Importing data into Map My Customers by spreadsheet

You can easily import your customer data to Map My Customers from a spreadsheet (.csv file), including Company, People, Deal and Activity records. 

Before getting started, we highly recommended reviewing our article on how data is organized in Map My Customers. It is very important to understand how the data you’re importing will affect your ability to use Map My Customers in the most efficient way possible.

If you’re new to our import process or want to get some practice with sample data, please download our sample spreadsheet here.

Sections:

• Getting ready for an import
• Using Unique IDs
• Custom fields
• Using Groups
• Uploading your spreadsheet
• Matching spreadsheet fields
• Saved field matchings
• After your import

 Getting ready for an import

Before starting an import you must understand what kind of data you’re trying to upload. Some basic questions to help:

• Are you trying to just import a list of Companies?
• Are you trying to just import a list of People?
• Are you trying to just import a list of Deals? 
• Are you trying to just import a list of Activities?
• Do records need to be associated with one another? For example, do Deals need to be associated with a Company? 
• Do your Company records need to have a hierarchy  (i.e. companies with parent companies)? 
• Does your spreadsheet include both Companies and People you would like to link to those Companies? 
• Do you want to segment any of the imported records into Groups?
• Who should be the record owner / have access to this record?
• What custom field will be used to indicate pin colors / pin shapes?

Creating your import spreadsheet

To import your customer data into Map My Customers, you will need to create a spreadsheet of your customer data. Your spreadsheet must be just for one of Companies, People, Deals or Activity records. You can only import one type of record at a time.

Companies data

Typically, you will want to populate the following fields in the Companies records in your Map My Customers account: 

* required fields

📍required for mapping to work

• Company ID (Not required for all imports but is necessary if you intend on doing updates via imports in the future)
• Company Name*
• Parent Company ID
• Street📍
• City📍
• State
• Zip
• Country
• Phone
• Email
• Website
• Notes
• Groups
• Pin Color (Only on Legacy Accounts)

Your spreadsheet will need to have a column for each of the above fields that are required or that you wish to include. 

If you wish to import into Custom Fields - these fields must be created prior to running the import. 

 People data

Typically, you will want to populate the following fields in the People records in your Map My Customers account: 

*required fields

📍required for mapping to work

• Person ID (Not required for all imports but is necessary if you intend on doing updates via imports in the future)
• First Name*
• Last Name*
• Street📍
• City📍
• State
• Zip
• Country
• Phone
• Email
• Notes
• Pin Color (Only on Legacy Accounts)
• Company ID - including Company ID will associate your People records with the Company they belong to

Your spreadsheet will need to have a column for each of the above fields that are required or that you wish to include.

If you wish to import into Custom Fields - these fields must be created prior to running the import. 

 Deals data

Typically, you will want to populate the following fields in the Deals records in your Map My Customers account: 

*required fields

• Deal ID (Not required for all imports but is necessary if you intend on doing updates via imports in the future)
• Deal Name*
• Deal Funnel*
• Deal Stage*
• Deal Amount
• Closing Date 
• Deal Loss Reason
• Deal Loss Comment
• Notes
• Groups
• Company ID (including Company ID will associate your Deal records with the Company they belong to)
• Person ID (including People ID will associate your Deal records with the People in the Deal)

Your spreadsheet will need to have a column for each of the above fields that are required or that you wish to include. 

If you wish to import into Custom Fields - these fields must be created prior to running the import. Deal Funnels and Stages also must be created prior to importing. 

Activities data

Typically, you will want to populate the following fields in the Activities records in your Map My Customers account:

*required fields

• Activity ID
• Activity Name*
• Activity Type*
• Assignee (Email Format)
• Note
• Company ID (including Company ID will associate your Activity records with the Company they belong to)
• Person ID (including Person ID will associate your Activity records with the Person they belong to)
• Deal ID (including Deal ID will associate your Activity records with the Deal they belong to)
• Start Date (use the format MM-DD-YYYY)
• Start Time (use the format HH:MM:SS - Required if setting a Start Date)
• End Date (use the format MM-DD-YYYY)
• End Time (use the format HH:MM:SS - Required if setting an End Date) 
• Completed Date (use the format MM-DD-YYYY)
• Completed Time (use the format HH:MM:SS - Required if setting a Completed Date) 
• Completed (true or false)
• Visibility (Private, Teams, Public) 

Your spreadsheet will need to have a column for each of the above fields that are required or that you wish to include.

If you wish to import into Custom Fields - these fields must be created prior to running the import. Custom Activity Types also must be created prior to importing

Formatting your spreadsheet file

Make sure your spreadsheet conforms to the following requirements:

• File size is under 10MB (approximately 50,000 rows)
  
• The file is a CSV file (and not an XLSX file)
  • If you are using Google Sheets you can download the current sheet as a .csv by going to File > Download > Comma-separated-values (.csv, current sheet)
  • If you are using Excel you can download the current sheet as a .csv by going to File > Save As... > File Format > Select Comma Separated Values (.csv) 

• Each tab has a header row 

• Address information is formatted as follows:
  • Street Address, City, State, Postal Code, Country are in separate columns
  • If your address has a Suite or PO box number, we recommend appending this to the Street Address column or adding a Custom Field

• No special symbols
  • Make sure your spreadsheet doesn't have any symbols for numeric or monetary fields. For example, if you are importing a column for deal value, make sure that the cell just includes the number '1000' and not the symbol '$1,000'. 
  • Remove any commas, apostrophes, and trailing spaces from your file

 Using Unique IDs

Unique identifiers (also known as unique IDs) for your Customer, People, Deal and Activity records are a way to prevent duplicate records in Map My Customers. For example, if you upload two companies with different Company Names (like “Acme” and “Acme, Inc.”) with the same Customer ID, Map My Customer will recognize that as the same Company records.

This Unique ID can also be used to link two objects together (e.g. linking a Person to a Company, or a Deal to a Company). In the sample spreadsheet the fields “Company – ID” on the People and Deals tabs are an example of how you would link two objects together.

You are not required to include a Unique ID on your spreadsheet when you do an import – if you do not have one, our system will make one for you automatically. Feel free to remove this column from the Import Template if this is your case.

If you plan on updating your records in the future via import, we recommend that you add this Unique ID from the get-go so that you’re able to easily edit data in bulk when the time comes. If you don’t import with an explicit Unique ID of your own during your first import, you can always export a report from Map My Customers which will include the Unique IDs on each record.

 Custom Fields

Custom fields are non-standard fields that you can create on your own before an import.. These fields are specific to the object you’re importing – that is, you can have custom fields for Companies, People, Deals or Activities. On the sample spreadsheet there are a few example custom fields marked in orange. 

To create custom fields: 

1. Click the settings icon in the Navigation Bar.
2. Select “Custom Fields on the left menu bar 

To learn more about Custom Fields, please visit our Custom Fields article here. 

 Using Groups

Groups are a very important part of organizing your data in Map My Customers. Groups exist on the 3 “main objects” -- Companies, People, and Deals. With Groups, you can filter data in tables and maps, build custom reports, share records with teammates, and much more. Use Groups to “bucket” your data into logical groupings. For example, some folks will use Groups for categorizing Companies by customer status (e.g. active customers, prospects, lost customers), dividing Companies by the product lines they sell (e.g. product A, product B, product C), or even for grouping Deals by size so that teammates get the right Deals (e.g. SMB deals, Mid Market deals, Enterprise deals). 

You can easily assign records to a Group during import. Make sure there is a Group column for your Company, People, or Deal tab in your spreadsheet. For each record (row) in that tab, enter the name of the Group that record should be assigned to. If a record should be assigned to multiple Groups, use the same cell and just separate the names of each Group with a semicolon. In the sample spreadsheet is a proper example of how groups are to be added before importing your data. 

Note: If a record is in “group 1” and you import a spreadsheet with “group 2” in the groups column, it will no longer be in “group 1”. The most recent Group import will overwrite all Groups. 

 Uploading your spreadsheet

To begin your import: 

1. Click the “+” tab in the Navigation Bar.
2. Click “Import”
3. Click the blue “I’m ready to import” button

After you’ve landed on the upload spreadsheet page, simply select the correct object type that you’re trying to import. Next, make sure your spreadsheet is formatted as per the instructions above and then drag-and-drop it onto your screen. Lastly, click “Continue to next step.”

 Matching spreadsheet fields

This is the most exciting (and important) step of the process. After your CSV file is successfully uploaded, you’ll see a preview of your first record. 

Review each record to make sure you’ve matched the field in your spreadsheet to the correct field in Map My Customers. 

Note: Any fields that are required (standard or custom) will have an asterisk next to them. If a required field is not mapped, the “Continue to next step” button will be grayed out 

After you’re satisfied with the field matching that you’ve done, click the “Continue to next step” button.

 Saved field matchings

Matching fields together can be a time-consuming process especially if you are running the same imports regularly. Good news — you can easily save a field matching so the next time you run an import, you don't have to repeat any work.

To create a saved matching:

The first time you run an import, you'll see a blue box at the top of the field matching list. Once you have matched all desired columns to fields, click "Save matching".

 

Next, you'll be prompted to give your import a name and finalize the matching. 

 The next time you upload a spreadsheet, click on "Use a saved matching" to access all of your previously saved matchings:

To modify a saved matching:

If a saved matching is selected, you can update the fields in the interface as normal. Once changes are made, you'll need to either update the matching or save it as new:

You can modify the name of the saved matching by clicking "Edit Name" on an up-to-date matching.

 After your import

Once your import is processing, a progress bar will appear on your screen as the import continues. 

After the import is complete, a button will appear on the screen to take you back to the import history page or to visit the MMC dashboard. We recommend going back to the import history page to review any potential issues with your most recent import.

 Troubleshooting your import

What is a Skip File? 

On the import history screen you may see a “Skip File” link. Clicking this link will download a file with any rows in your spreadsheet that were skipped due to an error and not imported OR produced a Warning. The Skip File includes the row where the complication occurred and the reason why. 

For example, if one of your imported Company records didn’t include a Company Name (a required field) , this row of information will be skipped and that company would not be added to Map My Customers. If your imported file contains two records with the same Company ID, then the first record will be imported and the other will be skipped and added to the skip file.

You can download the Skip File at any time to review these errors. Once downloaded, you can make the needed corrections to skipped records in the Skip File and then re-import the Skip File to complete your import. This makes it very easy to ensure all of your data makes it into Map My Customers.