Import Data to a Module

Import all the records that are owned by (assigned to) the users in your organization, including the records owned by you.

To import data

1. Click the appropriate [Module] tab (e.g., Leads, Contacts, Accounts, etc).
   
2. In the  [Module] Home  page, click  Import [Records].
   
   
3. Click Browse to upload the file or drag and drop the file in the From File section.
   
   The character encoding will be automatically detected.
   
   
   
4. If needed, change the character encoding from the drop-down list and click  Next.
   
   
5. Select the  Layout  into which you want to import the records.  See Also,  Page Layouts 
   If you do not have a layout created, the records will be imported to the standard layout and the option to choose a layout will not be available.
   
6. Select one of the following options.
   
   • Add as new [Records] : Choose this option to import all the records in the import file to Zoho CRM.
     
     Select  Record ID  or  Email / Record Name  from the drop-down list. In order to avoid data duplication, you have this additional option to skip records from the file that match existing records in Zoho CRM. These can be filtered based on record ID, name or email address, as per the module.
     
     
     
   • Update existing [Records] only : Choose this option to make changes only to the existing records.
     
     Select  Record ID  or  Email / Record Name  from the drop-down list to find existing records that match those in the import file. This option helps you filter existing records that need to be updated. Additionally, you can choose to skip updating empty values in the records. For example: Say your CRM record has a value, Hospitality, for the field Industry and the import file does not have any value for the same field. When you import the data from the file and choose  Skip updating empty values,  then the empty value will not be overwritten and the Industry field value will be left unchanged. This will avoid the chance of any data loss.
     
     
     
   • Both : Choose this option to add new records as well as update the changes in the existing records.
     
     Select  Record ID  or  Email / Record Name  from the drop-down list to find existing records that match those in the import file. You have this option to filter existing records that needs to be updated. You can also choose to skip updating empty values from your import file to the records in Zoho CRM.
     
7. Click  Next .
   
8. Map fields from the import file to those in Zoho CRM.
   

   
   
   The data from the first three columns in the import file will be available. Based on these data, formats for a certain field will be added. This format can be edited, if required.
   
   • Click Create New Fields , if you are in need of custom fields that are not already available in your CRM account.
     
   • Click Mapped and Unmapped  to view the columns that are mapped and not mapped respectively with the fields in Zoho CRM.
     
   • Click the Reset Field Mapping  link to start mapping from scratch.
     
     Any mapping you have done so far will be removed and you can start over.
     
   • Click the Apply Auto Mapping  link to let CRM map the import columns with matching fields.
     
     The system will identify columns that match the CRM fields and map them automatically. 
     
     
   • Hover over the field and enter the field values in the Replace Empty Values text box.
     Sometimes the field in an import file doesn't have a value, in case that field is marked mandatory in CRM, the record will not be imported because of absence of value. To avoid such situations, you can mention an alternate value that will replace the empty field. 
     For example, you have mapped the Last Name field from the file with the Last Name field in the Leads module, which is mandatory. So without the field value, the record will be skipped during the import process. To avoid that, you can specify the value that should replace the empty Last Name field. 
      
   • Hover over the field and click the Add (+) icon next to the field name and map multiple fields in CRM with a single field from the file.
     For example, if the Billing Address and the Shipping Address are same you can map both these CRM fields to the appropriate fields from the file. 
     
   • Click the Assign Default Values tab and select the CRM Fields with the appropriate Default field values. Once the values are specified, all the records will have the field value that you have specified by default.
     For example, you are importing a set of records to the Leads module where you want to define the appropriate Lead Owner and Tag the records that are imported. From the Assign Default Values tab you can select the Lead Owner and Tag Name field from CRM and choose the appropriate field values. This value will be added to all the records by default. 
     
     
9. Click  Next.
10. Select the Assign owner based on Assignment Rules checkbox and choose an assignment rule from the drop-down list or click Create Assignment Rules to create a new assignment rule.
    
11. Select a task from the Assign follow-up tasks drop down list or create a new task by clicking Create Workflow Task.  
12. Select the checkbox to  Enable Manual Lead Approval .
    
    The records will be manually approved by the admin before being assigned to specific users. This option is available only for Leads, Contacts, Cases and custom modules.  See Also  Approve Records
    
    
13. Click Finish .
    
    The import action will be initiated. 

Note

• Select the  [Module ID]  from the  Find existing using  field, if and only if you are re-importing the records that were exported from Zoho CRM. The  [Module ID]  field is generated by Zoho CRM and is therefore unique to Zoho CRM. Hence, it is ideal to choose this as a unique field in cases when you want to export a set of records from Zoho CRM to a spreadsheet, make some changes to it and import the records again. In this case, when you choose the  [Module ID]  as the unique field and choose to update the existing records, the matching records are seamlessly updated. Choosing the  [Module ID]  as a unique field in any other case may cause duplication of records.
  
• The unique fields are not case sensitive. That is, if the unique field's value in the import file is "ABC" and in the existing record, it is "abc", Zoho CRM will still identify this as a match.
  
• Once the Import process begins, you cannot cancel it.
  
• The manual approval option is available only while importing leads.
  
• If you select a workflow task while importing, the  Notify Assignee  option in the selected workflow task, will not be applicable.
  
• Default field values cannot be specified for the following fields:
  

• Description

• Call Duration

• Auto number

• Unique fields

• Formula fields

• Multi-select Lookup
  

• Assigning default values for a field that is already mapped, will overwrite the existing field mapping that you have done.