Can I Update Campaign Members by Csv Upload to Salesforce

By: David Okner, Principal Technical Consultant, Salesforce.org

Successfully importing data using the NPSP Data Import Tool is a challenge for many nonprofit customers, especially crafting your files and deciphering all of the column headers in the import template. Hither are some suggestions to simplify the data import process. The post-obit NPSP data import suggestions are based on my experience working in technical support, where I worked on over a thousand data import back up cases, and also a few hundred pro bono projects.

Prepare Up Data Imports One Step at a Fourth dimension

While some documentation may advise you to import everything all at once, I recommend breaking upward your data into 4 smaller imports. To set up yourself up for success, organize the data in a style to get in as easy as possible to see (and fix) bad data.

The reason is, you want to be able to see and catch any bug in the data rapidly and hands.

Recall, you are going to spend 99.ix% of your fourth dimension in your CSV checking the data and making sure it'due south pristine, and so why non get in every bit like shooting fish in a barrel on yourself as possible?

Some may say you are making iv times the work for yourself by making four files instead of just one, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, and then allow'due south take a look at what the four files are and why.

Create 4 Files to Ameliorate Your Information Imports

I recommend using the following 4 files to improve your data import:

1. Arrangement Accounts without Donations
2. Household Accounts without Donations
3. Organizations with Donations
4. Household Accounts with Donations

Why? Information technology is much easier to catch whatsoever inconsistencies when dealing with fewer columns, too to grab as any mistakes in the data itself.

For example, when you lot are importing "Organisation Accounts without Donations," your CSV would be a total of 8 columns before calculation any custom field columns.

Past having a streamlined CSV file, it makes it easier for yous to cheque for things like:

• Did Excel remove that leading cypher in a ZIP code? 08408 tin can become 8408 if you're not careful.
• Are all of your U.S. states upper case, or exercise you accept a mixture of majuscule and lowercase state names?
• What about your country? Was in that location an abbreviation used or was it spelled out?
• Are phone columns uniformly formatted?

Being able to quickly run across these kinds of issues is i of the reasons for breaking the import into four hands managed files.

Another example is when importing "Household Accounts with Donations." Mayhap you want to assign "Hard Credit" to Contact2? If you are using the Master Template, you would non be able to do that since when importing donations the "Donation Donor" can only exist "Contact1." By creating a separate Donation Template, each private becomes "Contact1" no thing if they are the Primary Contact or just a member of the household. Then now that the system see'due south them equally "Contact1," you tin can easily assign Hard Credit to any individual. This tin be a huge advantage when y'all are doing a data migration from an older or legacy system.

Tips & Tricks: Date Fields, Currency Symbols and Preferred Columns in Data Imports

Are your date fields all set up the same? Watch out for this in your import. Appointment fields should to be formatted with two digits in each field, or two/ii/two. For example 01/01/19.

In Excel v 16.16.10 and higher, it has this format available, but if you are working in an older version of Excel, I would propose using your spreadsheet to do the initial formatting, then select the entire column, then copy the column and paste it into a text editor.

Then in Excel, format the column to "text." At this point, your dates volition disappear. Now select and copy the column you pasted into the text editor, and now paste it back into your column in Excel. Doing this procedure prevents Excel from irresolute the Date format.

Another common issue I've seen is that the Amount column should be formatted equally a number with 2 decimal places, just with no currency symbols. People see Amount and recollect it needs a currency symbol, just the arrangement will fault out if your values have one. This means: if you add a currency symbol to the "any corporeality" value in the donation amount column, when yous practise the import, it will neglect for each record that has the currency symbol.

Likewise, one of the most confusing things when importing data comes from the "Preferred" columns.

For the NPSP Data Import Process, the "Preferred" columns represents "habitation" or "work" not an actual email or phone number.

The "Preferred" columns tell the system which is the main value for either Email or Phone, but as Donation Donor will either be Account1 or Contact1 and not an bodily name of the organisation account or proper name of the donor/contact.

If you happen to exist importing a household with more than ii donors or Contacts, and so you'll need to pay close attention to the primary contact entries so that only the matching criteria is listed for the tertiary or 4th fellow member of the household.

Here's an instance with multiple household members:

As you can see, row 2 is the household data. This will include all biographical data for both Contact1 and Contact2, including address information for the household.

If you lot also want to import other members of the household, you should down-make full. In Excel, become to Edit >> Fill >> Down or echo only the matching data y'all have specified in the NPSP import tool. This will either be first/final/email or first/last/phone.

In this example, I am using commencement/last/email. Call up, information technology is best to have iii data points when matching records. By having three data points, i.e. beginning/last/email or first/last/phone, you force the system to assign the donation or household members to the only record that matches all three data points.

In row three in the above screenshot, there is the commencement/terminal/email info for Contact1, the main contact, and goose egg else. This is the matching information that the NPSP Data Import Tool uses to match against existing records. In this row there will be no other emails or phone numbers for Contact1/The Primary Contact. Only the matching information.

Then add all the biographical information for the new contact ii – which is actually your 3rd fellow member of the household. You can repeat this for every bit many members of the household equally needed.

Cardinal Information to Put in 4 Files for Data Imports

Ok, we've talked about formatting and nosotros've talked about matching information and Donation Donor, let's meet what'south in these four files that makes them easy to use.

NOTE: All of these column headers are derived from the NPSP Data Importer Template, a.grand.a. the Chief Template.

Something people enquire all the time is: "Practise I really need to delete the empty columns?" The quick answer is no, you tin leave them there, and information technology will non do any impairment or crusade any issues with the import.

But my recommendation is: if you do non take any information for a column, DELETE the cavalcade.

This helps your file to be equally clean as possible. It is OK to go out the column in the file, simply again, you want your file to exist clutter-gratuitous. This helps attain the goal of making your file every bit streamlined as yous can to visually run into bad data. The empty column could distract you lot.

Remember, everything within the tables below are Column Headers.

Creating Four Templates for Better Data Imports

Open upwardly the Master Template. The commencement template to create is "Organisation Accounts Without Donations."

Next, scroll to the right until you become to the Account1 section.

Now select these column headers:

• Account1 Proper noun
• Account1 Street
• Account1 Urban center
• Account1 Land/Province
• Account1 Zip/Postal Lawmaking
• Account1 Country
• Account1 Phone
• Account1 Website

Paste them into a new workbook in Excel, and save the file as a CSV:

The next template to create would be the "Household Accounts without Donations." Follow the same procedure equally for the previous 1 in "Organisation Accounts Without Donations." And so in the Master Template, coil to the left and re-create all of these cavalcade headers:

Paste them into a new workbook, and then salve it as a CSV.

For this template, the "Account1 Name" column allows you to create an affiliation record to an organization account by just entering the Name of the organization account.

If you exercise not import the data in the social club that's laid out in the template (Organizations first), you lot could accidentally create duplicate System accounts. This is considering the NPSP Data Import Process volition create an Organization Business relationship if it does non find an account to friction match against, if you have a value in this column.

The next template to create would be the "Organizations with Donations." Again, follow the aforementioned procedure. In the Master Template, scroll to the right and copy all donation column headers:

So paste them into a new workbook. Insert a cavalcade to the left of the donation columns you lot only pasted and insert "Account1 Proper name."

In this template, Donation Donor is "Account1." The Donation Donor column tells the arrangement whom to lucifer the donation to. Information technology'southward not the name of an business relationship or person.

When importing donations, in that location are some columns that you may not need. Remember, you want your import file to exist equally clean as possible.

• Account1 Proper name – required
• Donation Donor – Account1
• Donation Amount – required
• Donation Date – required
• Donation Proper name – you lot only need to input any value if you are importing a specific name. Otherwise, delete the column and let the system name the donation.
• Donation Record Type Name – But put in a value if yous are importing something other than "Donation".
• Donation Stage – But put in a value if you are importing something other than the "Closed Won" stage.
• Donation Blazon – This is a picklist on the opportunity object. If you're not using it, then delete the column.
• Donation Description – Y'all tin import a clarification. If you are not using that field, so delete the column.
• If you lot apply the following for membership donations, import these – otherwise, delete the cavalcade:
• Donation Fellow member Level
• Donation Membership Commencement Engagement
• Donation Membership End Date
• Donation Membership Origin
• Campaign Name – E'er acquaintance a donation to a entrada. By putting in a value here, the system will create a campaign for you.
• Campaign Member Condition – You can put in a custom status hither.
• Payment Check/Reference Number – Optional. If you are not entering a value, and then delete the column
• Payment Method – Optional. If y'all are not inbound a value, so delete the column

The last template to create would be the "Household Accounts with Donations", you would follow the aforementioned process. So what I would do is do a "Relieve As" with the template you just created for "Organizations with Donations" and then name it "Household Accounts with Donations".

You and then replace "Account1 Name" with the matching criteria you are using for your contacts/constituents, either Commencement/Last/E-mail or First/Last/Phone.

In this template, Donation Donor is "Contact1." The Donation Donor column tells the system whom to lucifer the donation to. It's not the name of an account or person.

For the other donation columns, it will be the same equally the "Organizations with Donations".

The Bottom Line: Measure Twice, Import Once

As you tin see, getting your data organized first will improve your data quality in Salesforce, and save you lot some headaches. Although there is no "easy button" for data imports, it helps to carve out plenty of time to review and correct the CSV as many times as you need earlier heading into Salesforce to do the import.

For more details on NPSP data imports, check out this "getting started" webinar.

ATTEND THE WEBINAR

About the Author

David Okner is a Principal Technical Consultant at Salesforce.org. David has worked in the NGO Music sector for over xx years and is a major contributor of Import Pro Bono Projects. He is based in the Las Vegas, Nevada surface area. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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Source: https://www.salesforce.org/blog/how-to-import-data-into-npsp-more-effectively/

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