Import Users in bulk

There are two files to download to support your import, there is a reference spreadsheet which you can look at to understand the import options, and there is an import template which you will edit and fill with your import data.

1. Please download our ‘BLANK’ User Import Template here (this is the file you will add your import data into):
   
   
   

2. Please download our reference Import Profile here to view all of the options for your import file:
   

   1. All mandatory fields are shown in Red

   2. All optional fields are shown in Grey

   3. This file is a reference file only
      

1. Open the ‘BLANK User Import Template’ file (download available above), this will open a blank Excel file which will only contain column headings, these will be listed in the first row
   This is the file that you will be working from, amending, and adding data to

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2. Open the ‘EXAMPLE User Import Template’ file (download available above), this will open an Excel file with further information and example data for each available import column
   This file is a useful reference, to understand what data is required in each column

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3. Within the 'BLANK User Import Template’ file, remove any columns that you do not plan to import data to, you can remove the following:

   1. CompanyName

   2. Title

   3. Middle Names

   4. UserID

   5. Status

   6. External ID

   7. Phone Number

   8. Address

   9. Town

   10. County

   11. Country

   12. Postcode

   13. Employment Start Date

   14. Employment End Date

   15. Job Title

   16. Billing Address, Billing Town, Billing County, Billing Country, Billing Postcode

   17. Alternative Address, Alternative Town, Alternative County, Alternative Country, Alternative Postcode

   18. Shipping Address, Shipping Town, Shipping County, Shipping Country, Shipping Postcode

   19. Marketing Opt In

   20. Notes

   21. Sex

   22. Job Role

   23. NI Number

   24. DOB

   25. Custom Field Name 1, 2 and 3

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4. If you plan to import any data into your User Custom Fields for your Users, edit the additional columns in your 'User Import Template’ file for these

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5. Make sure that you have the following mandatory columns included within your 'User Import Template’ file

   1. CompanyName - This is the name of the Account your User will belong to

   2. UserID (optional) - This can be a key column if Email addresses are duplicated

   3. Forename - Users First Name

   4. Surname - User Surname

   5. Email - Users Email Address

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6. Progress to the next step, to fill your import file in with your User data

    

1. Using the 'EXAMPLE User Import Template’ file as a reference, add your User data into your 'User Import Template’ file

2. The table below outlines each column that you can include in your import file:

Column	Description	Format	Rules
CompanyID Mandatory	The Account ID This can be found by adding the ‘Account ID’ column to your Account DataGrid Open You can find the steps for adding a DataGrid column in our dedicated guide	Text	The Account ID must match an existing Account ID in your platform
Forenames Mandatory	This is the User's Forename Open	Text
Surname Mandatory	This is the User's Surname Open	Text
Email Mandatory	This is the User's Email Address Open	Text	If multiple Users share the same Email address, please reach out to a member of the Customer Support Team before you run this import
CompanyName	The Account Name This can be found by viewing the ‘Account Name’ column in your Account’s DataGrid Open	Text	This must match an existing Account Name in your platform
UserID	This is the User's unique identifier within the Platform Open	Text	If left blank the Platform will automatically generate the User ID for your Users. You can manually enter your User IDs yourself, these can be in text format and/or numbers This field can be mandatory & a Key Field when importing if Email addresses are duplicated within the Platform You are best to use this field for updating Users rather than creating unless you already have a defined User ID that you would like your Users to have.
Title	The User title can be Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Dr, Sir, Lord, Prof, Rev, Fr, Sr, Bro, Lady Open	Text	If the title you require isn't available you can contact one of our Customer Support Team to have the title added
MiddleNames	This is the User's Middle Name Open	Text
Status	You can choose which Status your Users will be in when they are imported Open	Text	0: Disabled 1: Enabled 2: New 3: Import 4: Deleted 5: Locked 6: Temporary
ExternalID	Used to store the ID for this User from another software/system Open	Text
PhoneNumber	This is the User's Phone Number Open	Number
Address	This is the first line of the User's Address Open	Text
Town	This is the User's Town Open	Text
County	This is the User's county Open	Text
Country	This is the User's Country Open	Text
Postcode	The is the User's Postcode Open	Text
EmploymentStartDate	This is the date the User started their Employment Open	Date Time	Must follow the same date format as used in your platform
EmploymentEndDate	This is the date the User finished their Employment (If applicable) Open	Date Time	Must follow the same date format as used in your platform
JobTitle	This is the Users Job Title Open	Text
BillingAddress BillingTown BillingCounty BillingCountry BillingPostcode	The next 5 columns are the Users Billing address information. This is usually the same as their Main address however, if different you may want to add these fields to your import ' Open	Text	Ensure each option is a separate column
AlternativeAddress AlternativeTown AlternativeCounty AlternativeCountry AlternativePostcode	These next 5 columns are the User's Alternative Address, this is typically used if the User has a a different address from their Main Address Open	Text	Ensure each option is a separate column
ShippingAddress ShippingTown ShippingCounty ShippingCountry ShippingPostcode	These next 5 columns are the Users Shipping Address, this is typically used to capture the address for Products and Services and where they should be shipped to. These can be the same as the Users Main Address or if different, it can be added to your Import here Open	Text	Ensure each option is a separate column
MarketingOptIn	This is to notify you if the User is happy to be opted in to Marketing or not Open	Text	Yes No
Notes	Here you can add notes for your User Open	Text
Sex	This is the Sex of your User Open	Text	Must be in letter format F = Female M = Male O = Other I = Intersex U = Unknown
JobRole	This will assign a Job Role / User Type to the User Open	Text	If the Job Role does not yet exist in the platform, it will be created
NINumber	This is the Users National Insurance Number (If applicable) Open	Text
DOB	This is the Users Date of Birth Open	Number	Must follow the same date format as used in your platform
CustomField1 CustomField2 CustomField3	If you have Custom Fields that you wish to add to your Import, you can do this by using one of the Custom Field columns available. We have given you an example here Open		The column name must match the exact name of the Custom Field within your Platform If you wish to add a Custom Field but haven't created it yet, please see our dedicated guide here

1. Once you have all the information you require within your import file, you can then save it as a .csv file

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2. Within Excel, click the ‘File’ option in the top left hand corner

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3. Click ‘Save as’

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4. Using the drop down box under the file name, select CSV (comma delimited) (*.csv) and name your file (for example ‘User Import’)

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5. Click the ‘Save' button to complete the Save

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Your Import file has now been saved, ready for importing.

1. Open the ‘Administration’ menu from the Profile options at the top-right of your platform

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2. Scroll down the page until you find the ‘Import Profiles’ menu option
   The menu is in alphabetical order

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3. Click on the ‘Import Profiles’ option to be taken to the Import Profiles page

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4. Click the ‘New Profile’ button at the top right corner of the page to create a new Import Profile

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5. Provide a ‘Profile name’ for your Import Profile
   We advise providing your Profile with a unique name so that's its easily identifiable

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6. Select ‘Users’ as your import ‘Destination’, this lets the Platform know that you will be importing User information

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7. The next step is to upload the .csv file that you created and saved earlier, click the selecting the ‘Choose file’ button and selecting the file from your saved location

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8. Leave the ‘Header Label Row’ set to '1', this tells your platform that the column headings of your import are in the first row

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9. Click the ‘Next ->’ option at the top right of your page to proceed to the column mapping step for your Import Profile

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10. In the column mappings step you will match each column in your import file (Source column) to a User setting in your accessplanit platform (Destination column), this is where you define where the information in your import file will be imported to and displayed in your platform, much of this will be pre-populated for you!

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11. If you see ‘IGNORE' within the 'Destination Column’, you will need to select the correct column from the drop down option
    Leaving it as IGNORE will mean that the Platform will ignore this column in the file when running the Import

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    If there is no option within the drop down to select, leave it as IGNORE
    

12. When running an Import, your platform needs to know which column(s) can be used to uniquely identify each row, this is important as the importer supports both creating Users and updating Users, if each row is not uniquely identified by its key columns there is a risk that the existing Users will be overwritten with the details of new Users. Use the ‘Key column' field to select 'Yes’ for your unique identifiers.

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11. Click the ‘Finish’ button at the top right of your page to complete your Import Profile

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12. Click the ‘OK’ button to return to the ‘Import Profiles’ page

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    Your Import Profile has now been created

1. Open the .csv file that you created for your import earlier and remove data so that you only have 3-4 lines of data remaining in the file

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2. Go to ‘File’ in the top left hand corner

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3. Click ‘Save As’ to save this as a new import file
   Do not click ‘Save’ as this will overwrite your import file

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4. Rename this version of your import file so that you know if it is the test import file, for example 'User Import - Test File', and make sure that the format is still CSV (Comma Delimited) (*.csv)

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5. Click the ‘Save’ button to create your Test import file

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   You are now ready to run your test import

1. Click ‘Profile’ and then ‘Administration’ in the top right corner of the Platform

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2. Scroll down the menu and click ‘Import Jobs’, the menu is in alphabetical order

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3. Click on the ‘Import Jobs’ option to be taken to the Import Jobs page

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4. Click ‘New job’ in the top right hand corner

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5. Select your Import Profile from the ‘Profile’ drop down menu

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6. From the File option, click on the ‘Choose File’ button and upload the Test file that you created in the previous step

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7. The ‘Initial State’ option is where you can choose to Import now, or put the Import on Hold if you would like to set the import off to run later

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8. Click the ‘Upload’ button to start the Import Job

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9. Once you have uploaded your file to start the Import Job, your page will show the Import job being processed

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   a. ID - This is the ID number of the Import Job
   b. Profile - This is the name of the Profile used for the Import
   c. Filename - This is the name of the Import file uploaded
   d. Status - This is the status of the Import Job, it will begin as ‘Queued’ but will change to ‘Completed’ once the Import has finished
   e. Due - This is when the Import is due to run
   f. Started - This will be blank to begin with, once the Import Job has started, the Start date and time will populate.
   g. Completed - This will be blank and will populate once the Import has completed
   h. Row Count - This shows how many rows are to be imported
   i. Processed - This will show the number of rows that have been imported and will change as the Import runs.
   
   

10. Your Import will have the status of ‘Completed’, the Completed time and date will be populated and the Processed' column number will match the same number as the ‘Row Count' column

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11. Once your import is complete, click the ‘Show Errors' button to see if there were any issues with the import

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12. Example of an Import with no errors:

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Example of an Import with Errors:

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The Import Errors page shows you which rows have failed

13. The ‘Stop’ and ‘Restart' buttons can be used while your Import Job is processing, to pause and restart your import, please note that it can take a few seconds for these to be actioned after you have clicked them

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    We do not recommend using the 'Delete’ button for your Import Jobs unless absolutely necessary

Move on to the next step to check whether your Import Profile has worked or not.

1. Select Users from the Main Navigation Menu

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2. This will open the User DataGrid with a list of all Users Available

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3. Add an additional column into your DataGrid using the ‘Change Columns’ button in the top right hand side of the DataGrid

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4. Use the ‘+' button to add the column ‘Date Created’, sort this ‘Descending’ and click on the 'Apply’ button, this will add this column to your Users DataGrid and show the most recently created Users at the top

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5. One User at a time, right-click on each imported User and select ‘Edit’ from the context menu options

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6. Check that the details of the User have been imported as expected, for example:

   1. The First and Last Name is correct

   2. The correct Account has been assigned

   3. Their Status is correct

   4. All Addresses are correctly entered

   5. + any other information you have imported

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      If you are satisfied that all the sample Users have been imported correctly, your testing is now complete

1. Go back to the original .csv file that you created earlier (which contains all of the Users you plan to import) within Excel and open the file with all your data showing and check you are happy with the file

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2. Within your accessplanit platform, open the ‘Administration’ menu from the Profile options at the top-right of your platform

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3. Scroll down the menu and click ‘Import Jobs’, the menu is in alphabetical order

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4. Click on the ‘Import Jobs’ option to be taken to the Import Jobs page

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5. Click ‘New job’ in the top right hand corner

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6. Select your Profile from the drop down menu. This is the name of the Profile created in the step above. In this case it is ‘Users - Users Import’

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7. Select the ‘File’ you wish to upload, this is the original import file you created and saved earlier

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8. The ‘Initial State’ option is where you can choose to Import now, or put the Import on Hold if needed

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9. Click the ‘Upload’ button to start your Import Jobs

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10. Once you have uploaded your Import Job, it will show the Import Job uploading

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    a. ID - This is the ID number of the Import Job
    b. Profile - This is the name of the Profile used for the Import
    c. Filename - This is the name of the Import file uploaded
    d. Status - This is the status of the Import Job, it will begin as ‘Queued’ but will change to ‘Completed’ once the Import has finished
    e. Due - This is when the Import is due to run
    f. Started - This will be blank to begin with, once the Import Job has started, the Start date and time will populate.
    g. Completed - This will be blank and will populate once the Import has completed
    h. Row Count - This shows how many rows are to be imported
    i. Processed - This will show the number of rows that have been imported and will change as the Import runs.
    
    

11. Your Import will have the status of ‘Completed’, the Completed time and date will be populated and the Processed' column number will match the same number as the ‘Row Count' column

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11. There is a section at the end of the Import named ‘Actions’. Here you will find the option to ‘Show Errors’, ‘Restart’, ‘Stop’ and ‘Cancel’ your Import

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12. You can use the ‘Show Errors’ button to see if anything has stopped your Import from working correctly, if the Import Errors page is blank, this means the data in your import file hasn’t failed any validation checks

Example of an Import with no errors:

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Example of an Import with Errors:

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The Import Errors page shows you which rows have failed

13. The ‘Stop’ and ‘Restart' buttons can be used while your Import Job is processing, to pause and restart your import, please note that it can take a few seconds for these to be actioned after you have clicked them

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14. We do not recommend using the 'Delete’ button for your Import Jobs unless absolutely necessary