Walkthrough: Import Customers & Contacts

Overview

Customers and Contacts can be imported to take bulk action such as add a mailing address, change tax exempt status, mark as inactive, etc., This use case covers adding new Customers and Contacts in Ordway. 

Use the Customer Import option when adding Customers and Contacts. Use the Contact Import option when importing only Contacts. 

Import File Structure

The sample import file for Customers includes nested objects which are separated into individual sheets in Excel or separate files for csv. Nested Customer objects include: 

• Contacts

Important: When creating both Customers and Contacts at the same time, you must provide temporary IDs to link the Contacts to the Customers. When auto Document Numbering is enabled via Settings > Document Numbering > Customer ID and Contact ID, the temporary IDs provided in the file will be overwritten by auto-generated IDs.

Example Customers Tab

Example Contacts Tab

Step 1: Build an Import File

Be sure to review Import Basics: Build an Import File article before proceeding. 

1. In the left navigation menu, click Operations > Import Data. The Import data page is displayed.
2. Download the Customers Sample Template in the desired format; either .csv or .xls.
3. Populate the data. Reference required fields for Customer Imports. 

This use case for importing new Customers and Contacts includes: 

Customers Tab

Contacts Tab

4. Save the file when finished. 

Step 2: Import Data

1. In the left navigation menu, click Operations > Import Data. The Import data page is displayed.
   
2. Select + IMPORT next to Customers.  The Import Customer page is displayed.
   
3. Click Select File to navigate to the exported Customer data from Step 1. Accepted file types include .csv, .xlsx, or .zip.
4. Optional: Send import results in an email.
5. Click Next to continue.
6. Verify the object data to be uploaded with the corresponding spreadsheet tab.
   
7. Click Next to continue. 
8. Verify all columns are correctly mapped on the Map Columns screen for each tab in the import file. Ordway automatically maps fields with the same name. Review all mappings to ensure they are correct. 

To edit or customize available mappings, read about how to Save Field Mappings. 

Note the separate tabs, each with their own mapping fields:

Customer Tab

Contact Tab

1.  Click Next to Continue. The screen displays the number of records found. 
   
2. Click Import to continue.
3. The screen displays the total number of rows processed per tab and any rows with errors. View failed record reasons by hovering over the error icon in red on the corresponding row.

4. Fix any errors by clicking Fix Errors, then click in the individual cell to edit the value. 

   Note: Be sure to check each tab included in the import and correct all errors.

5. Example error
   
6. Once any errors are corrected, click Import.
7. Once the import completes, view the results including the number of records processed and records skipped due to errors. 
   
8. Click Done. You are automatically returned to the most recently visited page.

Related Topics

• Step 3: View Import History