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The Import Contacts module allows you to easily import individuals to your database from a source file (csv, xlxs or similar type file). This is an add-on module. If you are interested in purchasing please reach out to the Account Management team.
When you create the file a header row is not required, however, if you do include a header row the formatting of that row does not have specific requirements as you will map the data to specific database fields during the import process.
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IMPORTANT! The Import Contacts function is for importing new contacts, both individuals and businesses. It is not intended for updating data of existing contacts. |
Best Practices for Importing Contacts
If you need to import both businesses and individuals, first locate the file(s) with businesses that you wish to import. Follow the steps below to import those businesses first. Then follow the import steps for your individuals.
TIP! If applicable, import Businesses first so that when importing individuals afterwards, individuals can be tied to the correct business. The Individual import does not create any businesses, but will associate individuals with existing businesses. See Matching Individuals to Businesses during Import for more information.
Important Prerequisite Steps
- Validate that the file has fields that will be able to be imported and understand where that data will be brought in. See Business Import File Requirements and/or Individual Import File Requirements.
- Note: The businesses import file and the individuals import file do not need to be separate files. The import file could be one single file that includes both business and individual details. When importing, you’d just need to match the business columns during the Business import and the Individual columns during the Individual import.
- Recommended: Include a unique Account Number for each business and/or individual if possible and enable “Enforce Account Number Uniqueness”. This will provide a way to ensure duplicate contacts are not imported. Any row in your upload that matches an account number existing in GZ will be listed as an error and by default, not be imported. See “Rejecting Duplicate Records”.
- If Account Number is not part of your import, make sure to remove any duplicates that should not be added to your database prior to import. The import does not look for duplicates (except as noted in step #2).
- If the import file contains any of the following, please make sure that the fields exist in GrowthZone so you can map to them.
- Custom fields. See Custom Fields for more information.
- Category Lists (Note: the list items within the list must also exist in GrowthZone.) See Category Lists for more information.
- Memberships (applies to individual imports only). See Memberships for more information.
- Import the contacts. See “Import Contacts”.
See “FAQs on Importing Contacts” for common questions.
Import File Requirements
The fields that may be imported are described in the tables below.
For Individual Import files:
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If your data has these fields… |
Match it to this during import… |
And it will appear here in GrowthZone… |
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Data to be imported |
Import Template field name |
Field Name in GrowthZone |
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Prefix |
Prefix |
Prefix |
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First Name (Required) |
First Name |
First Name |
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Middle Name |
Middle Name |
Middle Name |
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Last Name (Required) |
Last Name |
Last Name |
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Common Name |
Common Name |
Common Name |
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Suffix |
Suffix |
Suffix |
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Title |
Title |
Title |
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Account Number |
Account Number |
Account Number |
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Individual Phone 1 |
Phone Main |
Phone; Type = Main |
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Individual Phone 2 |
Phone Other |
Phone; Type = Other |
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Individual Phone 3 |
Phone Toll Free |
Phone; Type = Toll Free |
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Individual Fax |
Fax |
Phone; Type = Fax |
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Individual Email 1 |
Email Work |
Email; Type = Work |
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Individual Email 2 |
Email Personal |
Email; Type = Personal |
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Individual Email 3 |
Email Other |
Email; Type = Other |
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Individual Website |
Website Homepage |
Web Address; Type = Homepage |
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Individual Social Site 1 |
Social Site One |
Web Address; Type = Social Site |
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Individual Social Site 2 |
Social Site Two |
Web Address; Type = Social Site |
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Individual Social Site 3 |
Social Site Three |
Web Address; Type = Social Site |
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Individual Address |
Physical and Mailing Address |
Address Line 1; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual Address 2 |
Physical and Mailing Address 2 |
Address Line 2; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual City |
Physical and Mailing City |
Address City; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual State |
Physical and Mailing State |
Address State; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual Postal Code |
Physical and Mailing Postal Code |
Address Postal Code; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual Country If left blank, the import will automatically import your default country which is determined under Setup>Misc>General Settings |
Physical and Mailing Country |
Address Country; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual Address |
Physical Address |
Address Line 1; Type = Physical |
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Individual Address 2 |
Physical Address 2 |
Address Line 2; Type = Physical |
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Individual City |
Physical City |
Address City; Type = Physical |
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Individual State |
Physical State |
Address State; Type = Physical |
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Individual Postal Code |
Physical Postal Code |
Address Postal Code; Type = Physical |
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Individual Country If left blank, the import will automatically import your default country which is determined under Setup>Misc>General Settings |
Physical Country |
Address Country; Type = Physical |
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Individual Address |
Mailing Address |
Address Line 1; Type = Mailing |
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Individual Address 2 |
Mailing Address 2 |
Address Line 2; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual City |
Mailing City |
Address City; Type = Physical and Mailing |
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Individual State |
Mailing State |
Address State; Type = Mailing |
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Individual Postal Code |
Mailing Postal Code |
Address Postal Code; Type = Mailing |
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Individual Country If left blank, the import will automatically import your default country which is determined under Setup>Misc>General Settings |
Mailing Country |
Address Country; Type = Mailing |
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Notes |
Notes |
Notes on the Individual’s More Info tab |
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Gender Valid options: Male Female Note: Other custom entries added in your database under Setup>Misc>Genders are currently not supported. Those would manually need to be changed after import. |
Gender |
Gender |
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Primary contact of the business Is this individual the primary contact of the associated business? (Applies only if being matched to an org upon import) Valid options: T, True, Y, Yes F, False, N, No An empty field will act like false as well |
Is Primary Individual |
If this individual is matched to an business during import, if this value is set to Y, Yes, T, or True, then this contact will be set as the Primary Contact of the matching business
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Custom data Make sure that the custom field exists in GrowthZone first. |
Select the desired GrowthZone custom field(s) on the Optional Columns step on the Import screen. |
Data will appear in the selected custom field. |
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Data that belongs in a GrowthZone list Make sure that the category list exists in GrowthZone first. The fields within the list must be exist in GZ as well. i.e. the import will not create new entries if they do not exist. |
Select the desired GrowthZone category list(s) on the Optional Columns step on the Import screen. |
Data will appear in the selected category list. |
| Tags. The tags mus exist in the database. The import will not create new tags | Tag | Tags will appear on the contact Overview tab. |
| Membership Data | ||
| Membership Type. The type must exist in the database. An import cannot create a new membership type. | Membership Type | Membership Type is avaiable for individuals only |
| Membership Level. The level must exist in the database. An import cannot create new levels | Membership Level | Membership Level |
| Membership Start Date | Membership Start Date | Membership Start Date |
| Membership Expiration Date | Membership Expiration Date | Membership Expiration Date |
For Business import files:
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If your data has these fields… |
Match it to this during import… |
And it will appear here in GrowthZone… |
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Data include for matching |
Import Template field name |
Field Name in GrowthZone |
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Business |
Business |
Business Name |
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Business Account Number |
Business Account Number |
Business Account Number |
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Business ID |
Business Contact ID |
Business Contact ID (the number shown in the URL when viewing the contact) |
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Business Phone |
Business Phone |
Business Phone |
Import File of Individual Contacts
- Click Setup in the left-hand navigation panel
- Click Import Contacts in the Import section
- On the Import Contacts screen slick Import Individuals.
- If you wish to include Custom Fields in the import, choose the desired custom fields. IMPORTANT! Custom fields must already exist in the database.
- If you wish to include Categories in the import, choose the desired category list. IMPORTANT! Categories must already exist in the database.
- Click Next
- Drag and drop your file or click Select File to navigate to and import your file.
- A preview of your file is displayed. You can change the headers in the file if you wish. These headers are used to assist in mapping the data in the file to appropriate database fields and can simply be alphabet letters if you prefer.
C - Click Continue to perform mapping. On the Change or conform column matches screen choose the fields to which the imported data should be mapped. The system will attempt to map your fields, however you can over-ride these mappings if needed.
- If the system is unable to map a field it will be indicated at the bottom of the screen. For example, in the screenshot above, the system was not able to map Default Email. If you would like to map this field click the + sign to add it to your columns then choose the template field to map to from the drop down list.
- Click Continue. The system will begin to upload the file. Progress is displayed as the file is being uploaded. Once uploaded you will be able to review the import on the Review and finalize screen. This screen will indicate the number of rows that were valid and number of rows that triggered an error. You must have at least one valid row in the file to complete the import.
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Once the file is uploaded the Review and Finalize screen will be displayed indicating any errors if applicable. You must have at least one valid record in the file to complete the import.
- "We found x records matching this Name" This message would appear if you are attempting to import an individual or business that already exists in your Contacts. Note that contacts that are "Not in CRM" also count as an existing record. You'll need to remove those "Not in CRM" contacts or merge them into another record, if you wish to import another record with that same name. View the Not In CRM article for more information.
- IMPORTANT! When importing individuals, if you are including business name so that the individual is associated with the business, the business must already exist in your database. If you are attempting to import new businesses use the Import Businesses function.
- After review, click the Import X records button. Once the records have been imported the screen will be displayed indicating the number of successfully imported individuals and any rejections.
- Click Submit.
- Click Next.
- On the final Import Contacts you must agree to the following condition: By checking this box I understand the importance of following GrowthZone email guidelines when sending emails through the software, and I will do my part to ensure our contacts and emails are handled in accordance to the guidelines.
- Click Done. You will be able to see the import progress under View Import/Export Jobs under your account menu in the upper right menu.
IMPORTANT! If you include account number as a field in your file the system is able to identify duplicates. If the field is not included no validation is performed. However if you have "Enforce Account Number Uniqueness", under your Membership Settings, enabled any row uploaded with an account number that matches an account number that exists in GrowthZone will be listed as an error and will not be imported.
Matching Individuals to Organizations during Import
If you include business name in your file, the system will attempt to match to an organization that already exists in your database. Matching is done as follows:
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Look for OrganizationId to be a valid record in your database
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Look for a single record based on OrganizationName to exist in your database
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Look for a single record based on OrganizationName and OrganizationPhone to exist in your database
If a matching organization is not found the record will be rejected and not imported. If your intent is to add new organizations to the database you must first upload the organization then individuals file.
Rejecting Duplicate records
By including Account Number in your file the system will perform validation to ensure that business and individual records are not duplicated within the file you are uploading.
If Enforce Account Number Uniqueness is also enabled in your setup (Setup > Miscellaneous> Account Numbers and Membership Numbers) the system will discard a record for import if the account number in the file is a match to an account number that exists in the database.
If you do not include account number for this validation the system will allow you to import the businesses without checking for duplicates.
You must have at least one valid record in your file to be able to import data.
FAQs on Importing Contacts
- Will imported email addresses be checked for validation?
- Yes. Imported contact email addresses will be queued up and scanned just like any other email addresses that are added to the system.
- How long will an import take?
- The speed depends on how many contacts are in the import and what other jobs are currently running across all of our customer databases. Typically an import of <100 will be about a 1 minute. A few test records might import almost immediately. A couple thousand has been known to take 15-20 minutes.
- Is there a place where I can view the progress of my import?
- Yes. View Import/Export Progress will include the progress of the import, showing 100% once completed. Error messaging is not yet available on this screen so if the % complete does not go to 100% after an hour or two, contact support for them to look further into details.
- What happens if I don’t follow best practices and add individuals first and then the businesses later?
- Will that create the business as a not in crm record? No, importing an individual never creates a business – it only has ability to tie to a business.
- What can I do now?
- Two options: 1) After importing the individuals, go ahead and import the orgs. Then manually tie the individuals with the orgs. OR 2) Put a request in for support to remove the imported individuals and start over by importing the orgs first.
- If I import a business, will it match the contacts that aren't primary working there or will that require cleanup after?
- No, importing orgs does not tie any individuals – it only creates businesses
- I’ve used the clone database in the past. Can I use clone to test my import?
- Yes, the import works on clone once enabled in production.
- I imported an address but see that my address looks to be different than what I imported. What happened?
- In most cases, if an address is modified by the import, it is because the address may not have a city, state, or postal code assigned. Best practice: Make sure all imported addresses include a city and state at a minimum.
- The contact info that I want to import includes multiple email addresses that should be of type = Work. What can I do?
- If you have multiple phone numbers, emails or addresses to be imported for a single contact, it may be tough to get those all matched to the desired field on an import. For instance, if you have 2 work email addresses, we only give you 1 work email address to match. Thus the 2nd work email address would either need to be left out of the import or imported to a different email address - like email other.
- I am trying to import and when I select my import file, the screen turns white and the next screen never appears. What should I do?
- Most likely you have your spreadsheet open in another application. Close your spreadsheet file first, then try again.
- Is there a way to determine which contact information items are set as the default when imported?
- We automatically set the following items as the default. If none of that item is included in the import than we set the next one on the list as the default, in this order.
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Address |
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Phone |
Web Address |
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Default |
Physical and Mailing |
Work |
Main |
Home Page |
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If above is blank, then this is the next default |
Physical |
Personal |
Other |
Social Site |
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If above blank, then this is the next default |
Mailing |
Other |
Toll-Free |
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