Import or Update Account, Opportunity, People, and Activity Data from a CSV File

  • Updated

Context

You can import CSV files to add and update database records for accounts, opportunities, people, or activities. 

To watch a video about importing accounts, see Importing an Account List from a CSV File (Video).

Data Priority by Source

For each field in a merged record (a record with multiple sources), Demandbase prioritizes the data sources in the following order:

  1. CRM data
  2. Marketing Automation System data
  3. CSV data
  4. Demandbase data

Record Matching 

CSV data is matched against records in Demandbase using the following rules: 

  • Accounts are matched against data from your CRM or Demandbase using the following prioritization:
    1. External account ID (if provided)
    2. Account domain + account name
  • Opportunities are matched against accounts using the account domain, account name, or external account ID. 
  • People are matched against accounts using the person’s email domain, account name, or external account ID. See Understanding Lead to Account Matching.
  • Activities are matched against accounts or people using the account domain, external account ID, or person ID.

Field Requirements

When importing CSV data, each object has required fields. You can also import optional fields as necessary.

Account Fields

Required account fields:

  • Account Name or Account Domain

Optional account fields:

  • External Account ID
    Tip: Highly recommend including External Account ID. Using unique IDs prevents duplicate entries and increases match rates for future CSV uploads.
  • Owner (Email or Name)
    Tip: Highly recommend including email address. Having account domain increases match rates. It also makes the owner eligible for Snapshot Subscriptions on the Auto-Create Account Lists settings page. See Configure Auto-Create Account Lists.
  • Phone Number
  • Employees
  • Annual Revenue
  • Industry
  • Custom Fields

Opportunity Fields

Required opportunity fields:

  • Opportunity ID 
  • Opportunity Name
  • Account Name
  • Account Domain
  • Owner (Email or Name)
    Tip: Highly recommend including email address. Having account domain increases match rates. 
  • Type
  • Created Date 

Optional opportunity fields:

  • External Account ID
    Tip: Highly recommend including External Account ID. Using unique IDs prevents duplicate entries and increases match rates for future CSV uploads.
  • Stage 
  • Probability
  • Close Date
  • Is Closed
  • Is Won
  • Amount

People Fields

Required people fields: 

  • Person ID 
    Tip:The person's email address can be used as the Person ID. However, the Email field must still be included in the CSV import file.
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email

Optional people fields: 

  • Person Type (Lead or Contact) 
  • External Account ID
    Tip: Highly recommend including External Account ID. Using unique IDs prevents duplicate entries and increases match rates for future CSV uploads.
  • Title
  • Role
  • Company
  • Website
  • Country
  • State
  • City
  • Postal code
  • Custom fields

Activity Fields

You can import call, meeting, and email activity types.

Calls

Required call fields: 

  • Activity Date
  • Caller
  • TimeStamp
  • Title
  • Person ID
  • External Activity ID

Optional call fields: 

  • Duration
  • Description
  • Recording URL
  • Callee
  • Direction

Meetings

Required meeting fields:

  • Start Time
  • Title
  • Activity Date
  • Owner Id
  • End Time
  • Person ID
  • External Activity ID

Optional meeting fields:

  • Body
  • External URL
  • Location
  • Outcome

Emails

Required email fields:

  • TimeStamp
  • Subject
  • Activity Date
  • From Email
  • To Email
  • Person ID
  • External Activity ID

Optional email fields:

  • Open Sales Email
  • Attachment IDs
  • Sender First Name
  • Sender Last Name
  • Click Sales Email
  • Recipient First Name
  • Recipient Last Name
  • Marketing Email Open
  • Status
  • Click Email
  • Body

Prerequisites/Preparation

You must have Administrative privileges to import CSV data.

See CSV Import Examples for formatting guidelines and data examples.

Steps: Import Data

  1. From the left navigation bar, go to Database_N.png Database and select Accounts > Data Import,  Opportunities > Data Import, People > Data Import, or Activities > Data Import.
  2. Click Import Data.
    Import_Data.png
  3. In the Import Data window, enter a Data Import Name.
  4. (Optional) If importing activities, choose Call, Meeting, or Email activity type. 
  5. Click Browse to select the CSV file to upload, and click Import Data.
    Tip: Click Download .csv template to download a file with the required columns.
    Import_Data_Window.png

Steps: Update Data

  1. From the left navigation bar, go to Database_N.png Database and select Accounts > Data Import,  Opportunities > Data Import, People > Data Import, or Activities > Data Import.
  2. Click the name of an account, opportunity, people, or activity data import. 
  3. Click the Report tab. 
  4. (Optional) To add or remove accounts from the account list based on the accounts from the CSV file, click Automatically update existing account list with these accounts. 
  5. Click Re-import Data. 
  6. Upload a CSV file that includes the following required fields:    
    • Account: External Account ID or Account Name AND Account Domain 
    • Opportunity: Opportunity ID
    • Person: Person ID
    • Activity: Person ID and External Activity ID.
  7. Click Re-import Data. 

Important: Demandbase updates fields using the same prioritization as the original import: CRM >  CSV > Demandbase Data.

Outcome

Data is processed and available according to the schedules described in Understanding Demandbase Data Availability. 

After Demandbase processes the CSV file, click View Audit CSV to see the matched accounts, opportunities, or people. See Understanding CSV Data Import Results. 

To see the field data, from the left navigation bar, go to Settings > Analytics > Fields.

 

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