Preparing your data
The key to a successful data import is the preparation of your data. Following these steps will help ensure there are fewer errors in the files which are returned to you.
This web clip shows you the key points to follow
Prepare your data
- The first row is a header row that describes the data contained in each column.
- The second row, and each subsequent row contains a single record to be imported.
- Remove special characters from headers
- Make sure the header name doesn’t start with a number
- Ensure that each record has a company name at minimum
- Try to head the columns in your spreadsheets the same as those in your Gold-Vision database.
- If there are columns in your spreadsheet which you are not worried about importing – delete and remove them before saving. Also remove any blank columns.
- There should only be one worksheet in the Excel workbook
Check your data for commas
- The most common file type imported is a .csv created from Excel. If commas are present in the file, this will prevent the data import working as these will be seen as delimiters (characters marking the end of a field).
- In Excel, CTRL + F to open the Find window
- Find commas
- If you have commas present, use Replace to clear them or convert the file (see below)
Convert Unicode characters
Does your data contain Unicode characters?
If your data contains characters such as £ á Á é É í ó ü ß you will also need to convert your file as above. Checklist| Data Type | What to do |
| Does your data contain dates? | Dates should be in the format YYYY/MM/DD 2019/12/01 (DD/MM/YYYY also works, but the above is the preferred format) |
| Address Fields | Ensure address fields are not all in one cell with carriage returns, they should be in individual fields eg Address 1, Address 2, Address 3. |
| Spilt Contact Names | If First and last names have been stored together they should be in two columns Firstname and lastname. You can do this by using the text to columns functionality in Excel alternatively if this moves your data into multiple columns for a large portion of your data we may be able to assist with Excel functions which can be run over your data. |
| Account Managers / Users | Ensure that if you have names of Sales people or internal users who own the Company or Contact records that these names match users in Gold-Vision. |
| Drop Down Options | Ensure that the drop down options in your spreadsheet match those in GoldVision otherwise new drop down options will be added from the import or alternatively it is possible to choose not to add these options however this will cause the rows to error. |
| Notes | If importing Notes, there is a limit of 4000 characters. If more in the file, the line will error. Ensure line breaks and carriage returns have been removed. |
| Make sure all your records contain the match keys – if not, split the file | Areas such as duplicate identity & match keys, considerations for data mapping and risk assessment need careful attention. If you are doing an Accounts and Contacts import you will need to ensure that all the Accounts have a match key (eg Account name and postcode) and all the Contacts have a match key (eg email address) |
| Check boxes | If you are trying to set Check boxes during the data import ensure that the value in your spreadsheet is either set to True or False. |
| Check for line endings/carriage returns | Remove because will break your import as the tool uses these to know it’s the end of the record. |
Using the Convertor will eliminate most of the unwanted characters, spaces and carriage returns.
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