To successfully import and structure your customer data into our system, you must ensure that your data aligns with the way our system is structured. This article provides detailed instructions, import templates, and important notes to help guide you through the process.
Customer Import vs. Work Address Import
In our system, a customer can have multiple associated work addresses. Here’s how we differentiate them:
- Customers: Represent the main property or primary address, typically used for invoicing purposes.
- Work Addresses: These are the individual properties or locations associated with a customer but distinct from the primary address. They are nested under the main customer account, making the primary customer responsible for all associated work addresses.
Examples:
- Customer: Estate Agent → Work Address: Tenant
- Customer: Building Contractor → Work Address: Site
- Customer: Landlord → Work Address: Tenant
- Customer: Restaurant HQ → Work Address: Individual Restaurant
Key Point:
When importing, you must first import the primary customers. Afterward, you can import any associated work addresses separately, ensuring they are correctly linked to their respective customer accounts. For example, if an estate agent manages 50 properties, you would first import the estate agent as a customer, then use a separate work address import file for the 50 properties.
Need to Review & Setup
Before you begin the import process, make sure the following are reviewed and set up in the system:
- Customer Type: Define the categories your customers fall into.
- Creditor Day: Set up the payment terms for your customers.
- Customer Titles: Ensure that titles (e.g., Mr., Ms., Dr.) are correctly formatted and standardised.
Importing
1. Overview
Before importing your data, it's crucial to clean and format it to match our system's requirements. We’ve provided detailed guides and templates to assist you:
Customer/Work Address Overview
Understand the relationship between customers and work addresses.
📘️Customer/work address (Overview)
▶️ Importing data: Managing the CSV file for uploading customers
Customer Import
Follow these guides for detailed steps on preparing and uploading your customer data.
📘️ Importing customers: Cleaning your data
Work Address Import
Use these guides to ensure your work addresses are correctly formatted and linked to their respective customers.
📘️ Import work addresses: Clean your data
2. Importing Data:
Customer Import
- Start by importing the primary customers using the provided template. Ensure that your data is clean and accurately represents the main properties or invoice addresses.
Work Address Import
- After importing customers, proceed to import the associated work addresses. These addresses should be linked under the correct customer accounts.
Steps to Import:
- Prepare Your Data: Ensure your data is clean, well-structured, and matches the templates provided.
- Use the Templates: Fill out the import templates accurately. The customer import template is for primary addresses, and the work address template is for any additional properties or locations.
- Submit for Review: Before uploading, send your files over to our team to review and provide feedback. This step ensures that your import will be successful and minimizes any potential issues.
- Upload Your Data: Once approved, upload your CSV files to the system.
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Monitor the Import: The system will notify you once the upload is complete or if there are any errors that caused the import to fail.
Important Notes
- Import Size: For optimal performance, limit each import file to a few thousand records, with a maximum of 5,000 records per file. If your data exceeds this limit, split it into smaller files for separate uploads.
- Import Duration: Depending on the number of records, the import process may take some time. You will be notified once the process is complete or if any issues arise.
- Data Validation: Ensure that fields such as "Customer Type," "Creditor Day," and "Customer Titles" are correctly set up before importing. Incorrect or missing data in these fields could cause the import to fail.