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.
    Important: Importing people records only makes the data available for advertising campaigns. To see individual activity at the person level, an integration with a Marketing Automation System is required.
  • Activities are matched against accounts or people using the person ID.
    Important:
    • If the person ID is related to an account, then the activity is matched against both the account and the person.
    • If the person ID is not related to an account, then the activity is matched against only the person.

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
  • Account Domain

Optional Account fields:

  • 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
  • External Account ID
    Tip: Highly recommend including External Account ID. Using unique IDs prevents duplicate entries and increases match rates for future CSV uploads.
  • Custom Fields

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: 

  • Account Name
  • Account Domain
  • City
  • Country
  • External Account ID
    Tip: Highly recommend including External Account ID. Using unique IDs prevents duplicate entries and increases match rates for future CSV uploads.
  • Person Type
  • Postal code
  • Role
  • Title
  • State
  • Custom fields

Opportunity Fields

Required Opportunity fields:

  • Opportunity ID 
  • Opportunity Name
  • Account Name
  • Type
  • Account Domain
  • Created Date 
  • Owner Email

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

Activity Fields

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

Tasks

Required Task Fields:

  • TimeStamp
  • Activity Date
  • Owner
  • External Person ID
  • External Activity ID

Optional Task Fields:

  • Title
  • External Account Name
  • Description
  • External Account Domain
  • Priority
  • Status
  • Type

Call

Required Call fields: 

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

Optional Call fields: 

  • Duration
  • External Account Name
  • Description
  • External Account Domain
  • Recording URL
  • Callee
  • Direction

Meetings

Required Meeting fields:

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

Optional Meeting fields:

  • Location
  • External Account Name
  • External Account Domain
  • Body
  • External URL
  • Outcome

Emails

Required Email fields:

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

Optional Email fields:

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

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.
    CSV Data Import Page.png
  3. In the Import Data window, enter a Data Import Name.
  4. Choose data import source CSV or CRM (Salesforce, Dynamics, or HubSpot).
    Important: Importing data source as CRM accelerates onboarding by bypassing API limits, allowing immediate uploads without waiting for CRM sync. The system then merges records once syncing is complete.
  5. Click Browse to select the CSV file to upload. You can also drag and drop files.
    Tip: Click Download .csv template to download a file with the required columns.
  6. (Optional) If importing activities, choose Task, Call, Meeting, or Email activity type.
  7. Click Import Data.
    CSV Import.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. Click Re-import Data. 
  5. Upload a CSV file with the required fields.
  6. (Optional) To add or remove accounts, people, and opportunities from the list based on the records from the CSV file, check Automatically update existing list with these records. 
  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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