The Import Contacts module allows you to easily import or update individuals in 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. 

 

IMPORTANT! The Import Contacts feature is able to update data of existing contacts in addition to create new contacts. To update existing contacts, you must have an Account number column in your source file that matches a unique Account number in GrowthZone. See more details below.

 

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 afterward, 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.

If you wish to update existing contacts, you must have a unique Account number in GrowthZone that matches an Account number in the source file. Read more about Account Numbers here.

 

Important Prerequisite Steps

1. The file must have a header row that names the data that is in each column. The label can be whatever title you desire. If no header row exists, the first contact will be used as the header row and will not get imported.
2. Validate that the file has fields that will be able to be imported and understand where that data will be brought in. See Available Business Import Fields and/or Available Individual Import Fields.
   • Note: The source file can contain both businesses and individuals. You can also include both those that should be added and those that will be updated in the same source file. The import file could be one single file that includes all contact info. However, when importing, you’d need to make sure to match the correct business columns during the Business import and the appropriate Individual columns during the Individual import.
3. Required for updates to existing contacts: Include a unique Account Number for each contact. This is what will allow updates to existing contacts. When a match is found on Account Number then that contact will be updated instead of a new contact created.  If the Account number is not found, then a new contact will be created with that account number.
4. If Account Number is not part of your import, you will only be able to add contacts to your database. Make sure to remove any duplicates in your source file that should not be added to your database prior to import. Matching only occurs by Account Number.
5. 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.
6. Save time by looking for duplicate contacts and merging them into one contact. If you are updating or adding contacts, it will only successfully match the contact if the contact is unique. Spending time getting your data cleaned up first, will help make it easier to import to the correct contact. Suggested example for merging businesses.
   •  Merge duplicate businesses together first (In Contacts module, Merge Organization)
   • Start on the record that should be removed. The destination contact is the one where the data lands. i.e. it is a “merge into” option
   • To find dups, run Contacts report, sort on Business name.
   • make sure to include both CRM Types (CRM, NotinCRM)
   • Include Default City, State, Phone, to validate if these truly are unique businesses, but just have the same name
   • Include ContactID and Contact Membership Status to assist in identifying which contact is the duplicate
7. Import the contacts. See “Import Contacts”.

 

 TIPS!

• See “FAQs on Importing Contacts” for common questions.
• See “Available Import Fields” for fields that may be imported and any special considerations.

  

Import File of Individual Contacts

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1. Click Setup in the left-hand navigation panel

2. Click Import Contacts in the Import section 

3. On the Import Contacts screen click Import Individuals. 

4. Select your Import Type.
   • Create new contacts only OR
   • Create new contacts and update existing (Account # match)

     

TIP for “Creating new contacts only” -  If you have “Enforce Account Number Uniqueness” enabled under Setup, Account Numbers and Membership Numbers in the Miscellaneous section, the “Create new contacts” selection will check if the contact already exists in your database before adding it. It will match on Account Number. If the Account Number is not included in your spreadsheet or the setting is not enabled, no validation is performed. In that case, all contacts will be imported whether they exist in GrowthZone or not. If “Enforce Account Number Uniqueness” is enabled, the Import Type option will say “Create new contacts only (Duplicates detected by Account #)”. If not enabled, the choice will say “Create new contacts only (Duplicates will not be detected)”.

 

5. If you wish to include Custom Fields in the import, choose the desired custom fields. IMPORTANT! Custom fields must already exist in the database.
6. If you wish to include Categories in the import, choose the desired category list. IMPORTANT! Categories must already exist in the database.
7. If the Import Type was “Create new contacts and update existing” then you’ll be required to select a Default Action under the Existing Contacts section. Select “Add to existing” or “Replace existing”.
8. If desired, make any changes to the action for each of the specific data locations. i.e. Phones, Email Addresses, Addresses, Notes, Tags, or Categories.
   • IMPORTANT: In addition to the fields shown here, an update to existing contacts will replace the following fields if they exist in your spreadsheet and if that column is matched in the next step:
     • Prefix, First name, Last name, Middle name, Suffix, Title, Common Name, Gender, Website Homepage, Social Site One, Social Site Two, Social Site Three, Social Site Four, Custom fields, and the Membership Expiration Date. See details on the Membership Expiration Date updates.

       

9. Click Next.
10. Drag and drop your file or click Select File to navigate to and import your file.

 

 

11. On the Map fields screen choose the fields to which the imported data should be mapped. The system will attempt to map your fields, however, you can override these mappings if needed.  

    

• • On-screen quantity indicators tell you how many fields from your data are mapped; and then, how many fields are mapped in your data compared to what is available in the template.
  • Clear Destinations icon: lets you start over.
  • Uses a combination of AI and historical data to suggest the best columns mappings.

    

Important! If selecting address fields, make sure you select the same type of address fields for each part of the address. For example, if you wish to import the Mailing address, make sure you select Mailing Address 1, Mailing Address 2, Mailing City, Mailing State, and Mailing Postal. Other options would include Physical Address or Physical and Mailing Address. You should have a matching set of address fields tied to your imported fields i.e. all Physical, all Mailing, or all Physical and Mailing.

Helpful Tips

• • If updating existing contacts, make sure to map the Account Number field to the account number in your spreadsheet.
  • Field that are not mapped, will not be imported or updated.
  • First name and Last name are required to be matched in the Individual Import; Business Name is required in the Business Import.
  • Don’t worry if you have blanks in a column. The update will leave existing GZ data alone if a blank is found, even if you select “Replace existing”.
  • For contact info updates, double-check that you are importing into the correct type where your data generally exists e.g. Should phone updates go to the Work phone or the Home phone? should email address updates go to the Personal email address or the Work address; should address updates go to the Physical address or the Mailing address? To view a report of existing contact info, run the Contact Info Report to check this. Filter the report to the specific contact type to see the breakdown of each type used. For example, Phones: Select all Phone Types, Summarize by Contact Info Type, and Run Report.

 

Automatic data fill-in

12. An additional mapping screen may appear depending on your data. If your import file contains blanks, you can choose if you want to automatically populate that blank field with a particular data selection. A common example would be to populate the Country field with United States or a State field with your own state. If you are importing to fields that are drop-down choices in GrowthZone, you’ll be asked to verify which field goes with which GrowthZone drop-down choice.
13. 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. This screen will indicate the number of rows that were valid and a number of rows that triggered an error. You must have at least one valid row in the file to complete the import. Invalid contacts will not be imported.
14. Make any desired corrections to your data. Correcting them on-screen might be a timer-saver. If your correction makes the record valid, it will automatically be listed as Valid once corrected.
    • "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 a 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.

      

15. A drop-down list of available options for modifying/adding multi-choice options after the import are given.

A checkbox in front of the row allows for deleting the row.

Display only the columns you want to see while finalizing the import data. This allows you to hide or show columns as you desire.

Use Find and Replace and Search options to make data corrections. Pin key columns to the left for data review on larger data sets. Collapse the left sidebar for increased viewing space.

On the last screen, you have the ability to download your import file. This is helpful if you have made on-screen changes.

16. Once any desired corrections have been made, click Submit to import and update the contacts that are marked as Valid.
17. The Summary screen will appear where you see a count of how many contacts will be updated and how many will be imported. If email addresses are included in your import, you must agree to the following conditions: 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.

    

18. Click Done. 
19. Type IMPORT in the confirmation box to proceed. Note that imports/updates cannot be reversed. Make sure you’ve imported a small sample of records first if any doubts. 

    

20. The import has started. You will be able to see the import progress under View Import/Export Jobs under your account menu in the upper right menu.

  

Matching Individuals to Organizations during Import

How the matching works:

During an individual 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:

 

• Look for OrganizationId to be a valid record in your database
• Look for a single record based on OrganizationName to exist in your database
• 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 place in the Invalid list and will not be imported. If your intent is to add new organizations to the database you must first upload the organization then individuals file.

Handling Organizations that do not match:

If the organization name is an exact match, you’ll see that the Organization Contact ID will automatically populate and show in yellow. That is good and as expected.

If the Organization Contact ID does not populate, it either means that you have a new organization, or there is a mis-match in the name with the correct organization. The fields will show in red.

1. 1. If it is truly a new organization, you can open another tab with GrowthZone loaded to the Contacts where you can add the new organization.
   2. If the imported name is not matching the GrowthZone name, you can make a change to the organization name right in the sheet so that it matches the name in GZ or update the name in GrowthZone, whichever is correct.
   3. If there is more than one of that organization, you can
      • Manually enter the organization contact ID into the Organization Contact ID column, it will recalculate and find the org match.
      • Or you could merge the two contacts into each other in GrowthZone so that only one contact exists.

If any of the above changes/additions are made in the on-screen sheet, the Import sheet should automatically update and fill in the Organization Contact ID if it now finds a unique match.

If the changes are made in GrowthZone and you need to force the on-screen sheet to check again, add a space to the end of the Organization Name in the on-screen sheet and then press the Enter key. It will recheck for matches.

 

 Membership Expiration Date updates

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When Membership Type and Membership Expiration Date fields are matched during your import, the action that occurs differs depending on whether the contact is being created or updated.

IMPORTANT: Using Import Contacts to update the Membership Type and Membership Expiration Date should only be done on free memberships. Scheduled billing is not updated using the Import Contacts. The target audience of this update is those that receive a list of members from a third-party organization that does the billing for them.

If the contact is being created:

• A Membership of that type and level (if applicable) will be created on that contact
• The expiration date, if mapped, will become the expiration date of that membership.
• If the expiration date is not mapped, the expiration date is set at 1 year after the Membership Start date.
• The Membership Start Date is today’s date unless you’ve also mapped the Membership Start Date field. In that case, the Membership Start Date will be what is imported on that membership.

If the contact is being updated and the contact already has this membership type and level (if applicable) assigned:

• The Membership Expiration Date will be updated with date in the Membership Expiration Date field, as long as that date is newer than the current expiration date.
• A Renewal activity entry will be added to the membership.
• If a membership exists for that contact, but it is in Dropped status, the membership will be returned to Active status once that expiration date is updated to the newer date.

If the contact is being updated and the contact does not have this membership type and level (if applicable) assigned:

• A new membership type and level (if applicable) will be assigned. IMPORTANT: Even if the selection to ‘Replace Existing’ was selected, the contact’s current membership will not be replaced by this new type; a new membership is added.

 

FAQs on Importing Contacts

• If I import contacts that do not have an Account Number in the spreadsheet, will GrowthZone assign them an Account Number?
  • It depends on your settings. If either “Automatically Assign Account Numbers to Individuals” or “Automatically Assign Account Numbers to Businesses” is enabled, then yes, GrowthZone will automatically assign an account number when the contact is added via Import 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 that creates <100 new contacts 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.
  • If the import is updating contacts, the import time will increase. It is not uncommon for an update with 1,500 records to take 35-45 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?
    • After importing the individuals, go ahead and import the orgs. Then manually tie the individuals with the orgs.
• 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. 
• When the import creates a new contact, Is there a way to determine which contact information items are set as the default when imported?
  • We automatically set the items shown below as the default. If none of that item is included in the import then we set the next one on the list as the default, in this order.

Address: Physical and Mailing, Physical, Mailing

Email: Work, Personal, Other

Phone: Work, Main, Home, Personal, Cell, Emergency, Other, Toll Free, Fax

Web Address: Home Page, Social Site