Import Organizations from External Source


If you have your data in .csv or .vcf format, you can import thousands of records instantly and effectively. PE Front Office supports importing data into different modules including Leads, Contacts, Organizations, Opportunities, etc.



Check List

1.Mandatory Fields
Make sure your file addresses all mandatory fields. For instance, Last Name and Assigned To fields are mandatory in Contacts module. You cannot proceed with importing until or unless you have a value within these fields of your .csv file. If the value of mandatory fields is empty, they will be set to '????'.


2.File Size
Make sure that the file to be imported does not exceed 5 MB size.


3.Permissions
Admin users can disable Import access to non-admin users from profile level. If you can't find the Import option, you should contact your Administrator to enable Import permission for your profile.


Getting Started


This tutorial will walk you through different steps involved in importing records into your PE Front Office account. The entire process is simple and straightforward.


Follow few simple steps to import data into PE Front Office

  1. Click [Module] tab. Eg: Leads, Contacts, etc.
  2. Click Import icon 1_csvImportIcon.png at the top.

Step 1: Select File


In the first step of importing process, you'll need to browse and upload your import file from your machine.


Here's how to select your.csv file.


Click on the Choose File button, browse for desired file that is to be imported. Csv and vcf are the two file formats currently supported.


ImportingStep2.png


Step 2: Specify Format


In the second step of importing process, you'll need to specify import file properties. The details of each property are explained below.


ImportingStep3.png


a. File Type : PE Front Office supports two different file types namely: .csv and .vcf. Select the appropriate value from the File Type dropdown that describes the format of the file you've selected in Step:1. For instance, if you've uploaded .csv file, select .csv from File Type field.


b. Character Encoding : Make sure you select the right character set in which your import file has been encoded. You'll need to select right encoding of the file irrespective of the file contents.


c. Delimiter : PE Front Office supports comma (,) and semicolon(;) as field delimiters. The fields in your .csv file are recognized only if they are separated with delimiters. More often, in a csv file, fields are separated with commas(,). To know more about delimiters, click click here


d. Header : While importing, the header of your .csv file is compared with fields in PE Front Office. Having a header makes it easy for you to map fields. Click on Has Header checkbox if your file has a header. First row of your csv file is considered as a header. Please make sure that you uncheck the Has Header field if your file doesn't have a header. To know more about headers, click click here


ImportHeaderFile4.png


Step 3: Duplicate Record Handling


This is an optional step and comes into play if you would enable the checkbox in Step-3 of the import process. This option will help you in tracing out duplicate records. You can also configure the actions to be performed on duplicate records: skip, overwrite and merge. And finally, select desired fields for duplicate lookup by moving fields from the list of Available Fields to Fields to be matched on by using the right and left arrows.


ImportingStep5.png


Following actions can be performed on duplicate records


Skip : After import, duplicate records are identified based on fields criteria. If your PE Front Office and .csv file have records in common, to avoid redundant data, duplicate records in .csv file are not imported into PE Front Office.


Overwrite :After import, duplicate records are identified based on fields criteria. If your PE Front Office and .csv file have records in common, to avoid redundant data, the records in .csv file are imported and replaced with records in PE Front Office.


Merge : After import, duplicate records are identified based on fields criteria. Merge, unlike overwrite and skip, checks for duplicate records first and then captures only useful information from your .csv file and updates it in your PE Front Office. Learn more


Here's a sample image that depicts how all these properties work


Step 4: Map CRM Fields


In the final step of import process, you will need to map import file Header/Column to fields in PE Front Office. Fields will be automatically mapped if your csv file's header matches with PE Front Office field label.


MappingImport6.png


You can provide default values for mapping fields which will be picked up in case if the value for any field in file will be empty.


DefaultValueMapping7.png


Also, frequently used mappings can be saved and reused.


SaveMapping8.png


Saved mappings will be accessible across all users. You can delete the saved mappings by clicking on Trash icon.


SavedMapping9.png


After successfully mapping fields, click Import button.


Import Results


After successfully importing records into PE Front Office, the imported results are displayed in tabular format.


ImportResult10.png


  • Import More
Lets you start all new import again.
  • Last Imported Records
Displays records imported lately with the help of paging support.
  • Undo Last Import
Deletes all records that are created during the last import session. Reference records related to other modules will not be deleted.


Notifications

Import Scheduled!

If you have more than 1000 records in your file, your import will be scheduled on cron which is configured to run once in every 15 minutes. If you have configured your Outgoing Server and Email id properly, an email notification will be sent to you after successful import.


Data Corruption Error

This error shows up when the import is interrupted for various reasons like crashing in between, or cancelled by a user etc. This error indicates that the import table still has records to be imported into the system, but all the information related to the import (like mapping, default values, merge criteria) are all lost. So these records can no more be imported and the user needs to clear this data before starting any other import.


Import Locked Error

This error will be displayed if the import has been already been started on the same module by any other user in PE Front Office. The details of the module, the user, and the time at which the Import has been locked is detailed within the error message itself.

Import Interrupted Error

If an Admin user is performing import and if a non-admin user tries to start an import on the same module, he will get to see the Import Locked error. If non-admin user is doing import, and Admin user attempts to import on the same module, same time, he can be able to see the status of the current import and he will even have powers to cancel the current import; Consequently, the Import Interrupted Error will be displayed to non-admin user.


Heads Up!

  • If you would start importing in one particular module, you cannot import records into the same or any other module in PE Front Office.
  • If you would trigger import on a particular module, neither you nor any other user in PE Front Office can import records into the same module. However, other users can import records into other modules in PE Front Office.