If your companies and contacts data live in another system, that's no problem. You can easily import to Upsales using a spreadsheet. 

This article covers:

• Preparing data
• Importing data
  • Select type of import
  • Missing data
  • Connecting columns
  • Avoiding duplicates
  • Start the import
• Importing: Good to know
  • Importing checkbox data
  • Dates
  • Overwriting Imported Data
  • Country codes

Preparing data

You can also import your data using our downloadable import template (.xls). To use the import template, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Account → Data management → Import data
2. Click to import companies and contacts, or products:
   
   
   
   
3. Upsales offers you templates localised to either your default language in Upsales or English. Click to download your preferred template
   
   
4. Enter or copy/paste your information into the template. You only need to complete the columns with information you are actually importing (you can delete the unused columns)
5. If the import template doesn't include what you want to import, just create a new column in the spreadsheet. If Upsales doesn't have the field you want to import, you can create a custom field

Importing data

1. Go to Account → Data management → Import data
2. Click or drag to upload your file:
   
   
3. You can upload using .xls or .xlsx format
4. You don’t need to put the information in any particular order at this stage. You’ll be mapping the columns from your spreadsheet to the Upsales fields

Select type of import

Update: Select this if you only want to update your existing companies, contacts, or products. No new companies, contacts, or products will be created. 

Create & update: Select this if you want to create new or update existing companies, contacts, or products. New companies, contacts, or products might be created. 

Missing data

Upsales tells you if your spreadsheet is missing information for a particular row:

If this happens, at the top of your screen you have the option to upload a new file with the missing data:

Connecting columns

For Upsales to know where the information should be placed in the system you must match the data from your uploaded file with Upsales fields. Below shows an example where Upsales asks to match the Address column in an uploaded file.

1. Click the dropdown and you can choose your preferred field in Upsales
2. Don't want to include the field? Click Don't import this column.
   
   
   
   
3. Empty columns are set to "don't import" by default

Avoiding duplicates

To avoid importing duplicates, we recommend including the company ID, contact ID, or product ID. 

The best way to avoid creating duplicates is to match the company, contact, or product in your file with existing items in Upsales using a unique value. Such as an Upsales ID. If you don't have the ID you can match it with an email address or name. 

How the matching works:

1. Select what field/fields we should match on
2. Start import
3. The system will go through the file and compare the selected fields (step 1) with similar in Upsales.
4. If we find a match: the contact, company, or product will be updated. 
5. If we don't find a match: a new contact, company, or product will be created. (If the type of import is set to "Create & Update", else nothing new will be created).

Start the import

When you're ready to import, you'll see a summary of your file status. This includes a clickable dropdown showing any potential issues. Upsales also tells you which field, so you can quickly find and fix them:

Importing: Good to know

Importing checkbox data

If you want to import checkbox data, the cells in the import file must be marked as on or off (in lower case) for checked/unchecked boxes.

Dates

Dates need to imported as raw text. Here's how:

1. Copy the whole date column from your spreadsheet file.
2. Paste the information into a raw text program such as Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac)
3. Create a new column in your spreadsheet and select the Text format for that column.
4. Copy all of the information in your text file.
5. Paste the information into the new date column.
6. Delete the previous date column, or rename it to make sure you choose the right column when importing the file.

Overwriting Imported Data

You can also use the import process to update existing company and contact data in Upsales. An empty cell in your spreadsheet won't overwrite empty or populated fields in Upsales.

Country codes

When importing country data, use a two-letter country code (based on Alpha-2 code).

more on uploading files and mapping data