directly in your email without having to go into LiquidPlanner. Just click reply in the email from LiquidPlanner.