Import - Best Practices?

SuiteCRM Forum - English Language SuiteCRM General Discussion
#1

I have a spreadsheet of Contacts from a trade show. Many of them are associated with Accounts, some are not. Note that some of the Company Names are the same, but in different cities and un-related.

For the ones with Company names, I would like to
a) Create an Account with that company name and
b) Create a Contact within that company.

For the ones without a company name, I would just
a) create a new Contact.

The “Hard way,” I suppose, would be to

  1. Assign an ID to all the names in the spreadsheet
  2. Make a second spreadsheet of only the names with company names
  3. Import the company spreadsheet into Accounts
  4. Import the entire list into Contacts, using the ID to associate the Contact with the Account.

Also, I would suppose that detecting duplicated with Company name and zip code would handle the names that are already on the list.

Is this the “Right” way? Is there an “Easy Way?”

#2

Mark- Did you get an offline response to this post or figure it out? I too am looking for best practices for importing new potential customers that I pick up at trade shows with and without actual associated contact, or industry lists of just company information I’ve compiled on my own.

I’m completely new to SuiteCRM and moderately confused as to which import I should be performing as a best practice in each of these situations. My choices include target, lead, account, and contact.

Any insight you’ve acquired would be very helpful.

Best,

Mike

#3

I am sorry. I received no offline support.
I am working on hiring a SuiteCRM consultant to help me get the system up and running efficiently - or looking for some other resource to get SuiteCRM support.