Import contacts

Import adds people from a spreadsheet to your Contacts, such as last year's guest list. Each person is matched by email, so someone already on your list gets a tag instead of a second record. Every plan can import.

Before you start

• Save your sheet as a CSV. Excel and Google Sheets both can. The first row has to name the columns.
• Only the organization's owner can run an import.

Import a file

1. 1
   Open Contacts in the sidebar and click Import.
2. 2
   Drop the CSV on the drawer or click Choose file. The drawer says how many rows it takes.
3. 3
   Under Match columns, check what each column means: First name, Last name, Full name, Email, Phone, Company, Tags, Notes, or Don't import. Ovante guesses from your headers.
4. 4
   Look over Preview. Its Problems tab lists rows that won't import and why, such as a bad email or a duplicate in the file. Click Next.
5. 5
   Type a Tag. Everyone in the file gets it.
6. 6
   Set People already in Contacts to Add new only (they get the tag, nothing else changes) or Also fill blank fields.
7. 7
   Click the import button, which counts your rows, such as Import 240 rows. When it's done you see how many were added, updated, already in Contacts and skipped.

Click Show these contacts to see everyone with the import's tag, or Download skipped rows to fix the rest and import them again.

What an import never does

• Overwrite a value. Also fill blank fields fills only empty fields, and leaves fields you edited by hand alone.
• Send an email. Nobody in the file hears from you.
• Tell your integrations. Salesforce, ChabadOne and webhooks hear nothing, the same as when you add someone by hand.
• Lock a field. A later registration can still update what the import filled.

Rows without an email

They follow your setting under Settings → Contacts. With Add the contact, a row with a name becomes a contact without an email; a row with the same name and phone as an email-less contact you already have counts as that person. With Don't add, those rows are skipped.

Good to know

• Importing the same file twice doesn't create doubles.
• A new contact who shares a phone and a first name with someone on your list can show up on Review as a possible duplicate.

The rules behind this page