Top tips for importing contacts to OnePageCRM
In OnePageCRM you have the option to add individual contacts manually and import multiple contacts from a .CSV file. Check out our top tips below for importing contacts in bulk.
1
Last name OR
Organization
name are required fields in order to create a contact in OnePageCRM.
Note:
- If you have both First name and Last name in one column, you can easily separate them into two. For more details on this click here.
2
Download the import example file and populate the cells with your contacts' details if you don’t have an existing CSV file with your contacts' data or if you’re unsure of what fields you can import.
Note:
- For any columns in your .CSV file that OnePageCRM does not have as default fields, you must create custom fields in OnePageCRM prior to importing.
3
Prepare your file by deleting any columns you don’t need. This saves you from having to
Ignore fields in
Step 2 of the
Import process.
4
If you have more than one email address, phone number, URL, and address, you can add the extra data in another column in your file. Then when you're mapping the extra columns to the fields, you'll have the option to select the extra fields in the CRM. For example, if you have two email addresses for one contact, your file will need to have two different columns that will be mapped to Email 1 or Email 2.
5
You have the option to import URLs for website, blog, Twitter, Linkedin, Xing, Facebook, and Instagram. If you have multiple URLs, you'll need to add a column for each type of URL and map the fields accordingly.
6
Before importing, manage your
status labels and decide whether you want to use
Tags or
Custom fields for grouping data. Check out this article for the pros of each -
Tags vs custom fields.
7
Before importing, remove duplicates from your import file. For more information on this, check out this article on
how to remove duplicates from import file in Excel.
8
Make sure you’ve saved your file as a CSV (comma-separated value) format as otherwise, you may receive errors such as
“
invalid file type. Please check that you've selected a .csv file and try again.
”
9
To import special characters (for example: á, è, õ, ü, ć) seamlessly, download a free app called
Libre Office as it gives you the option to save in
Unicode UTF-8.
10
It’s only possible to import a file with one tab, the import will not work if you've several tabs on the one file.
11
Be realistic when setting
Next Actions on your import file. For example, set 10 for one date, then 10 for the next date. This will prevent you from having lots of overdue actions.
12
If you want to update your existing OnePageCRM contacts using the data in your CSV file, you have the option to complete a merge import.
Please note that if you merge contacts on import, you will
not have the option to undo the merged import, so be very careful before merging! For more information on merging contacts on import see
here.
13
If you receive the
"Error:
Invalid file separator", check to ensure you don't have a coma at the end of a sentence without any more text, and ensure a semi-colon is not being used instead of a coma. We'd recommend doing a
Find and Replace in Excel to amend your file.
14
Check all fields prior to importing. Ensure they are mapped correctly. If OnePageCRM does not recognize a field, the system will highlight it in yellow.
Note:
- If you used our
import sample file, the fields will be matched automatically.
- It's not possible to map a single field type to multiple columns in your file
15
We always recommend importing a small sample of data first, such as 10,000 contacts or less, to ensure all data is correct and mapped in OnePageCRM.
