Migrate from RoboHead to Microsoft Project

RoboHead Projects map to Microsoft Project as the primary record. Project name, start date, due date, status, description, and custom fields migrate directly. We detect whether a RoboHead Project was created from a Template (stale team references are common) and flag any orphaned user assignments for manual resolution before the Project lands in Microsoft Project. Archived projects migrate as inactive projects to preserve historical record without cluttering active portfolios.

RoboHead Campaigns are organizational groupings above Projects, often used to bundle related creative work. Microsoft Project does not have a native Campaign object. During scoping, we define a grouping convention: either a SharePoint list that Projects reference, a naming convention prefix that Teams use to filter, or a Summary Task at the top of each Project file that holds the Campaign name. The customer chooses the convention before migration so we can map Projects to the correct grouping structure.

RoboHead Requests are project intake forms submitted before a Project is created. Each Request contains custom brief fields (ListColumns) that capture creative requirements. Microsoft Project does not have a request or brief object. We split Requests from their parent Project and preserve them as structured Notes attached to the migrated Project: a summary note with the request type, requester name, submission date, and a formatted block of the custom brief field values. We flag any Requests without a parent Project for the customer's review before migration.

RoboHead Tasks map directly to Microsoft Project tasks with task name, start date, finish date, percent complete, assignee, and task status preserved. Task dependencies in Microsoft Project are not present in RoboHead by default; if the customer has used sequential task ordering in RoboHead, we create Finish-to-Start dependencies in Microsoft Project during migration. Task roles (Designer, Writer, QA) migrate as text assignments on the task; full resource assignments require the resource pool to be populated first.

RoboHead Team Members (Users) map to Microsoft Project resources. We resolve each Team Member by email match against the destination resource pool. RoboHead user-level billing rates map to the resource's Cost Rate Table in Microsoft Project (Standard Rate field). Role-level rates in RoboHead map to separate resource entries with role names and cost rates, or to the resource's material label if the customer's PMO uses a generic resource pool. Inactive or orphaned users in RoboHead are flagged for manual resource pool cleanup before migration.

RoboHead Task Roles (Designer, Writer, QA, etc.) with role-level billing rates map to Microsoft Project resource entries. If the customer has both named users and role-based assignments in RoboHead, we create two resource strategies during scoping: named resources for individuals and generic resources (e.g., 'Designer - Creative') for role-based assignments without a named user. Role rates become the generic resource's standard rate in the cost table.

RoboHead custom fields on Projects, Campaigns, and Requests are discovered during scoping via the GetAllFields API. List-type fields return optionIds that we resolve to display values during transform. We create equivalent custom fields in Microsoft Project (via Project Web App for Project Online or the enterprise custom fields interface in Project Desktop) and populate them during import. Field type mapping: RoboHead text and number map to Project Text and Number fields; date fields map to Date fields; list-type fields map to Flag or Text depending on single or multi-select behavior.

RoboHead file attachments on Tasks and Projects are stored in the RoboHead document layer. Microsoft Project stores files in SharePoint or local project files. We document the original file URL and attachment context during migration and provide a reattachment guide that maps each file to the corresponding Project's SharePoint document library. DesignDrop annotation links on creative assets do not migrate; these are flagged for manual reannotation post-migration since the annotation history is not exportable via RoboHead's API.

RoboHead Notes on Projects and Tasks with @mentions migrate as Microsoft Project task notes or project notes. @mention user references are converted to plain text (e.g., '@John Smith' becomes 'John Smith') since Microsoft Project notes do not support @-mention linking. Notes are mapped to the corresponding task or project record by ID. If a Note references a deleted or orphaned user, the note text is preserved without the broken mention link.

RoboHead Project Templates (Projects saved as templates with tasks, files, budget, and team structure) migrate as Project plan outlines rather than executable .mpt template files. We extract the template's task structure, default assignees, and duration estimates and preserve them as a Project plan in Microsoft Project. If the customer requires .mpt template files for repeated use, the PMO rebuilds them from the migrated plan; we provide a template extraction guide as part of the handoff documentation.

RoboHead workflow automation rules—including approval chains, status-change triggers, and conditional notifications—are not exposed via the public API and cannot be exported programmatically. This is a platform-level constraint, not a pair-specific gap. We document every active automation during the discovery call (trigger, conditions, actions, affected records) and provide a configuration guide for rebuilding equivalent rules in Power Automate or SharePoint approval workflows post-migration. Customers should plan two to three days of post-migration workflow reconfiguration.