Importing CSV files

CSV data importing is supported in many modules in the CRM system. The Import button is located in the toolbar at top of the page of every module. The visibility of the tool is determined in user profiles, where an admin user can set users’ rights for the tool (for more information, see the guide System Access (→ Profiles)).

CSV data import can be used in the following modules:

Accounts
Contacts
Potentials (Opportunities)
Leads
Campaigns
Campaigns – Contact results
Products.

Note: You can also export data from the CRM as an CSV file using the Report Generator.

About the CSV File Format

The CSV data files imported to the CRM-service must be done by the customer and they need to fulfill the following criteria:

In a CSV file all the rows must have similar data and the same amount of columns.
There are no line breaks in any column.
Any of the numerical values do not include any thousands separators.
The max character limit for a single cell is 255 characters (Note that the CRM field may have a lower character limit and the imported text, if grater than the limit, will be cut of at the character limit of the field.).
In all of the numerical values the decimal seperator is a dot.
The file must be UTF-8 encoded.
The file contains a header row, informing the content in the columns (not compulsory, but the header row makes the matching process a bit easier).
The date format is yyyy-mm-dd
Multi-select picklist values need to be separated with |##| . Note the blank space between the value and the separator (example: Owner |##| Contact person |##| Other ).
The cell seperator is “,” (comma) in the CSV file.
- example: “Company AB”,”Businessroad 12″,”Helsinki”,”1787.19” “,”358212121212”, …

To ensure the right format of the CSV file, it is recommended to use the CRM-service’s own CSV Add-in to save the files in Excel. The use of the add-in is easy: the file is first prepared normally and then the file is saved with a separate button on the Excel CSV tab (see the picture below).

The Excel CSV Add-in can be downloaded by clicking the following link: ExcelCSVAddin (.zip). Do note, that the add-in is only compatible with Windows systems.

Importer

With new interface use the importer download the guidances from (currently only in Finnish) Csv to Crm importer Pikaohje

To import any data via REST you can download this tool CSV to CRM -importer 1.1.2.

LEGACY guidance

Importing – step 1/4

Go to the module where you want to import data to and click the Import button . Clicking the button opens a new window Step 1/4.

It is important that the data in the CSV file is in the right format. The window has a reminder of some of them:

Select the file with the Choose File button, and then determine the Target module the data is imported to. In the Options section you’ll need to determine whether the CSV file has a title row and select the correct Field Separator for the used rows.

Proceed to step 2/4 by clicking Continue.

Importing – step 2/4

In step 2 you’ll define the processing rules and the CRM fields the CSV data will be linked to.

You can see the number of the rows and columns in the file in the Information section.

In the Settings section you have to determine the processing rules of the imported data. If you need more details on how different selections affect the import, click the Info button . Don’t update empty fields means that if the CSV is used to update a field in the CRM that already has data in it and in the CSV file that field is empty, that field won’t be updated (the field stays untouched in CRM).

In the Fields field, select the CRM fields you want to update using the data in the CSV file. If you do not determine the field updated in the CRM with the picklist, that field in the CSV file will not be imported to the CRM.

Match column means that the selected columns are used to compare the data in the CSV with the existing data in the CRM and this way identify same entities (the same accounts, contacts etc.). You can match by with as many columns as needed. Typically when importing e.g. company data, the match column used is the name of the company, the business ID or both of these. Using several match columns makes matching more precise – if there are for example several branch offices of the same company and they all have the same business ID, the information in the Business ID field is not enough to identify duplicates. A better option would be to use e.g. both Business ID and Company Name as match columns.

Settings for every module contain advanced settings. For example when importing contacts or leads, the contacts or leads can be linked to an existing campaign.

Proceed to step 3/4 by clicking Continue.

Importing – step 3/4

In step 3/4 you can still cancel the import. In this step, you can see the summary of how many records are created and updated and you can choose between an automatic and a manual merging of the data. Automatic merging will merge the data to the first found entity which matches the Match column row (either in CRM or in CSV-file). By merging manually, you can decide for each individual row which data to keep.

In the manual merge the system will mark the selected fields with green colour. Click on the field in the column you want to keep – the green selection will move vertically in different rows according to what you choose. The fields marked green are kept. In the first column it is shown whether the row is an original row in the CRM or a row from the CSV file. Finally, click the Merge button to merge the manual choices.

Importing – step 4/4

In step 4/4 you can see the time spent on importing and you can download a log file, which has details of the actions done for the processed data.

CSV Import