The Mass Load program allows a district to import cash, expenditure and revenue data into the USAS-R from an outside source. This may include, but is not limited to, Excel, Access, Lotus and other third party software's that have the option to export data in a CSV (Comma Separated Values) format. The Mass Load program reads the data, imports and validates it, then writes it to the USAS file structures, thus eliminating manual entry. This might be useful for a district converting to USAS or for a district processing mass updates to varying fields.
All possible field values are outlined in the Miscellaneous notes section, under the Mass Load Criteria. Any records with fields not meeting the USAS possible values validity checks are rejected. A message is written to the reports indicating what record included invalid data.
The CSV being read by the Mass Load options can include the fields in any order. The file must contain a header record which includes all the pre-defined field names (Req Column Desc) as the first record in the import file. The pre-defined field names are included in the Mass Load Criteria found in the Miscellaneous notes section of this chapter. The remaining records in the file represent the data values being loaded.
The Custom Report Writer can be used to create the header file for you. To do so, Select the Object you wish to import. Once the object is selected, add the 'Identifying Fields' necessary to import the object. (These will be the required headers needed to correctly import the records. This list can be found below.)
From the Utilities menu,
- Click on 'Choose File' to select an outside file to import.
- Select an importable entity
- Cash Account
- DateTextField Definition
- Expenditure Account
- Revenue Account
- Click on Load.
MASS LOAD Account Criteria
Each Object to be imported has to be created on a separate .CSV file. The Identifying Fields below have to be entered exactly how they are written. For more Identifying fields, please use the Custom Report Writer to find the field names. 'Select Object' to open up the Property names and hover over the name with your mouse pointer: example. ('RegularItemConfig' Object - Employer Health Coverage identifying field would be employerHealthCoverage.