Migrate from Project KickStart to Microsoft Project

Project KickStart Project records map directly to Microsoft Project Project files or Project Online project instances. We map Project name, description, planned start, planned finish, cost, and percent complete to their Microsoft Project equivalents. The Project KickStart project ID is preserved in a custom field for audit reference. Because Project KickStart v6 has no public API, we receive this data from a customer-provided CSV or XML export file and validate the record count and field presence against the source before loading.

Project KickStart Phases are the second level of the outline hierarchy, representing major groupings above Tasks. Microsoft Project has no dedicated Phase object; grouping is achieved by elevating a task to a Summary Task whose Start and Finish are auto-calculated from its children. We map every Phase to a Summary Task at the project root level, preserving the Phase name, planned start, and planned finish as the Summary Task start and finish dates. Child Tasks and SubTasks inherit from the Summary Task once the hierarchy is constructed.

Project KickStart Tasks are the primary work unit and map directly to Microsoft Project Tasks. We map task name, planned start, planned finish, duration, assigned resources, cost, and percent complete. The task identifier from the export is preserved in a custom Text field for cross-reference during dependency reconstruction. Custom task properties from Project KickStart map to Microsoft Project custom fields using the field mapping documented in scoping.

Project KickStart SubTasks nest below Tasks as the fourth level of the outline. We map SubTasks to Microsoft Project Tasks as children of their parent Task, preserving the name, planned dates, resource assignment, cost, and percent complete. When the destination Microsoft Project environment uses flat task lists without subtask support, we prefix the SubTask name with the parent Task name to maintain disambiguation and deliver a disambiguation index alongside the migration report.

Project KickStart Goals are a platform-specific planning concept with no direct Microsoft Project equivalent. We preserve Goals as a multi-line text custom field on the Microsoft Project Project record. If multiple Goals are recorded per project, we concatenate them with delimiters or create one Goal per row in a linked custom list. The customer should verify that the receiving Microsoft Project plan supports the custom field capacity they require before migration begins.

Project KickStart Obstacles and Risks are project-level risk tracking entries with no native Microsoft Project equivalent. We map them to a custom text or flag field on the Project record, preserving the title, description, impact level, and probability where those fields are present in the export. For destinations that support a dedicated Issue or Risk object type, we create a linked record with the original Project KickStart risk identifier as a cross-reference. Risks affecting individual tasks carry a note on the task record referencing the parent risk entry.

Project KickStart records explicit task dependencies including finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish link types. We reconstruct these as Microsoft Project predecessor-successor links. From the export we extract the predecessor task identifier and link type, create the successor Task in Microsoft Project first to obtain its Microsoft Project task ID, then apply the Predecessor field using the converted predecessor ID and link type. Lag time is preserved if present in the export. All reconstructed dependencies are validated by reviewing the schedule path in the Microsoft Project Gantt view after migration.

Project KickStart Assignees are named team members assigned to Tasks. We map Assignee names to Microsoft Project Resources using the Resource Sheet. Where a Resource with the same name already exists in the destination, we match by name; otherwise we create a new Resource entry. If the same named person has assignments across multiple projects, the Resource is created once and reused. Assignees without a matching Resource in the destination are flagged in the reconciliation report for the customer to resolve before final load.

Project KickStart file attachments linked to Tasks and Projects migrate as native attachments in Microsoft Project. We preserve the file name, description, and attachment date. Files are linked from their original storage location or copied to a SharePoint document library if the destination Microsoft Project is connected to a SharePoint site. Note that Act! and Outlook integration links embedded in Project KickStart task records do not exist in Project KickStart's own data store and cannot be extracted; these remain in Act! and Outlook respectively.

Project KickStart Project Templates store the outline structure, Phase definitions, placeholder Tasks, and default durations for repeatable project types. We export the template as a reference Project and provide a written template reconstruction guide for the customer's Microsoft Project administrator, including the full outline hierarchy, default custom field values, and dependency pattern. Template wizard configuration from Project KickStart does not have a direct Microsoft Project equivalent and is documented for manual recreation.

Project KickStart pushes task and calendar events to Act! CRM and Microsoft Outlook via its proprietary integration. These records live in Act! and Outlook, not in Project KickStart's own data store, and are not accessible through Project KickStart export. We do not migrate this integration data. We flag the existence of Act! and Outlook integration records in the scoping report and recommend that the customer evaluate Microsoft Project's native Outlook integration and Power Automate connections for Act! as replacements.