Importing Contacts (Customers + Suppliers)

We want to make your transition into Brightpearl as easy as possible so we've built a range of tools to help you get your data into Brightpearl. Contacts can be imported to either add new records or update existing records. We've setup pre-configured import routines for:

• Sage
• MYOB
• Microsoft Outlook

But you can design your own Data Map and import any file as long as you have your data saved as an XLS file.

Learn what you can do with the customer/supplier import

Have a go at our guided exercise

Read all about importing contacts below, or watch our video:

Data Maps

A Data Map is used to enable Brightpearl to read the file full of contacts that you are going to upload. Essentially what you are doing is telling Brightpearl what columns are in the spreadsheet and where it should put the data contained in that column. You can define a selection of Data Maps to import files of different formats.

When you create a Data Map you must use ALL of the following fields:

• Email address (use in the first column as this should be unique to every record)
• Firstname
• Lastname
• Company

Note: Always have the first column as Email or Code so it is going to be unique to a contact. The first column is always used as the "hook". This is used to distinguish the difference between each record in the spreadsheet and to match the items wilth any records that already exist in Brightpearl. It is a good idea to use the email address as the first column as this will usually be different for every contact. If you were to use the first name as the hook you are likely to encounter records that have the same first name causing the import to fail. Don't worry if you haven't got an email address for all your contacts, you can use the "Code" field instead; assign each contact a unique alphanumeric account code.

Follow these steps to define a Data Map:

1. Go to Setup > Data/Import > Import Customers/Suppliers.
2. Click the Add a new data map button.
3. Enter a name for your data map.
4. The available fields that can be imported are listed in the right-hand column. Click and drag items to the left-hand side, or click the + icon. You can just as easily remove them clicking on the - icon. Click and drag the fields to rearrange them to be the same as the column order in your file.
5. If you have data in your spreadsheet that doesn't match a field in Brightpearl, you must delete it from your XLS file.
6. Click Save.

You can export a sample of your data map into Excel to check it over; you can even use it to add your data into the correct format for importing.

Importing Contacts

Before you can import your data you'll need to export it from the system you are currently using. You will probably want to check your data for any duplicates before you start. You will need to make sure the file is formatted and saved in a way that Brightpearl can read:

• The first column should be Email or Code, something that is unique to a contact. The first column is used for matching to any existing records and will overwrite any that match to it
• The columns in your file must match exactly to your Data Map in name and order
• Your file must be saved as an XLS file (Excel 97-2003)
• You cannot have blank cells in your file. If the data exists for some but not for others you will have to split the contacts into separate spreadsheets and import them separately
• You can only import a maximum of 5000 lines of data at a time
• When importing dates they should be formatted as text fields to display YYYY-MM-DD, how to format dates
• When importing date/time it whould be formatted as text fields to display YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss how to format date/time

When you are ready, follow these steps to import your file:

1. Go to Setup > Data/Import > Import Customers/Suppliers.
2. To use one of our pre-configured import routines click the relevant link on the right-hand side. If you have designed your own data map click the Import link next to the relevant one.
3. Browse for the file you want to import.
4. Specify what tags you want the contacts to be given.
5. Tell Brightpearl what to do with contacts that already exist; should they be updated?
6. Click Upload file.

A message will be displayed telling you if the import was successful, how many contacts were created, updated or skipped. If any errors were encountered they will be listed at the top of the screen, use these to go back and amend either your Data Map or Excel file and try again.

Dealing with Errors

On attempting the import it is quite possible that you receive a red error message box, this should give you some indication of what happened. Don’t worry, this just means that you might need to make some adjustments as something isn’t quite right in your file. Check through the following:

1. Are there any blank cells in your spreadsheet?
   Brightpearl can’t read blank cells and will reject your import. Either enter data or filter these contacts out and place them in a separate spreadsheet for a separate import.
2. Are there any cells below your data that contain spaces?
   If for some reason cells in the rows below your data think they have data in Brightpearl will try to read and import it. Highlight a number of rows below your data and delete it just to make sure.
3. Do the column headings match (order and name) to your Data Map?
   In your Data Map listing click the Edit link to make any changes or you can move the columns around in your Excel file. Export a sample of your data map to check the column names.
4. Is your spreadsheet saved as the correct file type?
   It must be saved as an XLS file, which is Excel 97-2003.

What can I do with a customer/supplier import?

What can it do?

Create and update customer and supplier details, including:

• Name & company
• Contact details – email addresses, phone numbers, address (default only), website
• Nominal code for sales/purchase orders
• Tax code
• Bank details
• Credit terms
• Status
• Lead source
• Owner
• Populate custom fields – create your custom fields first
• Enter an account memo
• Add notes to the customer/supplier timeline
• Specify whether they will or won’t receive email newsletters (bulk emails)

What this import can’t do, but you can do in Brightpearl manually:

• Import multiple addresses
• Add popup messages
• Set the default payment method
• Add a tax number, accounts email address, discount percentage
• Swap the primary contact within a company