Populating the Contact import template

BEFORE YOU BEGIN  Please review the general instructions for importing and updating data in Autotask in this topic: Importing or updating data.

The Contact Import template allows you to import contacts into Autotask for organizations that are already in your Autotask instance, and to update existing contacts. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.

There are three fields that do not appear in the Export in Import Template Format template. To update these fields, you should use the import template from the Contact Import page in Admin. Those fields are Contact Group Name, New Email Address, and Email Invoices.

NOTE  Contacts imported in Client Portal/Taskfire will appear in this table. The name of the contact that performed the import will appear, followed by the organization name in parenthesis.

NOTE  If you see a check mark in the Must be looked up in Autotask instance? column, it means that, in the Autotask user interface, a value is selected from a list. You may use selections that are currently inactive, but they must exist. Navigate to the page shown in the Description column and look up the valid options.

The following columns are available:

Field Must be looked up in Autotask instance? Description
Organization ID*, Organization Name*   Either organization ID or organization name is required.
Contact ID (updates only)   Enter the contact ID when making updates to a contact to prevent the creation of duplicates. This is a system-generated ID and can be found when exporting contacts in import template format.
External ID   Enter a contact ID from a different CRM system.
Prefix and Suffix
Yes Enter a name prefix such as Mr., Ms., etc. or a suffix such as Jr. The list of Name prefixes and suffixes is configurable. Prefixes and suffixes must be entered on the > Admin > Features and Settings > Organizations and Contacts > Name Prefixes and Suffixes page.
First Name*,  Middle Name, Last Name*   First and last names are required, and you must populate Organization: Name and Organization: Phone Number to ensure that the contact is added to the correct organization.
Title   Enter the job title for the contact.
Email Address*   Enter the contact's email address. The email address is required when importing contacts.

To update an email address, refer to New Email Address.

Email Address 2 and Email Address 3   Enter one or two additional email addresses for this contact. These addresses will be used for searches and incoming email processing.
Location Yes Enter the associated organization location where applicable. Refer to The Locations tab.
Address Fields   If you leave a contact's address fields (Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Zip Code, Country, Additional Address Information) blank, they will default to the organization's address. If the contact has a different address (for example a home office), enter it here.

NOTE  If both Address 1 and the Location field are populated, since Address 1 is listed after Location, the Address 1 value will always override the Location value.

Phone   Enter the contact's phone number.
Extension, Alternate Phone, Mobile Phone, Fax   Enter the contact's extension, alternate phone, mobile phone, and fax number.
Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn URL   Enter the contact's links to social media sites.
Client Portal User Name, Client Portal Security Level   If you include a Client Portal username for a contact in your import file, Client Portal is activated for the organization and the new Client Portal user will receive an email notification with their username and password (which is automatically generated).

If you update the Client Portal username, the email notification will be re-sent.

If the import includes a Client Portal security level, it must match either a system or custom Client Portal Security Level. If no Client Portal security level is provided, the security level is set to the default Basic security level.

Contact Group Name Yes To add the contact to an existing Contact Group, enter the Contact Group Name here. Refer to Adding and managing contact groups.

NOTE  This field does not appear in the Export in Import Template Format option from the Contact search table. Use the import template available on the Import Contacts page in Admin to update this field. 

New Email Address   To update a contact's email address, you must provide the new address in the Contact: New Email Address column of the .CSV spreadsheet. The original email address is also required in the column [required] Contact: Email Address, because it is used to verify the contact.

NOTE  This field does not appear in the Export in Import Template Format option from the Contact search table. Use the import template available on the Import Contacts page in Admin to update this field. 

Active/Inactive   When you import new items, enter the word Active to activate and Inactive to inactivate. Leaving the column blank will also activate.

When you update existing items when importing, enter the word Active to activate, Inactive to inactivate, and leave the column blank to do nothing (the current Active/Inactive status will not change). If the column contains any text other than Active or Inactive, the import will fail.

Primary Contact   If the Primary Contact field in the import template is populated with Yes, the associated contact will be set as primary contact for the organization.
  • If the organization has an existing designated primary contact, the imported contact will replace that contact as primary contact.
  • If the import template Primary Contact field is populated for more than one imported contact from the same organization, the last contact listed in the import template will be assigned as the organization's primary contact.
  • If you are updating the existing primary contact and this field is blank, the contact will remain the primary contact, since blank import fields do not touch existing values.
Billing Product Yes If you are planning to bill this customer by the contact, you can import the billing product you want to use. The billing product must be set up on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Products, Services, & Inventory > Products page. Refer to Billing by the contact or device.
Billing Product Effective Date   Defaults to the current date.
Billing Product Expiration Date   Defaults to blank.

Accepts Task/Ticket Email (yes/no)

 

Populate this field with Yes to allow email notification of the contact on a task or ticket. If the field is left blank, the existing value is preserved.

Contact Detail Alert, New Ticket Alert, Ticket Detail Alert   Enter alert messages that will appear on the Contact, New Ticket, and Ticket pages for the selected contact. For more information on contact alerts, refer to The Organization and Contact Alerts tabs.
Email Invoices

 

Enter yes to enable invoice emailing for this contact, no to turn it off. Leaving the field blank will mean invoice emailing is turned off.

NOTE  This field does not appear in the Export in Import Template Format option from the Contact search table. Use the import template available on the Import Contacts page in Admin to update this field. 

Contact User-Defined Fields   User-defined fields for all entities that support them can be imported and exported, with one exception: UDFs of type List (Multi Select) cannot be exported or imported. Inactive list options can be imported and exported as well. Required UDFs cannot be left blank, or the import will fail. UDFs are identified as such and appear after all system field columns.To learn more about how to set up and use UDFs, refer to Managing user-defined fields

To find out how to reverse an import, refer to Rolling back an import.