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Import Utility: Importing Organizational Contacts Part II - Prepare Your Data

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Terri Bruce
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Import Utility: Importing Organizational Contacts Part II - Prepare Your Data

  1. The first step in importing data into the CRM is to prepare your data in a spreadsheet.
  2. This data could have been exported from another database system, exported from the CRM (to be updated and then re-imported), or could have been hand-entered into a spreadsheet. You could have only a handful of names/rows or you could have thousands.
  3. When preparing your spreadsheet, you can use our Organizational Contact template or you can use your own spreadsheet - it doesn't matter which. If you use your own spreadsheet/don't transfer your data to our template, be sure to use our template as a guide for setting up your data. Our template not only has the appropriate column names and identifies the fields that can be imported, it has a row of instructions that details what data is required and what format certain fields needs to be in.
  4. For data sets larger than 2,000 rows, we recommend splitting the data into multiple batches to speed processing.
  5. Setting up your data requires high attention to detail. Small mistakes in the data file can create BIG problems in your CRM data - it can cause the import to fail, to over-write existing data in your system incorrectly, scramble your data, or create a lot of hand clean up. It is imperative you review every cell in your spreadsheet for accuracy. Below are details of the most common errors we see in data files, but this list is by no means exhaustive.
  6. SUPER IMPORTANT REMINDER: if you sort your spreadsheet at any point, be absolutely certain that you have grabbed all the columns and rows with data. True example of what can happen if you are not careful: client exported all data from their CRM, resorted the spreadsheet but did not include the email address column. The email addresses became orphaned from the correct record (for example, Sally now had John's email address in her row). The data was then re-imported, using email address as part of the duplicate prevention settings for the import. Because the contacts now had a different e-mail address in the spreadsheet than what was in the CRM, the new records were not seen as matching existing records and a new record was created for every person. This resulted in over 10,000 duplicate records. In a few instances where the contact had no e-mail in the database and no e-mail in the spreadsheet (but same first and last name), those were seen as the same person and the import updated the existing record. However, the data in the field didn't belong to that person (due to sorting the spreadsheet and not including all the columns) so that the wrong mailing address was added to the existing record. We cannot stress enough this kind of mistake is easy to do if you do not pay very careful attention when sorting your data file. When it comes to importing, check and double check your data file before proceeding!
  7. When using the import utility to do a bulk update of data in the CRM, re-import that BARE MINIMUM data necessary for the update. Don't re-import data you aren't updating/changing (or you risk updating something you didn't mean to).
  8. If using the import utility to do a bulk update of data in the CRM, we strongly recommend using NonProfitEasy CRM ID as the duplicate prevention setting (so be sure to include this in your original export from the CRM and keep it on the data file for re-import), rather than name, e-mail, and/or address.
  9. When setting up your spreadsheet:
    • Only .csv format is accepted.
    • Your file MUST have a header row (with column names).
    • Column headers can be called anything you want - they don't have to match the column headers in our template. However, the column headers in our spreadsheet exactly match the category and name of the field in the CRM that you will be mapping the data to. If you don't use our column names, be sure to use column names that easily identify what data is in each column.
    • Column headers must be unique (you cannot have two columns labeled "Phone Number" for example. You would need to make them slightly different, such as "Phone Number 1" and "Phone Number 2."
    • There can be NO blank rows between the first row with data and the last row with data in your spreadsheet. Any blank rows will cause the import to fail.
    • There can be NO returns (new line) in any cell. That is, in no cell can the data contain a hard or soft return (created by using alt + enter) or be on separate lines.
    • Do not create stray marks, entries, or formatting outside the rows or columns with data. For instance, highlighting an entire row can cause the system to read data (the code for the highlighting) in the blank/empty cells (even if you later remove the highlighting), which will cause an error when attempting to upload or import the file (see Import Utility: Importing Organizational Contacts Part IV - File Upload for more information).
    • You can delete any columns without data (empty columns). This will help with the field mapping screen (less columns to wade through to get to the ones with data).
    • EVERY row that has data MUST have all of the required fields. For organizational contact import, for example, every row MUST have an organization name (this is the only field that is absolutely required for the import). In our screen shot below, row 4 and row 8 are missing Organization Name. This will cause the import to fail.

      Screenshot_2019-05-08_10.44.43.png

    • You can only have ONE name/organization per row. In the screen shot below, Row 4 is set up incorrectly - there are two names in the Organization Name field (plus there is also an "enter"/hard return in the field, which is also not allowed). Those names need to be separated into the correct fields.

      Screenshot_2019-05-08_10.46.52.png

    • For existing contacts, the salutation set in the import will override the default salutation style in your system. Otherwise, if salutation field(s) are left blank, the default salutation style configured in your system will be applied to create the salutations (see our Contacts: Configure Default Salutations tutorial for more information).

      Screenshot_2019-05-08_10.51.07.png

    • To indicate that two contacts are associated as employer and employee, enter the employee's first and last name in the employee first name and employee last name fields at the end of the row. Please Note: if the the organization's mailing address is included in the import, then it will be added to the employee's record as their work address in either the mailing address (if not mailing address on file) or other address (if employee already has a mailing address field). Please Note: If you include either an employee first or last name, you MUST then also include the other half of the name. First AND Last Name are required to create a contact record in the CRM. In the screen shot below, row 8 will cause the import to fail because the employee's last name is blank (while the first name is provided).

      Screenshot_2019-05-08_10.53.49.png

    • If you want to import data on the employee such as their birth date, ethnicity, tags, special comments, etc. then you will need to do a separate individual contact import to do that.
    • If including e-mail address(es) for import:
      • You can import multiple email addresses per organization.
      • You can import an email address without knowing the type of email address it is (you do not have to set the "e-mail address type" field in the field mapping).

        As you can see from the screenshots below, you can assign any column with e-mail addresses in your spreadsheet the home or work type.

        Screenshot_2019-05-08_11.28.52.png

      • If you do not need to assign e-mail type (for instance, if you just have one email for each organization and you don't know if it's a work or personal e-mail address, then you can put all the emails in one column and not fill out the type field in the field mapping (Tab #3 of the Import Utility). 
      • Whether or not the e-mail address being imported is work e-mail or home/personal e-mail is set per batch (not per contact) per column. That is, all e-mail addresses in that column are assigned the same type.
      • You can assign only ONE column of e-mail addresses as "primary". Setting the column to primary in the field mapping means that all emails in that column in your spreadsheet will be marked as the primary e-mail after import (this will over-ride the primary e-mail setting inside the system for any existing contacts. That is, if Acme Co. is already in the CRM with an e-mail of "Acme@gmail.com" marked as the organization's primary email, and you import a record for Acme with an email of "Info@acme.com" and indicate that the e-mail in the import is the primary, after import the e-mail that will be marked as primary is the one that was imported (info@acme.com).

        Screenshot_2019-05-08_11.31.04.png

      • To import the same email address to the organization's and the employee's record, include that email address in both the Org Email Address column and in the Employee Information Email Address column in your data file.
      • If you include an email address but do not include a value in the email communication preference column (or do not include/map the entire column), then the value will default to "Not Set" for new contacts (contacts being created by this import) (contacts already in your system will keep their existing email communication preference setting). If you include an email address and want the contact's communication preference for email set to yes, be sure to include the email communication preference column in the import and set the value to True or Yes.
      • For new contacts (that you are creating via the import), if you include an email address and set the communication preference for email to Yes, they will be auto-subscribed to any newsletter categories/lists you have set/configured as "auto-subscribe" categories. Otherwise, you will need to subscribe the contacts to your newsletter lists manually.
      • For existing contacts (that are already in your CRM account and which you are updating via the import), they are auto-subscribed to newsletter categories when the communication preference is first set (and set to Yes). Which means, if the contacts are already in your CRM account with communication preference set to yes or no, but with no email address on record, then adding an email via the import utility will not auto-subscribe them to your newsletter categories. If they are in your system with communicate preference for email set to no and you set it to yes via the import utility, they still will not be auto-subscribed to any newsletter categories. If the contacts exist in your system and their email communication preference is set to Not Set and you change it to Yes via the import utility, then they will be auto subscribed to newsletters (if they have an email on file or if you include an email address in the import).
    • For phone numbers:
      • The same rules as above apply to phone numbers - you will assign phone type by column, not by row/record. You can import multiple phone numbers per organization. You can put all the phone numbers (of different types) in the same column and leave the "type" field unmapped when importing if you don't know each number's "type" (if no type is selected, then the phone number type will default to "phone").
      • Phone numbers can be in any format - parentheses around the area code (ex: (888) 111-2222), area code separated by dashes (ex: 888-111-2222), or no separations between parts of the phone number (8881112222). All of these will be accepted and can be mixed and matched within the spreadsheet. The system will strip out any non-numeric characters, so don't worry about formatting the phone numbers to be "pretty" as the system will just remove your formatting during the import (and re-apply the CRM formatting when displaying the phone number in the contact record).
      • You MUST include a separate column that contains the country code for each phone number if the phone numbers are not U.S. If the country code field is not included (or is left blank for any record), then it will default to U.S.
      • If your phone number has an extension, you MUST put the extension part in a separate column. It cannot be included in the same field as the main part of the phone number.
      • There is no way to import the same phone number to the Organization and to the Employee in the same batch/in an Organizational Contact import. You would need to also do an individual contact import to bring in the work phone number for the employees.
      • If you include a phone number but do not include a value in the phone communication preference column, then the value will default to "Not Set" for new contacts (contacts being created by this import) (contacts already in your system will keep their existing email communication preference setting). If you include a phone number and don't want the contact's communication preference for phone set to Not Set, be sure to include the phone communication preference column for import and set the value to False.
    • When importing addresses (Mailing and Billing):
      • Every row with any part of an address must have an Address Line #1 as well. If Address Line #1 is not included for that record, then any other address fields that ARE included will be ignored/the partial addresses without Address Line #1 will not be imported.
      • If you include city, state, and country, but not zip code, the system will attempt to look up/auto enter the zip code for U.S. addresses (only for U.S. addresses).
      • If including zip code, make sure the zip codes are all 5 digits (for U.S. addresses). There is no separate field for a +4 code, but this can be included in the zip field separated by a hyphen (ex: 12345-1234).
      • The address fields in each block/address section (Mailing Address, Billing Address, Other address, etc.) work as a BLOCK/unit. All fields in that block/unit will be updated if you include any field from that block in the import. That is, if you include only Address Line #1 in the import and do not include city, state, zip in the import (or even in the field mapping), the city, state, and zip will still be updated (they will be updated to "nothing"/empty, wiping out any existing data in those fields if those records are already in your Fundly CRM account). When updating existing addresses, be sure to include ALL of the fields in the block, not just the ones you want to update.
      • Both CounTY and CounTRY can be imported; be careful when mapping your fields to not map CounTY to the CounTRY field.
      • All parts of an address MUST be separated into separate parts. You CANNOT put the entire address (such as "54 Rowboat Lane, Salem, MA 01970) in one field. You must separate the address into Address Line 1, City, State, Zip, and Country. Each of these five parts must go in a separate column.
      • Imported mailing addresses will default to type "work" (versus uncategorized or home) on the employee's record if you include employee info in the batch.
      • Imported organizational mailing addresses will overwrite the existing mailing address according to the following rules:
        • If your contacts are not already in the CRM or are already in NPE but do not already have a mailing address (mailing address field empty in the CRM record), then the mailing address in the import will be added to the mailing address field.
        • If your contacts are already in the CRM and have a mailing address in the CRM, then the mailing address in the import will be saved to the Other Address field and the existing mailing address in the CRM record will be preserved/left as is.
      • When importing Other Address(es) - these will be imported to the Other Address field.
      • If you want to import home mailing addresses, do an individual contact import.
    • When setting the communication preferences via import utility:
      • if you include a phone number in the data file but leave the Communication Preference for Phone Call field blank in the data file, then:
        • the system will default to "yes" for phone communication preference when creating a new contact
        • the system will preserve the phone communication preference already in the system when updating an existing record
      • The above rules hold true for including an e-mail address and the send e-mail communication preference and if you include a mailing address and the send mail communication preference.
    • When Importing an Employee:
      • If the Primary Contact? field is left blank in your data sheet, the employee will automatically become the primary contact for the organization EVEN IF THERE IS ALREADY A PRIMARY CONTACT ON THE RECORD IN CRM (in case of updating an existing organizational contact record).
      • If the Primary Contact? field is left blank in your data sheet and you import multiple employees for the organization, the last one listed will end up the primary contact (the first employee listed will be processed by the import and be set as primary, then the second one listed will be processed by the import and will be set as the primary (displacing the first), and so on, until the last employee listed is processed).
      • If you do not want the employee in the data sheet to be set as the primary contact for the organization, be sure to set this field to False in your data sheet for that employee.
  10. The following fields allow you enter multiple values per contact (separated by a comma):
    • Contact Type
    • Contact Tag
  11. The following fields do NOT allow you to enter multiple values per contact; you can only enter ONE value per contact:
    • Prefix
    • Suffix
    • Source of Contact
  12. A few tricks for ensuring your data is formatting correctly:
    • Sort your spreadsheet (being sure to grab all columns and rows) by Organization name. Look at the beginning rows and end rows to make sure everyone has an Organization Name.
    • Sort by state to look for any state names or abbreviations that are incorrect/spelled wrong.
    • Sort by phone number to see if you have any phone numbers with too many or too few digits.
  13. Reminder: there can be no blank rows within the data set (if your spreadsheet has 100 rows, no row from 1-100 can be empty/blank. Blank rows must be after the last row of data.
  14. Reminder: do not enter any stray marks, formatting (including highlighting), or characters outside of the rows and columns that have your data or the computer will read this as import data and will try to import it (and will generate an error/your batch will not be imported).
  15. After setting up your data sheet, if you are using our template, make sure to DELETE the instructional row (row 2).
  16. Now you are prepared to begin importing your data. Proceed to the Part III tutorial to start setting up your import batch within the CRM.

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