Importing organizations and contacts at the same time

SECURITY  Security level based on Administrator license type

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Features & Settings > Organizations & Contacts > Utilities > Organization/Contact Import > click Import

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

IMPORTANT  For updating either organizations or contacts after exporting them in import format, you must use the Organization Import Template or the Contact Import Template.

Use the Organization and Contact Import Template to import and create organizations, contacts or both. The following table provides details on how to populate the import file.

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.

*= required field

NOTE  In the template, required organization field names are preceded by [required] (no asterisk) and required contact fields are preceded by [required *] (with an asterisk). The [required*] (with an asterisk) contact fields are required only when importing or updating contacts.

Field Must be looked up in Autotask instance? Description
Organization Fields
Organization: Name*   An organization name is required.
Organization: Number   You can enter an organization number with up to 50 alphanumeric characters, used to reference external applications such as accounting software.

IMPORTANT  Your local organization is identified by organization ID 0 (zero) and may also have the Organization Number 0 (zero). Do not import a record with the organization number zero.
Organization: Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Zip Code   Enter the organization address information.
Organization: Country Yes Enter the Display Name of a country listed on > Admin > Features & Settings > Organizations & Contacts > Countries.
Organization: Additional Address Information   Additional field that can be displayed with the address. If you need to display a Tax ID or other information on customer-facing documents, enter it here.
Organization: Phone*   Required for both organization and contact imports. This phone number will be saved for both the organization and contact, unless you enter a different phone number in the Contact: Phone column.
Organization: Alternate Phone 1   Enter an additional telephone number that will be saved for both the organization and contact, unless you enter a different phone number in the Contact: Phone column.
Organization: Alternate Phone 2   If available, enter an additional telephone number that will be saved for the company only.
Organization: Fax   Enter a fax number that will be saved for both the organization and contact. If the contact has a different fax number, you can edit it later; refer to Adding and editing contacts.
Organization: Web   This URL becomes a link to launch the organization's web site from inside Autotask.
Organization: Round-Trip Distance   Enter the round-trip distance between your internal location and the customer's location. Saving the distance in the organization record lets you quickly add a charge to a ticket or project to bill for travel.
Refer to Service Desk system settings and Adding or editing a ticket charge or Adding or editing a project charge.
Organization: Type Yes A categorization that describes the relationship between you and the organization. Organization types include Customer, Lead, Prospect, Dead, Cancelation, Vendor, Partner. If you leave this field empty, the organization type defaults to the one set in the selected organization category.
Learn more about organization types in Overview of organizations.
Organization: Classification Yes Enter the name of a classification icon found on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Organizations & Contacts > Classification Icons page. Learn more about Classifications in Classification icons.
Organization Category Yes This column is optional. If no value is entered, organizations are imported using the default organization category. Learn more about organization categories in Managing categories.
Organization: Account Manager (this refers to the account manager for this organization) Yes Enter an Account Manager in Lastname, Firstname format from the list of Resources in your Autotask instance ( > Admin > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users).
The Account Manager is the person in your organization who takes ownership and overall responsibility for the organization relationship. Organizations where you are the account manager or a team member can be found under My > CRM > Organizations. Also, your security level may be configured to give you additional permissions for Mine organizations.
If you leave this field blank, the field defaults to the name of the resource performing the import.
Organization: Territory, Organization: Market Segment, Organization: Competitor Yes These fields can be found here: > Admin > Features & Settings > Organizations & Contacts. They provide criteria for both searching and reporting and have been customized by your Administrator. For more information, refer to Territories, Market segments and Competitors.
Organization: Parent Organization Yes If the new organization will be the sub-organization of an existing organization, enter the Parent Organization Name. Sub-organizations of another organization cannot be selected as a parent organization.
To learn more about parent organizations and sub-organizations, refer to Overview of organizations.
Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn URL   Enter the organization's links to social media sites.
Stock Symbol, Stock Market, SIC Code   Enter the organization's stock symbol, stock market, and SIC code, if available.
Asset Value   Enter the asset value of the organization in text format.
Organization: Organization Alert, Organization: New Ticket Alert, Organization: Ticket Detail Alert   Enter alert messages that will appear on the Organization, New Ticket, and Ticket page of the selected organization. For specifics on alerts, refer to The Organization and Contact Alerts tabs.
Currency (available if Multi-currency is enabled) Yes Enter the three-letter name of a currency. If no country is provided or the country provided has no currency selected, the internal currency will be used. If the column is left blank when you update existing organizations, it will not cause the currency of the organization to be changed.
Organization: Tax Region Yes Enter the tax jurisdiction whose tax rules will apply to this organization. The list of valid tax regions can be found here: > Admin > Features & Settings > Finance, Accounting & Invoicing > Tax Regions & Categories. Tax Regions must already be set up in your Autotask instance. Refer to Configuring your tax table.
Organization: Tax-Exempt  

Enter Yes or No.

  • When importing new records, this field defaults to No if it is left blank. If the organization is tax-exempt, Tax ID and Tax Region are ignored.

  • When updating existing records, the current value is retained, even if this field is left blank.

QuickBooks Users Note: The tax-exempt status flag is transferred to QuickBooks with a new customer.
Organization: Tax ID   Enter the tax identification (ABN, ACN, VAT...) number for this organization.
Organization: Invoice Template Yes The invoice template determines the appearance of all invoices published to this organization. If left blank, it defaults to the template associated with the organization's country or the global default template, if there is no country default. If you want to assign a different template, enter the template name here. Invoice templates you can select are found on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Finance, Accounting & Invoicing > Invoice Templates page.

Organization: Invoice Email Message

Yes

When you send an invoice to a customer, Autotask automatically produces an email message to accompany the invoice. Email message templates control the content of those messages. If you leave this field blank, the default Invoice Email Message will be used. If you want to assign a different email message, enter the message name here. Invoice email messages you can select are found on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Finance, Accounting, & Invoicing > Invoice Email Messages page.
Organization: Contact Invoice Recipient (single value)

Yes

The contact recipient is the customer contact to whom the invoice is emailed. Select or enter the customer contacts to whom you would like to send the invoice email when invoices are processed.

  • If the organization is a sub-organization of another organization, you can select a contact from the list of parent organization contacts that appear after the sub-organization contacts.
  • When importing organizations, you can enter only one name. The import will fail if the Contact Invoice Recipient (single value) is invalid and or inactive.
Organization: Resource Invoice Recipient (single value) Yes

The resource recipient is the internal user to whom the invoice is emailed. Select or enter the user name to whom you would like to send the invoice email when invoices are processed

  • When importing organizations, you can enter only one name. The import will fail if the Resource Invoice Recipient (single value) is invalid and or inactive.
Organization: Quote Template Yes The quote template determines the appearance of all quotes published to this organization. If left blank, it defaults to the template associated with the organization's country or the global default template, if there is no country default. If you want to assign a different template, enter the template name here. Quote templates you can select are found on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Sales & Opportunities > Quote Templates page.
Organization: Quote Email Message Yes When you publish a quote to a customer, Autotask automatically produces an email message to accompany the quote. Email message templates control the content of those messages. If you leave this field blank, the default Quote Email Message will be used. If you want to assign a different email message, enter the message name here. Quote email messages you can select are found on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Sales & Opportunities > Quote Email Messages page.
Organization: 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. Refer to Lookup Fields in the table Duplicate criteria for imports.
Organization: Enable Invoice Emailing

 

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

If no email message template is supplied, the system default template will be used.

Organization: Email Invoices to Account Manager

 

Enter yes to send a copy of the email to the account manager, no to turn it off. Leaving the field blank will mean the feature is turned off.

If no email message template is supplied, the system default template will be used.

Organization: QuickBooks Transmission Method (if QuickBooks integration is enabled)

 

Accepts the following inputs:

  • Email

  • Print

  • Print+Email or Print + Email
Organization, Site Configuration and 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
Contact Fields
Contact: External ID   Enter a contact ID from an external CRM system.
Contact: Prefix and Contact: 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 & Settings > Organizations & Contacts > Name Prefixes and Suffixes page.
Contact: First Name*, Contact: Middle Name, Contact: Last Name*  

You can use this template to import organizations only, contacts only, or both.

If you import contacts, first and last names are required, and you must populate the Organization: Name and Organization: Phone Number to ensure that the contact is added to the correct organization.
Contact: Title   Enter the job title for the contact.
Contact: Email Address*   Enter the contact's email address. The email address is required when importing contacts.
Contact: Email Address 2 and Contact: Email Address 3   Enter one or two additional email addresses for this contact. These addresses will be used for searches and incoming email processing.
Contact: Location Yes Enter the associated organization location where applicable. If the contact address fields are blank, the address for this location will be used as the contact address. Refer to The Locations tab.

If the import is being used to update a contact that does not yet have an address and the import address fields are blank, the address for this location will be used.
Contact: Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Zip Code   Enter the address associated with the contact. If you leave these fields blank but have assigned a location, the location address will be used.

If the import is being used to update a contact that does not yet have an address and these fields are blank, the location address will be used.
Contact: Country Yes Enter the Display Name of a country listed on > Admin > Features & Settings > Organizations & Contacts > Countries.
Contact: Additional Address Information   Additional field that can be displayed with the address. If you need to display a Tax ID or other information on customer-facing documents, enter it here.
Contact: 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.
Contact: Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn URL   Enter the contact's links to social media sites.
Contact: 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 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.

If you update the Client Portal username, the email notification will be re-sent.
Contact: 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.
Contact: 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.
Contact: 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. Refer to Lookup Fields in the table Duplicate criteria for imports.
Contact: 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.
Contact: Billing Product Yes The billing product must be set up on the > Admin > Features & Settings > Products, Services, & Inventory > Products page.
Contact: Billing Product Effective Date   Defaults to the current date.
Contact: Billing Product Expiration Date   Defaults to blank.

Contact: Accepts Task/Ticket Email (yes/no)

 

Populate this field with Yes to allow email notification of the contact on a task or ticket.
Contact: Contact Detail Alert, Contact: New Ticket Alert, Contact: 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.

Contact: 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.

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