I want to import my customer list but I'm not sure what the correct ordering of fields should be. Is there a CSV template I can use to export my data and then import it into Salesforce Essentials?
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1The ordering of fields is not important while importing CSV. Just select proper mapping you should be fine.– Pranay JaiswalCommented May 3, 2018 at 17:24
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I want to make it so this can be easily rerun periodically, so I don't want to rely on setting a lot of things in the UI.– Scott C WilsonCommented May 3, 2018 at 17:28
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If thats the case, you can look into DataLoader command line. developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.dataLoader.meta/… You can batch it periodically and supply mapping XML to do your job.– Pranay JaiswalCommented May 3, 2018 at 17:32
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Unfortunately, Essentials doesn't include the Dataloader (at least as far as I can tell).– Scott C WilsonCommented May 3, 2018 at 17:38
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1The Data Import Wizard is a great tool for performing imports of up to 50k records per job. DataLoader is a great solution for larger data volumes than 50k records per load, however it isn't available for use by an Essentials edition org.– Mark PondCommented May 3, 2018 at 20:41
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1 Answer
There's no standard, right or wrong template as such. It all depends on what data are you dealing with. If you are looking to standardize it within your organization, you can consider what are important fields that you want to import in your Contact.
When it comes to ordering of the field, again there's no order as such which has any impact on the load process itself but you may still want to group the fields logically. Say Name fields first, then contact information viz., address, email, phone, etc. and then all other information. In the template that you will use you would not want say FirstName as in first column of your CSV and LastName as somewhere else. A good way to achieve this would be to have columns in the same flow as they appear on your page layout.
Furthermore, ordering is relevant on any relationship which ties your Contact being loaded to any other entity, say Account or any other object. In that scenario you definitely want to load say Account records first, so that you can have a reference of that Account during your Contact load.
answered May 3, 2018 at 17:53
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1One additional note: To avoid having problems with mapping, it makes sense to just use the field names that Salesforce uses in your CSV Header. See the account fields and contact fields documentation in Trailblazer. Commented May 5, 2018 at 18:41
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+1 that will definitely be less error prone too and less chance of missing some obvious fields. Commented May 5, 2018 at 20:57