Preparing Account Data

Required Fields

The following fields are required when importing account data:

First Name - required for individual accounts
Last Name - required for individual accounts
IsCompany - required if importing both individual and company accounts in the same spreadsheet
Company Name - required for company accounts

Available Fields

The following fields are available for account import using the Import Manager:

Field Name	Explanation	Example	Configure in NeonCRM before importing?	Required for Importing?	Required Values?	Field Selection Type	Type of Data	Max Characters
First Name	First name	Bill		Yes, for individual accounts		Free-entry	Text	30
Last Name	Last name	Smith		Yes, for individual accounts		Free-entry	Text	30
Is Company	Is this account a company account?	Yes		Required for imports containing both Individual and Company accounts.	Yes=1, No=0	Hidden	Boolean
Pinned Note⁺⁺⁺	A note about an account. Appears in NeonCRM as a Pinned Note.	I had a nice conversation with this account on the phone. He likes fishing.				Free-entry	Text
Pinned Note Title	The title (subject) of an imported pinned note.	Stewardship phone call		Required for rows that include an account note.		Free-entry	Text	30
Address 1	First line of somebody's address.	534 Main Street				Free-entry	Text	64
Address 2	Second line of somebody's address. Commonly used for mailbox numbers and Unit numbers.	Apt #4				Free-entry	Text	64
Address 3	Third line of somebody's address. Not often used.	3rd Floor				Free-entry	Text	64
Address 4	Fourth line of somebody's address. Not often used.					Free-entry	Text	64
Address Type	Which type of address is recorded?	Home, Business, School			Home, Business, School	Drop-down	Text	50
City	City Name	Chicago				Free-entry	Text	50
Country	Country Name	United States				Drop-down	Text
County	County Name	Cook				Free-entry	Text	50
Created By	Name of the person who created the account.	Staff name				Free-Entry	Text	25
Created Date	The time and date the account was created.	01/01/2001				Date	Text
^†Data Sharing Consent	Status of consent given by the constituent to allow your organization to share their data with a 3rd-party service.	Consent Given			Consent Not Asked, Consent Given, Consent Declined	Dropdown	Text
Deceased	Is this person deceased?	Yes			y=Yes, n=No	Checkbox	Boolean
Department	Which department of their company do they belong to?	Marketing				Free-entry	Text	60
DOB	Date of birth. Must be in MM/DD/YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY format.	01/01/2011				Date	Date	15
Email 1	Email address.	steve@example.com				Free-entry	Text	80
Email 2	Secondary email address.	steve@secondexample.net				Free-entry	Text	80
Email 3	Third email address.	steve3@thirdexample.net				Free-entry	Text	80
^†Email Consent	Status of consent given by the constituent to receive communication from your organization by email.	Consent Given			Consent Not Asked, Consent Given, Consent Declined	Dropdown	Text
Fax	Fax number.	555-555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Fax Area	Fax area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555				Free-entry	Text	10
Fax Number	Fax number, without the area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Fax Type	Type of fax number.	Home, Work				Drop-down	Text	20
Gender	Gender	Female	Yes			Drop-down	Text	15
Job Title	What is their job title in their company?	Executive Director				Free-entry	Text	100
Last Updated By	Who was the last person to modify this account information?	John Doe				Free-Entry	Text	25
Last Updated Time	When was the last time this account information was modified?	01/01/2010				Date	Date
Login Name	The login name for this account to use to log in to the NeonCRM front-end system.	exampleloginname				Free-entry	Text	25
Login Password	The password for this account to use to log in to the NeonCRM front-end system.	examplepassword				Free-entry	Text	25
^†Mail Consent	Status of consent given by the constituent to receive communication from your organization by postal mail.	Consent Given			Consent Not Asked, Consent Given, Consent Declined	Dropdown	Text
Middle Name	Middle Name	Clifton				Free-entry	Text	20
Email Opt Out	Has this account opted out of receiving emails?	Yes			y=Yes, n=No	Checkbox	Boolean
Do Not Contact	Has this account opted out of receiving emails or physical mailings?	Yes			y=Yes, n=No	Checkbox	Boolean
Company Name	The name of the company this account works for	The Example Charity		Yes, for company accounts		Free-entry	Text	200
Phone1	Primary phone number.	555-555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Phone1 Area	Primary phone number's area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555				Free-entry	Text	10
Phone1 Number	Primary phone number without area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Phone1 Type	Determines whether the primary phone number is someone's home, mobile, or business number.	Home			Home, Business, Mobile	Drop-down	Text	20
Phone2	Secondary phone number	555-555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Phone2 Area	Secondary phone number's area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555				Free-entry	Text	10
Phone2 Number	Secondary phone number without area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Phone2 Type	Determines whether the secondary phone number is someone's home, mobile, or business number.	Home			Home, Business, Mobile	Drop-down	Text	20
Phone3	Third phone number	555-555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Phone3 Area	Third phone number's area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555				Free-entry	Text	10
Phone3 Number	Third phone number without area code. Use this if you want to be able to run reports on area code information separately.	555-5545				Free-entry	Text	20
Phone3 Type	Determines whether the primary phone number is someone's home, mobile, or business number.	Home			Home, Business, Mobile	Drop-down	Text	20
^†Phone Consent	Status of consent given by the constituent to receive communication from your organization by phone.	Consent Given			Consent Not Asked, Consent Given, Consent Declined	Dropdown	Text
Preferred Name	The name this account prefers to use: e.g., "Bill" instead of William. This field can also be used to include additional contacts' names in a usable field for emails and letters: e.g., "Bill and Marcia" or "Bill Smith and Marcia Jones".	Bill				Free-entry	Text	200
Prefix	A prefix or title to a name.	Dr.				Drop-down	Text	20
Territory	Region. Use instead of State if the address is outside the United States or Canada.	Lapland (Finland)				Free-entry	Text	50
Salutation	The Primary Contact's name as it would appear in the addressee line of a letter.					Free-entry	Text	50
^†SMS Consent	Status of consent given by the constituent to receive communication from your organization by SMS.	Consent Given			Consent Not Asked, Consent Given, Consent Declined	Dropdown	Text
Source	What is the Source of the account?	Community Event				Drop-down	Text	100
State/Province	Region for US or Canadian addresses.	Rhode Island				Drop-down	Text
Suffix	A suffix for a name.	Jr.				Free-entry	Text	20
URL	A website to associate with an account.	www.mywebpage.com				Free-entry	Text	80
Zip	ZIP code	60661-4205				Free-entry	Text	10
^††Household Name	How you want to address this household on a mailing label.	Lemon Family				Free-entry	Text	200
^††Household Salutation	How you want to greet this household in a letter.	Mr. and Mrs. Lemon				Free-entry	Text	200
Ind/Company Type	Categorization of individuals and/or companies	Foundation, Volunteer				Checkbox	Text

^†Standard consent fields related to various consumer protection regulations.

^††If you import Household Name and/or Household Salutation, Neon will populate those account fields and will also create a household on that account and set that individual as the primary household contact.

If you import Household Salutation data but not Household Name, the Household Name field will automatically populate with "[Household Primary Contact Last Name] Household".

You cannot add individuals to households via self import, you have to do that manually after the household is created. For this reason, we suggest you only populate the Household Name/Salutation fields for the individual you wish to designate as the primary household contact. You can then add contacts to that household after the import. Learn how to add household contacts here.

⁺⁺⁺You can import multiple pinned notes per account, but each note has to have its own line in the import spreadsheet.

If your imported notes have no title, it will be imported as an "Untitled" pinned note.

Data Structure

Account data should be structured where each account is on a row and each column is a NeonCRM field:

Managing ID Numbers

NeonCRM does not require an ID number when importing accounts. However, if you have exported your account data from another system, you may find that each account has an account ID number. This ID number can be useful for importing into NeonCRM, as it can allow you to import transaction data (such as donations, memberships, or event registrations) at a later time.

For example, in the screenshot below, Ida Smith was Account ID 101 in our previous database. If I import this account into NeonCRM and later wish to import donations from my previous system, Neon will appropriately add all donations affiliated with Account ID 101 to Ida Smith's NeonCRM account.

Note that NeonCRM does not retain ID numbers from your previous system. For example, while Ida Smith may have been ID 101 in your previous system, she could be ID 1234 in NeonCRM. NeonCRM assigns sequential ID numbers upon import.

Account Custom Fields

In addition to the standard fields listed in the Available Fields section of this guide, you can also import to account custom fields using the Import Manager. You cannot import to individual or company custom fields using the Import Manager. More information on how to manage and create account custom fields is available here.

If any of your account custom fields have multiple selected values (e.g. an "Email List" field with multiple list options), you will need to format them in a specific way on your spreadsheet in order to import all selected values to each account.

See this guide for details.

Households

Note: You can import accounts with a "Household Name" or "Household Salutation", but be aware that doing so will result in the creation of a new household for each row in which you include these fields.

The Import Manager does not create relationships between accounts. However, as noted in the Available Fields section of this guide, the Import Manager can build households that can then be used to link the accounts of spouses, children, and other people living in the same home.

Importing to Household Name or Household Salutation will populate those account fields and create a household on the imported account. It will also set that individual as the primary household contact. Once you have completed your import, you can add additional accounts to the household by following this guide.

Limitations

Certain types of data are not able to imported using the Import Manager. These include (but are not limited to):

Relationships - any links between accounts, including household, employment, and/or account relations
Individual- and company-specific account custom fields
Activities, prospects, and grants
Secondary contacts
Volunteer data
Timesheet data
Seasonal addresses
More than two addresses

Example Import Template

A sample template for account import is available for download here: NeonCRM Account Data Template.csv

Please note that if you add data directly to this template file, you will need to save it as a .csv file before importing.

Import Assistance

Assistance with troubleshooting imports as well as formatting data for import is only provided via consultation. For more information and to fill out a form requesting a consultation, please visit our NeonCRM Consultation page here. If the Import Manager limitations include data that you need to import, we can do a full custom import for you. For more information, please contact your account manager.

NeonCRM_Account_Data_Template.csv 1 KB

Articles in this section