Edition: Professional, Business & Enterprise
User-level: Assistant Administrator, System Administrator
Previous steps: How to Import Contacts (MS Excel)
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.
However, when using the Import Contacts feature from your accounting software, everyone imported will be imported as a Contact with Personnel.
This raises a very important question. Is this the right method for you?
Many businesses starting with Synergy Cloud welcome the opportunity to refine their database of contacts as there a very few opportunities to create data from a clean slate once you're operating.
In the Previous steps, above, we identify another means by which all of your data can be imported using a single spreadsheet. Yes, this is daunting, however, we anticipate you will be drawing from many sources so a single spreadsheet is the best way to import consistency.
If the important thing for you is just getting your data into Synergy and you're confident that what is in your accounting package is accurate, then go for it.
There are some additional Tips! at the end of this article.
So, how do you import your contacts from your accounting software?
1. Log in to your accounting software.
Using the Organisation dropdown menu, navigate to
Settings>Organisation>Data Import
and choose the appropriate software package.
2. Log in and authorise.
You will be prompted to log in to your accounting software and then authorise the Synergy platform to access your data.
3. Export your contacts from your accounting software.
You will be redirected to the Contact Import page, where you will preview the data that Synergy has sourced from your accounting software.
By default, only 'Customers' will be marked to import.
Also, by default, 'Suppliers' will be skipped.
In Xero, for example, a contact needs a sales invoice against their profile to be regarded as a Customer.
4. Confirm and Skip Records.
You will need to verify what has been marked for import as well as what has been marked to skip.
The purpose of this step is to ensure there are no customers that you DON'T want to import and to ensure that you DO import suppliers that are relevant as project contacts.
As an example, we find that people want to import their contractors and consultants, but they do not want to import their insurance broker or financial advisor into Synergy.
It is important to note at this point, that this tool is for import alone.
While it is possible to run the import multiple times, you cannot use this Import function to Update records.
5. Import
Once you are satisfied with your selection, click the Import button.
6. Columns that are shown in the preview
The columns below are shown in the ready-to-import and errors groupings.
Company name The name of the contact in your accounting software that will be created as the company type contact in Synergy.
Customer/supplier The type of contact in your accounting software, either customer or supplier type. If the contact is both a customer and a supplier type in your accounting software then both options are shown against the one record.
First name This is shown for Personnel type contact lines to show the first name of the contact that will be created. This should be blank for company-type contacts.
Last name This is shown for Personnel type contact lines to show the last name of the contact that will be created. This should be blank for company-type contacts.
Unique ID The unique number that will be assigned to the contact on import. If this number exists already in your accounting software on the contact as a 'network key' then this will be imported. If there is no unique id on the contact in your accounting software, then one will be assigned using the system setting sequence for your organization that selects the next available number for each created contact.
Type This shows the type of contact that will be created in Synergy by the import, either Company or Personnel. Individual type contacts cannot be created by the import, as most accounting software does not have this type of contact record.
Email 1 The email address that will be added as the primary email address for this contact record.
Skipped Shown if the row is currently skipped and won't be imported.
Supplier-type contacts are automatically unchecked and skipped from the import. Check the box for any supplier contact that you want to include in the import.
Errors Click the errors symbol (shown only in the errors grouping) to view the details of the error. The error message will outline what steps to take to resolve the issue.
7. Audit details
The following details are shown for each contact import sync from your accounting software.
Import type Where the contacts were imported from is shown. This always shows your accounting software Contacts import for this import type.
Date imported The date and time that the contacts were imported from your accounting software.
Imported by Who imported the contacts from your accounting software. This is the Synergy staff member who ran the sync.
# Imported The number of records that were created in Synergy. Click the tag to see the records created.
# Skipped The number of items that were skipped (or errors) and were not imported.
Skipped records Click the green file download button to get a list of the items that were skipped (or errors) and were not imported.
Tags The tag applied to all the imported contacts is shown. Click the tag to open the contact list to see all the imported contacts with this tag applied.
Importing Contacts from accounting software Tips!
Tip: All contacts imported using Accounting add-ons are tagged with 'Imported on XX/XX/XXXX' where xx is the import date. Use the tag list view in the contacts list to see the column that shows this tag information.
Tip: If the contact type was not set up correctly in your accounting system, then consider converting the contact over to use the correct type. Go to the contact list, and open the contact record to use the 'Convert a contact' option on the details tab.
See below
Where to next?
What other features does this relate to?