Migrate from Forecast to Microsoft Project

Forecast Projects map directly to the top-level project container in your Microsoft Project destination. In Project Desktop (MPP) this is the project file itself; in Project Online PWA this is a Project Site with a Project Detail Page; in Planner Premium this is a Plan within the Planner hub. We preserve the project name, status, start date, target end date, description, and any project-level Custom Fields. Forecast project Custom Fields that have no direct Microsoft Project equivalent are held for a field-mapping review during scoping.

Forecast Phases are mid-level grouping containers that sit between Project and Task. In Microsoft Project, Phases map to Summary Tasks — tasks with child tasks beneath them in the outline hierarchy. We preserve the phase name, dates, and summary-level Custom Fields. In Planner, which lacks a native phase construct, Phases map to Buckets (for grouping) or Sections ( Planner Plan 5 only). The customer's chosen destination product tier determines which grouping model applies; we confirm this during scoping before any import design begins.

Forecast Tasks map 1:1 to Microsoft Project Tasks. We transfer task name, status (Active, Completed, On Hold), start date, finish date, duration, percent complete, priority, assignee (mapped to a resource in the destination pool), and task-level Custom Fields. Task-level time estimates from Forecast map to the Microsoft Project Work field (in hours). Dependencies from Forecast (Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Finish) map to Microsoft Project predecessor links with the appropriate dependency type.

Forecast Milestones represent key target dates tied to a Project. We map them to Microsoft Project Milestone tasks (tasks with zero duration and a diamond marker in the Gantt). The milestone name, target date, and parent project reference transfer directly. We validate that milestone dates fall within the parent project's date range and flag any date conflicts for the customer's PMO lead to resolve before final import.

Custom Fields in Forecast support text, numeric, and choice types and can be applied at the Project, Phase, Task, and Time Registration levels. In Microsoft Project Desktop and Project Online, custom fields use the Field List interface with text, flag, number, cost, date, and finish variants. We identify every non-standard Custom Field during scoping, classify its type, and map it to the closest Microsoft Project custom field type. Choice fields map to drop-down custom fields with option sets. This mapping step is validated in a sandbox import before production.

Forecast Time Registrations are hours logged against a Task (or directly against a Project for non-task logging) with a date, billable flag, and optional rate. In Project Desktop and Project Online, logged hours attach to the task as work or as a timephased entry in the Assignment. In Planner Premium, tasks track completion as a percentage rather than hours. We map time registrations to task assignment work values in the destination, preserving the original hours, date, and billable flag. Non-billable hours are noted. Rate information from Forecast (from Rate Cards) does not transfer as a billing construct in Microsoft Project but can be preserved in a custom field if the customer has Project Online with cost accounting enabled.

Forecast Rate Cards define hourly billing rates per role or per person. Microsoft Project does not have a native Rate Card object. In Project Online, we map rate card values to Resource cost rate tables (cost per use, per hour, or per period on the resource sheet). In Project Desktop, rate card values are preserved in a custom text or currency field on the resource. Rate Card data is flagged as configuration rather than a direct object migration because it requires the customer's PMO to confirm whether rates are used for billing (Project Online cost accounting) or reporting (custom field) in the destination.

Forecast Resource Assignments allocate a team member to a task with a percentage allocation or hours. We extract the assignment records and re-link them in the destination by matching the Forecast team member email to the corresponding resource name in the Microsoft Project resource pool. Assignments with a percentage allocation map to assignment units in Project Desktop or Project Online; Planner Premium maps assignments to task assignees directly. We flag any orphaned assignments (where the team member has no corresponding resource in the destination pool) for the customer's admin to provision before the import resumes.

Forecast users and team members map to Microsoft Project Resources. In Project Desktop, resources are entered in the Resource Sheet with name, type (material, work, cost), and max units. In Project Online PWA, resources are managed in the Resource Center and can be enterprise resources synced from SharePoint or Entra ID. In Planner, members are added to a Plan from the Microsoft 365 tenant. We resolve Forecast users by email match to the destination resource name and flag any unmapped users for admin provisioning.

Forecast attachments on tasks and projects are extracted and mapped to SharePoint document libraries (for Project Online destinations connected to a SharePoint site) or as task attachments in Planner. Project Desktop does not natively store attachments inside the MPP file; we deliver attachments as a separate file inventory with a mapping table linking each file to its source and destination task so the customer's admin can re-attach manually or via Power Automate.