Often the accounts you do business with experience changes that you need to adjust for in your CRM! This may be territory realignment, new custom fields, or anything else that may have changed as your team works with their accounts.

Making the Spreadsheet

First things first, we need to make sure we have a suitable file to import. If you have any questions on what your file should look like, go into your import/export page on the web-based version and download a template!

You’ll want to make sure that your file contains a unique identifier in one of the columns. Unique identifiers are account numbers or IDs that help Outfield match records in the spreadsheet file to records in your database. This will ensure that the correct accounts get updated as shown in the file. Every account (Place or Contact) on Outfield has an Outfield ID that can be used as a unique identifier to make updating as easy as possible. To get the Outfield ID in a spreadsheet, you can export your Outfield account database into a CSV file.

Importing your Spreadsheet

To start an import, head to the Import/Export page on the web-based version of Outfield (located under settings in the side menu).

1.  In the Accounts Data section click “Import Places” to get a drop down, then click “Update Places”. From here you can either drag and drop a file into this section or click on it and find the file on your device

2.  Select labels for each column! Outfield does its best to recognize what each column is and it does a pretty good job but sometimes it needs a little assistance. If you have something that doesn't fit into the basic account information, label it as a custom field or use an already existing custom field. Custom fields are great for adding more attributes that allow you to characterize your places by anything else you can think of, check out our custom fields video to learn more. 

3. Click “Continue” to move on to the next step.

4. Next we will tell the updating tool to either update only the information contained in the spreadsheet or to overwrite all information associated with the accounts in the spreadsheet. If you are choosing to overwrite all information for the account, you will be removing information from your accounts that isn’t associated with the update import you are doing, this cannot be undone.

In this step, you will also determine what identifier you want to use. Our recommendation is to use the Outfield ID because every Place and Contact in your Outfield account will already have this set as a unique identifier. 

5. Once you’re finished here, you can move on to the next step of confirming the import and submitting it for processing. Check back in a few minutes to see the changes reflected in your Places or Contacts page!

For further insight on updating your accounts, check out this video that shows the process!

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at support@outfieldapp.com