Using the Flex Importer
The Flex Importer provides you with an extremely powerful and efficient way to import your data into LGL. Using the Flex Importer involves a few different steps, each of which are treated in detail below:
- Prepare your file for upload
- Upload your file and map the fields from the file to the appropriate fields in LGL.
- Review, amend (if necessary), and approve your import.
Prepare your file for upload
The basic requirement for any file you want to upload into LGL is that the first row of information in the file should contain the name of each field to be uploaded in its own column. For example:
In most cases, that means you don't have much at all to change about files before you import them, but that depends on the original state of the data. For example, if you do not have fields separated out into individual columns, you may need to spend some time reformatting the file so that each field is in its own column. There are a few notable exceptions to this:
- Constituent name information: Name information is ideally
housed in columns like "First Name", "Last Name", etc., but if you
have single columns with name information set up as "Last Name,
First Name" or "First Name Last Name" (including prefixes and
suffixes), you can use a couple special fields in the importer to
have those get parsed into their individual fields in LGL.
- Full Name: Use this field when you have a column of name information like: "Mr. John Smith" or "John Smith" or "Mr. & Mrs. John Smith", etc. The importer will attempt to parse this into First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, and Spouse Name (as appropriate).
- Last, First: Use this field when you have a column of name information that is formatted as Last, First: "Smith, John". The importer will parse this into the First Name and Last Name fields.
- City, State, Zip: It is common to store the city, state, and zip information in one field. If you have a file like this, map that field to the "City, State, Zip" field in the importer to have them parsed into their individual fields.
- Full Address: It is also somewhat common to have a full address stored in a single column, for instance, with data from Quickbooks. In this case, use the "Full Address" field to have the importer parse the field into it's individual fields within the Mailing Address records in LGL: Street, City, State, Postal/Zip Code. This works best for addresses in the U.S.
Once you have a file that looks ready for import, the last step of preparation is to save it in a format that LGL can import: CSV (supported by almost all spreadsheet programs and databases), or Excel (.xls, or .xlsx - making sure it is on the first worksheet and that Date values are formatted as dates)
Note: It is very important to format dates correctly in Excel files before you upload them. They must be formatted as "Date" type values, as follows:
Import your file and map the fields
Now comes the fun part! With your file ready to import, navigate to the Flex Importer in LGL, and click the Import a file button. From here, click the "Browse" button in the import form and locate the file you want to import on your hard drive and then click the "Save" button.
After upload, the file will be parsed, and then you can map the fields from the file into LGL.
General Import Settings
Before we dive into the mapping process all the way, let's review the top level import settings:
- Record matching preferences: The importer will automatically try to match records based on an LGL ID (if provided) or External Constituent ID. However, you can also ask it to match by email and first name, or by name. We recommend using the former, but the latter is only advisable if you have a fairly small database and/or import file, with great confidence that the names are unique. Email matching is on by default.
- Ignore Blank/$0 gifts: Sometimes you'll have a gift file with amounts that are not greater than 0. In such cases, you may want to have the importer ignore those records, rather than create entries for those records. This setting is turned off by default.
Mapping the fields
With the main settings taken care of, we can now start mapping the fields. The Fields from your file will be listed in the "Import field name" column. To map a field, select the appropriate value in the "LGL Field" column:
The importer will automatically try to map fields it can guess the meaning of (like First to First Name), but many fields will need to be mapped manually.
Setting default values
After mapping a field, you can set default values to go along with it. For instance, if you have a column called "Home Phone", you can add the "Set defaults" rule to that field, and then assign the "Home" type to go along with it:
Adding multiple records of a given type
If you are uploading multiple phone numbers, or email addresses, for example, the importer will automatically assign each set of information a new record #.
Save time by creating templates for files you need to import frequently
If you have certain kinds of files that you need import on a regular basis (PayPal Transactions, for example), it's a good idea to flag your first version of that import as a template:
After that, whenever you import the same kind of file, you won't need to re-do all that mapping work. Instead, you can use the existing template:
That will update all of the fields with the mapping you used previously.
Saving and importing the file for review
Once you have all the fields mapped to your satisfaction, you can click the "Save and import" button at the bottom of the page.
This will queue the file for preliminary processing, which can take several minutes (longer if the file is very large), after which point you can review all of the records and see if everything looks right.
You will receive an email when the file is ready for review.
Reviewing and approving your import
After the initial import is complete, nothing has yet been changed about your live LGL data. You can review all the records by clicking on the "Review" button.
When reviewing the data, there is a lot to take note of:
The main thing is to check a handful of records and make sure that the fields are mapped appropriately. If everything is in order, then you can click the "Accept Import" button, and the data will begin loading into your live database.
Note: Imports cannot be undone in all cases. Many times, if constituent records are updated, the new data might be mixed with old data, and that cannot be fixed without refreshing your whole database from the previous day's backup.