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Importing Contacts

You can import contacts into Oncord from a CSV file. This guide is for anyone bringing an existing contact list into Oncord, such as an export from an email marketing platform, accounting software or another contact database.

Before You Begin

  • Oncord imports CSV files (.csv or .txt). If your contacts are in an Excel spreadsheet, save it as a CSV file first. The steps are below.

Prepare Your Spreadsheet

  • Open the file in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
  • Check that each field is in its own column. For example, put first and last names in separate columns.
  • Split addresses into separate columns for the address line, suburb or town, postcode and country.
  • To split a column that holds more than one field, use Excel's Text to Columns tool.

Set Each Contact's Email Marketing Status

Each contact has one of these email marketing statuses:

  • pending - You don't have consent to send marketing to the contact yet.
  • subscribed - You have consent to send marketing to the contact.
  • unsubscribed - The contact was subscribed and has opted out.

To set each contact's status:

  • Add an Email marketing status column to your file.
  • Enter pending, subscribed or unsubscribed for each contact.

New contacts imported without a status get the Default Email Marketing Status for New Contacts, set in Dashboard > Settings > Privacy & GDPR. If it has never been changed, the default is Pending. Check this setting before you import.

If you're unsure whether you have consent to send marketing, check your local spam laws or get legal advice.

Save the File as CSV

  • In Excel, click File.
  • Click Save As.
  • Choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).
  • Save the file.

Create a Group for the Import

Adding the imported contacts to a new group makes them easy to find and email later.

  • Go to Dashboard > Customers > Groups.
  • Click New Group.
  • Enter the Group Title.
  • Click Create Group.

For more about groups, see Managing Groups.

Upload the File

  • Go to Dashboard > Customers > Contacts.
  • Click Import.
  • Under Choose a CSV File, select the file you saved.
  • Leave Field Separator and Enclosed With on Auto-detect unless you know your file uses a different format.
  • Click Configure Import. Nothing is imported yet.

Map Your Columns to Contact Fields

  • If the first row of your file holds column names, tick Input Data has a Heading Row. The first row is then not imported.
  • Under Map Fields to Columns, check the Oncord field shown in Imported Into for each column. Oncord suggests a field where it can, but check every one.
  • Choose Email Marketing Status for your email marketing status column. Oncord's suggestions usually leave this field out.
  • To leave a column out of the import, click Do not import next to it.

Choose the Additional Settings

  • Open the Additional Settings tab.
  • Set these options:
    • Validate E-mail Addresses - Checks each email address. An invalid address is not imported. This is ticked by default.
    • Import Contacts Without E-mails - Imports contacts who don't have a valid email address. When it's not ticked, those contacts are skipped.
    • When Data Already Exists - Choose Overwrite to replace a matched contact's details with the data in your file, or Leave Existing Data to keep the details the contact already has.
    • Add Contacts to the Following Groups - Select the group you created for this import.
  • Click Preview Import.

Review the Preview and Import

The preview shows how Oncord will import your data. Nothing is imported until you click Import Now. Check each tab:

  • Contacts to Import - The number of contacts that will be imported, and whether fields with existing data will be overwritten or preserved.
  • Skipped Contacts - Rows that won't be imported. The Reason for Not Importing column explains why.
  • Matched Contacts - Rows that match a contact already in your database. These contacts are updated instead of created. The Matched On column shows which field matched.
  • Unmatched Contacts - New contacts that don't exist in your database yet.
  • Invalid E-mail Addresses - Rows with an email address that isn't valid. To fix one, correct the address and click Update.

If your website has active automations that may run during the import, the preview lists them in a warning. You may want to turn them off until the import has finished.

  • If anything looks wrong, click Back to Configure and change the settings.
  • Click Import Now.
  • Click OK when asked to confirm.
  • When Contacts Imported Successfully appears, click View Contacts.

Additional Import Information

Companies and Relationships

If your file has a Company column, Oncord links each contact to that company with an Employee relationship.

  • If no company with that name exists, Oncord creates a new contact for the company, with the type Company.
  • If the company already exists, Oncord uses the existing contact.

For example, a row for Jane with the company Oncord creates:

  • Jane as an Individual.
  • Oncord as a Company.
  • An Employee relationship between the two contacts.

Because company contacts are created as well, an import that includes companies usually creates more contacts than there are rows in your file.

Importing Notes

To add a note to each contact, map a column of notes to Notes.

When you map the column in Oncord:

After the import, each note appears in the contact's activity feed:

Phone Numbers

You can import home, work and mobile numbers with or without the country code. Oncord recognises the common formats, for example:

  • 0412345678
  • 0412 345 678
  • 0412-345-678
  • (0412)-345-678
  • 61412345678
  • +61412345678

Always include the country code for international numbers.

Oncord also saves each mobile number in international format, which is the format SMS messages are sent to. For a mobile number without a country code, Oncord uses the contact's Country from your file. If the contact has no country, it uses your own country.

For example, 0412 345 678 becomes +61412345678 for a contact in Australia, but +44412345678 for a contact in the United Kingdom. A number entered as +61412345678 stays the same for both.

Date Formats

  • Format dates as YYYY-MM-DD.
  • If a date includes a time, use YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, with the time in UTC.

Oncord tries to read dates in other formats, but the day and month can end up swapped, because countries such as the United States and Australia write dates in a different order.