People who work with Primavera P6 XER files often have to reserve some types of data for themselves when sharing the project file with other parties.

I’ve been asked by a general contractor in a construction company how to send the project XER file to sub-contractors without the cost rates.

There might be more than one option to do this.

The first way is basic and requires deleting of all Resource assignments all-together.

But in many cases, we need to send the resource names to the sub-contractor but don’t him to see the resources cost.

The second option is more pragmatic and requires utilization of third-party tool to easily perform hiding of unwanted data.

I found ScheduleCleaner desktop software really useful and fast when removing confidential data from Xer Files.

Here are the exact steps to remove pricing from XER schedule.

Step 1: Locate the XER file and upload

Step 2: Select categories for removal and click the “Clean” button

Step 3: You’re done and ready to share your XER file

Just to show in this article, I’ve opened my XER file before and after cleaning.

After “cleaning” the XER file, it no longer have price rates for resources, and can be shared with other parties with confidence.

I recommend to use a tool in order to automate the job and save yourself from the manual and time-lasting work.

Because it’s not just the cost.

There might be other cases like removing units, rates, pricing and other categories of data within XER file.

The software also removes POBS data, which is completely unnecessary and not used by any Primavera P6 feature. Removing POBS from Primavera P6 file will ensure better performance during import to P6 database.

The best part is that the original XER file remains untouched, and the “cleaned” file can be saved in a separate folder, which can be set under the Template tab. Here, users can create reusable templates with specific categories of data for cleaning.

For example, from Sub-contractor 1 we hide project funding, spending and benefits plan, from Sub-contractor 2 we hide prices for resources and roles etc.

As you can see, there are at least two options to remove data for Primavera P6 XER you don’t want others to see. The choice is yours.

Do you know other way to anonymize confidential data in XER file? Drop your lines below.