Import data Cross Referencing

Cross Referencing

Previously if you wanted to add a new record and link it to another new record you would normally do multiple Imports.  So if you had a new Person that you wanted to link to a new Contract you would need to do 3 imports.

• Import the new Person record to create an unique ID
• Import the new Contract record to create a unique ID
• Once you have these unique ID's you would use them to do a third Import to link the new Person to the new Contract using the ID references

This new version of Import will allow you to Import the new Person, the new Contract and their link in one batch, the Import sheets will cross reference each other as well as your account data, so even if the Person or Contract does not already existing in your account, they exist in the Import sheets, if the ID stipulated across the sheets match, then they will validate and you will be able to Import them and create the three records at once.

Validation Icons

When creating an import file there are now validation indicator icons on each tab, orange means not data has been populated into the tab, red x means there is a validation error, green tick means the data in the tab has validated correctly

Fig 1 - Validation Icons

Example of cross referencing sheets

In this example we are using the Import to create new Alert records for new Contracts and link those Alerts to new People. None of these records exist in the account.

Below, I have loaded into the Alert template a file to create 6 new Alert records for 6 new Contracts and linked to 6 new People.

Fig 2 - Cross referencing errors

Once the validation is complete, errors highlight the Contract and Linked People column values. This is because I have referenced Contract and People ID's that do not exist in the account.

I now load the Contract file in the Contract template for the new Contracts I wish to create - this Contract file stipulates the new Contract ID values.

Fig 3 - Contract file 

Once the Contract file is loaded, the validation triggers for that template.

Fig 4 - Contract file validation

Validation also re-triggers for the Alert template

Fig 5 - Alert file revalidation

After the Alert Template has revalidated you can see that the Contract ID column errors have now gone, this is because even though those new Contract ID's do not exist in the account they exist in a sheet in this Import and are valid values.

Fig 6 - Validated Contract ID's

I now load the People file for the new People I wish to create - this People file references the new People ID values.

Fig 7 - Validated references

Once the People file is loaded, the validation triggers for that file, it also triggers revalidation for the Alert template file.

After the Alert Template has revalidated you can see that the People ID column errors have now gone, this is because even though those People ID's do not exist in the account they exist in a sheet in this Import and are valid values.

Fig 8 - Validated People ID's

Now all my sheets are loaded and validated and I have the option to process my Import. 

Fig 9- Validated import

Once processing is complete I will have 6 new Contracts, 6 new Alerts and and 6 new People records in the account.

Fig 10 - New Contracts

Fig 11 - New People

Fig 12 - New Alerts

If I open one of these new Contracts you can see the new Alert associated to it with the new People associated to it.

Fig 13 - Linked records

This cross referencing will be present for all the templates you use and the data you upload.

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