Excel/CRM Gurus - Help needed please

[2up]

I'm trying to import an spreadsheet into a CRM program called "Sugar" but its just not working.

I am saving the spreadsheet as a CSV, and then within the CRM program following the import steps. It allows you to select the fields which you want to map, and I do that, then click import. One of two things happens... either only 60 of over 1k contacts gets imported, or, when I've done a smaller test grouping, it imports them all, but the fields are screwy. As in, it bumps info that should be in say, the street address field, into the city field, and screws that contact up. I could just import with the errors and manually correct them, but I'd probably kill someone before I got done, considering the amount of contacts I'm working with.

If it makes a difference I'm working with Excel 97-2003. Oh, and in some of the fields there are carriage returns (show as boxes) and question marks. I tried removing the question marks in the sample grouping, to no avail. I also tried to remove the carriage returns on the whole spreadsheet, but still have had the issue of only 60 contacts importing.

Thanks in advance!

[Homeslice]

Does it need to be a CSV? Try tab-delimited txt file.

[pauldun170]

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/support/...2.html#1062781

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/support/documentation

To import account data
If you are importing account data from a CRM system, proceed to step 4. If you exported contact data, and want to import it as account data into Sugar, do the following:
1.

Copy your exported contacts.csv file and save it as Accounts.csv.
2.

Edit the Accounts.csv file using Excel. First, sort the file on the column which contains the company name.
As you scroll through your data, sorted by company name, you may see successive records which have the same company name if there is more than one contact from that account (in Sugar’s terminology). To avoid multiple copies of the same account within Sugar, you need to delete the duplicate contacts. And to make sure that the most complete information is attached to the account record, retain only the contact whose address and telephone information best represents the account as a whole.
Also look out for company names which are similar but not identical due to inconsistencies in the way the company name was entered – you should delete all duplicate records except the one with the company name spelled exactly how you want to see it in Sugar.
3.

Save the Excel file as a .csv file type.
4.

In the Shortcuts menu of the Accounts module, click Import and follow the process described in “To import data” on page 132.
After the account data has been imported, you can export contacts from your current Contact Manager application and then import them into Sugar.
Importing Contact Data
If you import a contact record that refers to an unknown account, then a new contact record is automatically created for an account of that name. Note that when account records are created automatically in this fashion, they are empty. That is, they have associated contacts but no address or telephone information. Therefore, you will need to manually add those details later. To avoid this task, it is recommended that you import the account data first to create complete records with address and telephone information (and other information depending on your previous CRM system) and then import contact data.
To export contacts from your current contact manager application
The process below describes exporting contact information through Outlook 2003. Other systems work in a similar manner.
1.

Under the File menu, select Import and Export.
The Import and Export Wizard dialog box displays on the page.
2.

Select Export to a file and click Next.
3.

Select the option to create a file of the type Comma Separated Values (Windows), and click Next.
4.

Select an Outlook folder from which to export – typically your contacts folder - and click Next.
5.

Enter the filename and directory location for the exported file to be created, and click Next.
6.

To confirm your intention to export this file, click Finish.
Outlook 2003 creates a .csv file. To ensure that the data has been exported successfully, you can view the file using Microsoft Excel or a text editor.
Now you can import the contact data as described in “To import data” on page 132.
During import, ensure that you correctly map the names of the incoming fields with the names of the corresponding Sugar fields. If you are importing from Outlook, a particularly important field mapping is the incoming Company field to the Account Name field within Sugar. This is required to ensure that contacts are associated with the correct accounts.

Crap...just noticed when this was originally posted

[2up]

Thanks guys. I tried everything you both suggested last week and over the weekend. NOTHING worked. The original data on the spread sheet was just too fooked up I guess. Ended up copying and pasting 700+ email addresses into an outlook email. Super. NOT!