Edition: Professional, Business, Enterprise
User-level: System Administrator
In Synergy, there are three types of contacts.
Contacts - are project-related companies or businesses that you deal with.
Individuals - entities that you work with that are not Contacts. Usually, the difference is that Individuals don't have business numbers or registrations.
A good example would be J & J Doe.
Personnel - are the people that work at the companies you are importing or in the example of Individuals, are the people John Doe and Jane Doe.
Before importing contacts, you'll need to ensure Unique Contact IDs, Contact Title and Contact Roles are set up.
1. Download the Synergy Excel template.
Using the Organisation drop down, navigate to
Settings>Organisation>Data Import>Excel Import
check that you are on the Contacts tab, and click Download.
Your download is the excel file named Synergy data import - Contacts
There should be two sheets (tabs), one with instructions similar to those below, and the other 'Contacts' to populate with data.
Warning:
Do not adjust the column names.
Do not adjust the order of the columns.
2. Check what information can be imported.
Navigate to the sheet (tab) 'Contacts' to see the column names that will match fields in Synergy.
3. Export your contacts from your other system.
Use an export feature in your current system to get an excel style output (commonly CSV) with all your existing contact details. This could mean you export the contact details from your accounting system, or another software package, or maybe you already have it in a spreadsheet.
4. Match your data to the Synergy Excel columns.
Compare the data in your excel file to the columns in the Synergy Excel template and check you have all the required information as well as the optional information that you want to import.
5. Using the Synergy Excel template
Copy and Paste your data into the Synergy Excel template.
Columns marked blue are mandatory.
Columns marked green are optional.
Do not change the formatting anywhere (e.g. number, date, currency etc).
Do not enter data beyond the last column of the table.
Do not rearrange the order of columns.
Do not rename the columns.
Use 'Skip' in column A to skip the record during import. Any row that contains 'Import' or is left blank will be imported.
Do not change the sheet order within the workbook.
If formulas, lookups, or a general place to paste data is required, create an additional sheet (tab) and position it as the last sheet (tab) on the right-hand side.
6. Double-check the data in the template.
Make sure that all the contacts you want to import are listed, and that the data is showing up in the correct columns in the Synergy Excel template.
Check this data is correct in the Excel template:
All contacts have a contact type listed.
For Contacts a 'Company name' should be listed.
For Individuals, an 'Individual name' must be listed (see above)
For Personnel type contacts a 'Company or Individual name' must be entered to identify where the 'First name' and 'Last name' are to be nested.
Contacts cannot have a first or last name listed on the company row. This would be an extra row for the Personnel data.
Personnel cannot be imported if the matching company row is not created first, so the Contact must be in this Synergy Excel template before the Personnel entry, or already exist in Synergy.
Multiple Tags and Roles can be entered. When multiple Tags or Roles are required, use a comma to separate the data; Tag1, Tag2, Tag3 as an example.
Roles can only be imported if they already exist in Synergy. Setup Roles in Settings > Contact lists > Roles.
7. Import Synergy data import - Contacts
Using the Organisation dropdown menu, navigate to
Settings>Organisation>Data Import>Excel Import
check that you are on the Contacts tab and click Upload.Select 'Add files' and navigate your files selecting your completed Synergy data import - Contacts. Or you can drag and drop the file into the browser.
An import preview will display your data to review before the import.
In event that you get errors, click on the red and orange triangle for instructions on how to correct the error.
Skip any lines in the preview window that you don't want to import. Any lines that have an error are automatically skipped.
Click the Import button to import all the valid data.
After this import, your Contacts will be in Synergy and you'll be ready to load Projects.
Tips!
It's recommended to enter one record of each contact type and verify it before uploading bulk data.
While you can upload in stages, the import function doesn't update existing contacts, so uploading as much as possible at once is more efficient.
Any skipped records can be corrected and reloaded.
Use the example records to ensure proper formatting, then delete them to prevent accidental import.