Adding new profiles to MC Trade can be as simple as an admin or user manually creating a profile, but profiles can also be imported in bulk using the Import Profiles feature by inputting the necessary data into an Excel spreadsheet.
When setting up the initial Excel spreadsheet, do not include columns of data for anything that is not listed in this article. Unused affiliation codes and custom fields can be deleted, but deleting other information could cause errors. The import will not proceed until the source file is properly formatted with these columns.
Once an import is complete, it CANNOT be undone.
Fill Out Excel Template:
Avoid any issues with importing data by separating New Profiles from New information being added to existing Profiles into two separate spreadsheets, and uploading them as separate imports.
- Select Admin menu > Import Profiles
- Select the blue Download Template Here link at the bottom to open the Excel spreadsheet template.
- Fill out the Excel sheet according to the type of upload being made. Group Individual Profiles and Organization Profiles separately and import in separate spreadsheets.
- When importing information for an individual profile, use the columns with the 'Ind' prefix. For example, to import the email address for an individual profile, use the 'IndEmail' column (the regular 'Email' column would be for an organization).
- The MemberSince date can only be imported for new Member profiles, and any value entered here for profiles that are NOT set to be imported as members will not have this included.
- Category must be an exact match to a category already in your database, or a listing will not be created for that row.
- Custom Fields must be entered as any value with the column header "CustomFieldID1", "CustomFieldID7" etc. The ID number in the column title should match that of the Custom Field ID in the Custom Field codes.
- In the CustomFieldID1 and CustomFieldID2 fields, fill in the ID number of any custom fields form your database. If the ID number entered is not found in the database, the values will not be imported. Find ID numbers for existing custom fields in Admin > Manage Codes > Profile Codes > Custom Fields.
- All values in the Affiliation Code column(s) must already have an exact match to an Affiliation Code already in your database, or the file will not be valid.
- Affiliation Codes must be entered as any value that matches an existing Affiliation Code name in your system, in columns labeled "AffCode1", "AffCode2" etc. For example, "Newsletter". The numbers in the column header title indicate the number of codes being added. If more than 2 codes need to be added, simply add another column labeled "AffCode3"
Always run a test of the import data and settings with a couple rows of data. Missed or incorrect settings can result in incorrect data creation that may only be cleaned up by hand, profile by profile.
Best Practice: create an Affiliation Code to represent the import, then assign the Affiliation Code to all the imported profiles through the template. This Affiliation Code can then be used pull reports of imported profiles. The Affiliation Code can be removed en mass via the Profile Selector at any time.
This article is part of a series. Click Here to learn how to configure the Import Profiles tool settings.