Summary

Solatech Focus users have the ability to import customers from external sources, such a CRM systems. In order to do this, the data exported from the outside source must be formatted in a certain way before import.  This knowledge base article will describe how to format your data and how to import that customer data into Solatech Focus.

Step 1 - Format the data

1. The customer data from the outside source should be opened in Excel (or similar spreadsheet software) - once changes are made, the file must be saved as a comma delimited file (.csv)
   
2. The first row of data must be the column headers.  These headers can be in any order
   
3. Multiple phone numbers, email addresses and shipping addresses can be used.  In the example of multiple phone numbers, if there are columns for phone1, phone2, phone3, etc., then these would be entered as multiple phone numbers for the customer.
   
4. The following columns are required: customername, terms, leadsource, salesrepsolatechid, phone1
   
5. Below is a list of all available columns.  Required columns are shown in red.  Column names  with an * have special requirements that will be discussed later in this article 
   • customername
     
   • middleinitial
     
   • lastname
     
   • accountnumber
     
   • companyname
     
   • terms
     
   • leadsource
     
   • salesrepsolatechid
     
   • phone*
     
   • phonelabel*
     
   • email*
     
   • emaillabel*
     
   • taxcode*
     
   • addresstype*
     
   • address1_*
     
   • address2_*
     
   • city*
     
   • state*
     
   • zip*
     
   • country*
     
   • taxcode*
     
   • billingaddress1
     
   • billingaddress2
     
   • billingcity
     
   • billingstate
     
   • billingzip
     
   • billingcountry
     
   • shipingaddress1
     
   • shipingaddress2
     
   • shipingcity
     
   • shipingstate
     
   • shipingzip
     
   • shipingcountry
     

Special Requirements

All items with an * require a number to be added to the end of the column name, which will indicate the item's order in the list (example:  Email1, Email2, etc).  Additional special requirements per column are listed below.

Phone numbers

• For phone, the heading phone1 must exist
  
• For phonelabel, the column will determine the label to be used (home, mobile, etc.) If a corresponding phonelabel is not found for a phone number, the value "Home" will be used. List items without a value will be ignored. 
  

Phone and phonelabel examples are below:

Data in spreadsheet

phone1	phone2	phone3	phonelabel3
123-456-7890		987-654-3214	Mobile

Data in Focus customer record

Addresses

• If the billing or shipping headings,  billingaddress1, shippingaddress1, etc., are used, then addresstype field is not used. 
  
• If the fields billingaddress1, shippingaddress1, etc. contain data, then any other address list columns used on the row will be ignored. (Example:  address1,, city1, state1*, etc.)
  

For addresstype the following values may be used

• Billing
  
• Shipping
  

Example using billingaddress1 and shippingaddress1 in CSV file

Results after import into Focus customer records

Example using addresstype label and address1_ in CSV file

Results after import into Focus customer records

Miscellaneous

• For taxcode the value must match the name of an existing tax code (found in Lists for the account)
  
• For salesrepsolatechid, the data must match the Solatech ID (email address) of a sales rep for the account
  
• For terms, the value must match an existing Term (found in Lists for the account).
  

Step 2 - How to import the customer data

1. Click Customers from the upper navigational bar
   
2. Click the Import button
   
3. Navigate to your saved CSV file
   
4. Click on the file name
   
5. Click Open
   
6. You will receive notification that the customers have been imported.
   

Additional information:

• Any customers which exist in Solatech at the time of import will not be changed.  If existing customer information is found on the CSV file, it will be ignored. 
  
• If a problem is encountered during import nothing will be imported and you will receive an error message along with error details 
  
• In the example below, the salesrepsolatechid was left blank. 
  

Applies To:

Solatech Focus