Forum Discussion
Bulk import of Tasks in the Premium Planner [not supported] - Any workarounds?
I am trying to simply bulk add tasks to a Planner Project. They have removed the Excel import capability, but you can export. If you cannot use to restore then much efficiency is lost. You can no longer import a .mpp file. Lastly, I just found out through many attempts that the Power Automate to add tasks to premium plan projects is also not supported.
Power Automate cannot create records in the msdyn_projecttask table.
- The Dataverse plugin ProjectServiceCore explicitly blocks this.
- You’ll always get the error:
"You cannot directly do 'Create' operation to 'msdyn_projecttask'. Try editing it through the Resource editing UI via Project."
This restriction applies even if you're an admin and have full Dataverse access.
This is very disappointing. This is a basic capability in numerous tools for fractions of the cost. I have been using MS Project since they were on 3.5" floppies, and this is almost a deal breaker. I lobbied for this product for my GCC thinking what better tool to leverage all the Microsoft tools we already use...Teams, Outlook, O365, etc. and to now have a fully integrated, more collaborative PM tool (Planner) sounded perfect. There are already many other limitations and now this one.
2 Replies
If you install Power Apps Accelerator then you can import from excel and mpp files. You can't do it in Planner. Licensing also impacts on what you can do in the App.
Using Power Automate cloud flows to create premium plan tasks is technically possible, just way too complex for the average power user. You'll have to call the Project Scheduling Service API via Dataverse actions and get that system to create/update the tasks. It can be done and I've done it, but it's not exactly a fun exercise. I've written about the general requirements and reasons behind this clumsiness here: https://www.perspectives.plus/p/microsoft-planner-and-the-revenge-of-ms-project
