Contact Import Template

Use the Contact Import Template in conjunction with the Import Setup Data function to import contacts into Viewpoint Estimating.

Any "person" entity must be defined as a contact before you can associate it with another business entity (such as a customer, vendor, prospect, or project). In addition, users of Viewpoint Estimating, and employees of your company, must also be defined as contacts.

The Contact Import Template contains the following worksheets:

• Contact worksheet

• Address worksheet

• Contact Types worksheet

• Usage worksheet

• UDF worksheet

In most cases, each worksheet corresponds directly to a tab of the related entry screen in the system. Required fields in a worksheet are highlighted yellow; fields that are required only under certain conditions are highlighted gray. Trimble Viewpoint suggests formatting all values as text in the Excel template.

Include the primary information for the records you want to import on the first worksheet, ensuring that that each record has unique values in the key fields for the import type. For most import types, the first worksheet is the only worksheet that is required. If there are additional worksheets in the template, use the additional worksheets as needed to provide record details. When importing, the application uses the key fields for the import type to prevent duplicate records and to link detail records to primary records.

For example, the key fields for the Contact import type are Title, First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name, and Suffix. In the Contact import template, include each new contact in the Contact worksheet, ensuring that each record has unique values in the Title, First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name, and Suffix fields. If needed, include details for those contacts (such as a business address) in the additional worksheets.

Contact worksheet

Address worksheet

If a detail record does not match a primary record based on key field values, the application marks the detail record as “orphaned” during the validation process. If you continue with the import without correcting orphaned records in the import file, you must manually enter the orphaned records into the system.

Importing contacts is done during the Initial Setup. Before importing contacts, you must complete the following setup steps:

• Chart of accounts (manual entry or import)

• Contact types (manual entry only)

For information about the Import Setup Data function, see Import Setup Data screen.