Advanced Import enables you to import constituent data from other applications as well as donations, pledges, notes, custom fields and form information into both new and existing constituent records faster than typing it in.

Download data from your other applications straight into a CSV file, or into an Excel spreadsheet which can then be converted to a CSV file.

Advanced Import Training and Overview

Check out the Salsa Scholars Advanced Import training course. Watch our Quick Clips video (below) for a quick overview.

Advanced Import Workflow

A very general workflow for using Advanced Import is as follows:

1. Export your source data to a comma-delimited (CSV) file.
2. Depending on the type of data you are importing, there are certain required fields to include.  Please see this Google Sheet on how to import certain constituent data .
3. Edit data according to our best practices.
4. Upload the CSV file to the Advanced Import module.
5. Process any duplicate constituent data through the Resolution Queue.

You'll notice that the majority of steps in the workflow have to do with making sure your data is in good shape. Having good data going in to Salsa CRM means you'll get good data out when you look at your reports.

Advanced Import Permissions

Prior to using the Advanced Import, users must have the Data-Related Permissions assigned. Without this permission assigned, a user will not be able to access the Advanced Import. If you do not have this permission, please check with you Database Administrator. 

To Assign Permissions:

1. From the main menu, select Manage and then Roles.
2. On the Roles panel on the left-hand side of the screen, highlight the Role to which you would like to add the Advanced Import Data-Related Permissions. You will want to add the Advanced Import Data-Related Permissions to the role that has already been assigned to the user who will be working with Advanced Import.
3. On the Data-Related Permissions panel, located on the lower half of the Roles screen, select the appropriate Add, Edit, View and Delete permissions located next to Advanced Import option.
   
   

Export Column Headings

To access the Advanced Import screen, from the main menu select Tools > Data Sync > Advanced Import.

The section labeled Column Definitions provides a list of all of the data points into which you can import your information. Each row defines each data point and explain details about what you can upload to each. Save this table for future reference to a .CSV file on your computer or network drive...

1. Underneath the Column Definitions table in the middle, enter a file name to save your file.
2. Select whether you want the file to be saved as a CSV or HTML file format.
3. Click the Save Column Definitions…button.

Save a Sample Import File

You can generate a sample file that contains all of your possible database fields already in a column format:

1. To access the Advanced Import screen, from the main menu select Tools > Data Sync > Advanced Import.
2. Click the Create Sample File button in the lower right.
3. A pop-up window will appear. Enter the name of your file or accept the default name provided by Salsa CRM.
4. Typically, underscores are used if you are creating a sample file that will be used to integrate with a web form. If you want to replace the empty spaces in the column headings with underscores, click to add a check-mark to select Replace spaces in column headers with underscores. The file may be saved to your Downloads folder. Depending on your browser, you may (as shown in the video above) open the file from the preview bar at the bottom of your browser.
   
   NOTE: The Sample File you created contains all of the Salsa CRM recognized column headers, based on your database, that are available to use when importing information. The column descriptions are available on the color-coded Column Definitions table.

Next: Advanced Import Data File Best Practices