Data Imports
To help with the importing process, we allow you to turn off data validation for the Company Importer. We plan to expand this capability to other importers in the future. When validation is turned off, testing your company imports will still show any errors, but you can override them and bring the data into the system when doing a direct import – rather than being required to fix all of the errors prior to importing.
Warning
We recommend you validate your data for imports. However, if you choose to disable validation, you will take responsibility for manually fixing data in your system. While it will be easier to get the data into the system, your users will have to update data.
When importer validation is enabled, your importers will not import any data with errors. When validation is turned off, you can bring invalid data into the system using the Company and Contact Importers. Tests of the data will still return errors, but you can override the errors, and bring the data into the system when doing a direct import.
We know that transferring all of your data from your old system into your new system can be a challenging task. To help with the process, we allow you to turn off data validation for the Company and Contact Importers. We plan to expand this capability to other importers in the future. When validation is turned off, testing your company and contact imports will still show any errors, but you can override them and bring the data into the system when doing a direct import – rather than being required to fix all of the errors prior to importing.
To turn off data validation, go to Settings > System Configurations – Data – Imports. Set ‘Enable Importer Validation’ to no.
You can then navigate to Settings > Data Import/Export > Import Data, or Settings > Data Import/Export > Historical Data Tool to perform your importing like normal.
When using the Import Data page, you will need to select the Company or Contact Import, and upload the csv file you will be using. Map your sheet headers to the importer columns, and continue.
When using the Historical Data Tool, go through the Sheets and Merge Sheets steps. Then when creating an Export, select the Company or Contact Importer as the import type.
Even without using validation, it is always a good idea to test your data before importing. There may be errors you can or want to fix before bringing the data into the system. The import tests will show any errors like they would with data validation on.
Once you have run a test, you can use the direct import to bring the data into the system (with or without fixing the errors from the test). When you click direct import, you will see a pop-up confirmation asking if you are sure you want to bring in non-validated data, and notifying you of some of the possible implications. If you click yes, the data will be imported into your system.
Depending on which fields have errors, the system may set a default if there is an invalid value no value entered, or the system may allow the invalid value to come into the system as is.
Company Importer
The following fields will have system defaults set if there is bad data:
Associated Company (Publisher)
Company Type
Market
Category
Credit Status
Payment Terms
Payment Method
Special Billing
Special Billing Note
Write Off Flag
Payment Backup Required Flag
Collections Flag
Currency
Requires PO
The following fields will not set a default. Instead, they will allow the invalid values to be imported into the system, and you may be required to fix the data later on. For example, if you import an invalid zip code, when editing the company record you will be required to change the zip to a valid code before saving the company.
Street Address
Region
Postal Code
Country
Website
Note
The following errors will still cause the record to not be imported into the system, even with validation turned off. Most of the following fields are not required for the import, so you have the option of simply removing the columns from your import if you do not want to fix the errors.
No value set for a required company dynamic attribute
Invalid primary contact
Invalid other contacts
Invalid barter type
Invalid additional reps
Invalid billing contact
Invalid print artwork contact
Invalid digital artwork contact
Invalid secondary category
Invalid agency
Invalid parent company
Contact Importer
The following fields will have system defaults set if there is bad data:
Billing Contact will default to No
Print Artwork Contact will default to No
Digital Artwork Contact will default to No
The following fields will not set a default. Instead, they will allow the invalid values to be imported into the system, and you may be required to fix the data later on. For example, if you import an invalid email address, when editing the contact record you will be required to change the email to a valid address before saving the contact.
Primary email
Home email
Other email
Primary phone
Office phone
Street address
Region
Postal code
The following fields will remove the bad data during the import, and not set anything on the contact record. For example, if you enter an invalid lead status, there will be no lead status set on the contact.
Salutation
Lead Status
Lead Source
Suffix
Note
The following errors will still cause the record to not be imported into the system, even with validation turned off.
Missing first name
Missing last name
Missing primary email
Missing required dynamic attribute
Invalid primary contact value
Invalid contact owner
Invalid contact type
Invalid gender
Invalid company ID
Invalid company name