Help Center

Docs

Importing Your Data

Bring your first records over from a spreadsheet or from the system you are leaving

Bring your data into the CRM

A move takes the files you already have, works out what is in them, asks you about anything it cannot settle on its own, and writes nothing until you have seen what would happen. It covers 74 kinds of record, from your companies and people through to your invoices, your tickets and the settings behind them.

Who can import
Import & Migration sits inside the Admin Panel, and what opens it is the Bulk Import permission on your role. That permission is enough on its own: it is the one admin page a role without admin panel access can still reach, so you do not need to be an admin to run a move. A role with admin panel access reaches the page too. Bulk Import is a permission rather than a job title, and it carries a scope: some roles hold it for the whole workspace, some for their team, and some only for the records they own. If you cannot reach Import & Migration, ask whoever manages roles in your workspace to give your role Bulk Import.

Your first move, step by step

Start to finish. Nothing is written until you have seen what would happen.

1

Open Import & Migration

Open the Admin Panel from your account menu, then pick Import & Migration under Data in the admin sidebar. The address bar reads /admin/import once you are there. Choose Start a move.

2

Say where the records are coming from

Pick the system you are leaving, or say it is a spreadsheet. This is a question we ask rather than a guess we make, and knowing the answer is what lets us read that system's own column names without you renaming anything. You can change your answer at any point before the move runs.

3

Drop in every file you have

All of them at once, not one at a time. Nothing is imported yet. We say what we think each file is, and you can correct us on the file itself. We read CSV files, Excel workbooks saved as .xlsx, and JSON. Older .xls workbooks are not read, so save those as .xlsx or CSV first.

4

Check what we found

Every column we read is listed with the word we used for it: Matched, Best guess, Not matched. Change anything that went somewhere you did not expect, and give a home to anything we had none for, or leave it out.

5

Answer the questions

Two records that might be one, people whose company is not in your workspace yet, a date that could be read two ways. Each question shows the real rows behind it. Anything you would rather not settle now can wait, and the move goes ahead without it.

6

Look at the preview, then move

The preview counts what would happen to each kind of record and shows you a sample. Nothing has been written up to this point. Once you go ahead you can close the tab: the run carries on and the report shows where it got to.

Starter files

A file with our column names already in it, and two rows showing the shape of each one.

You do not need one of these. We read the column names your old system already writes, and a spreadsheet of your own is fine as it is. A starter file is for the case where you are typing the list out fresh, or where you want to see exactly what we expect before you export anything. Each one carries the headings for that record type and two example rows you should replace with your own.

Companies

The companies or accounts list out of the system you are leaving.

Download Template
People

The contacts or people export from the system you are leaving.

Download Template
Deals

The deals, opportunities or pipeline export.

Download Template

Getting your file ready

Worth five minutes before you upload anything.

  • What we read. We read CSV files, Excel workbooks saved as .xlsx, and JSON. Older .xls workbooks are not read, so save those as .xlsx or CSV first.
  • Column names. The first row has to be the column names. They do not have to match ours, and we show you what we did with each one before anything is written.
  • Text. Save as UTF-8, so accents and non-Latin scripts survive the trip. Commas separate the columns in a CSV.
  • Blank rows. Delete the empty rows at the bottom of the sheet. They read as records with nothing in them.
  • Tidy first, not after. Consistent country names, one shape of phone number, and no duplicate rows will save you answering the same question several times on the Decisions step.

The order things arrive in

We will bring these in this order so the links hold.

You do not have to sort your files, and you do not have to upload them in any particular order. We work out the order ourselves and bring the records in so that everything a row points at is already there when we write it. Companies land before the people who work at them, and both land before the deals that name them.

Sizes, and putting it back

How much goes in one file, and how long you have to change your mind.

  • One file can hold up to 10,000 rows.
  • One file can be up to 10 megabytes.
  • You can undo a move for 30 days after it finishes.
  • You can undo a single file import for 24 hours after it finishes.
  • One cap covers every kind of record. A file over it can be split, and the pieces go into the same move.
  • The undo lives on the move's own report. It asks you to type UNDO first, because anything changed by hand since the move goes with it.
  • The two undos are not the same permission. A single file import can be put back by anyone who can import, for 24 hours after that file finishes. A whole move is put back by an administrator, under the Admin permission on their role, for 30 days after the move finishes.

We take this on for moves of up to 50,000 records. Above that we will talk it through with you first.

What is not coming across.
Before the move runs, we show you a block under exactly that heading listing what the system you are leaving holds that we do not bring across. Read it there rather than finding out afterwards, and the same block is repeated on the report.