Data import guide

You can import data to BriskForce using either Excel (.xls, .xlsx) or CSV (.csv) formats. Data can be imported into any business object such as opportunities, contacts, products, etc.

To import data, go to the specific screen where you want to import the data and click on Import. For example, to import products you would need to go into Inventory -> Products -> Products and click on Import.

Data Templates

Use the following data templates to import data into BriskForce

Assets

Contacts - Customers/Vendors

Products

Adapting the templates

• Add, remove and sort columns to fit your data structure.

• We advise retaining the ID column.

• Set a unique ID for every single row by dragging down the ID sequence.

• Add new columns as required. BriskForce automatically maps columns if it is able to match your column header with an existing field label. However, you can also map new columns manually.

I cannot find the field I want to map my column to

BriskForce attempts to detect the type of field for each column inside your file. For example, if you have a column containing numbers, BriskForce only displays fields that accept numbers for you to choose from. While this works for most cases, it is also possible that it goes wrong or maybe you want to map your column to a field that is not in the field list. In such cases, simply enable the Show fields of relation fields (advanced) option to see a complete list of available fields.

Where can I change the date import format?

BriskForce automatically detects columns that contain dates and tries to guess the date format. While this process can work for most date formats, some date formats may not be recognized correctly. In such cases, you can correct the date format under Formatting Options.

Can I import numbers with a currency sign (e.g.: $32.00)?

Yes, we fully support numbers with parenthesis to represent negative signs as well as numbers with currency signs attached to them. BriskForce also automatically detects which thousand/decimal separator you use. You can change these automatically detected settings using the Formatting options link.

What can I do when the Import preview table isn’t displayed correctly?

By default, the Import preview assumes commas as field separators and quotation marks as text delimiters. If your CSV file uses different formatting, the preview will not work correctly. However, you can change these settings using the Formatting Options to change the Separator and Text Delimiter. This is one reason why we recommend using Excel files instead of CSV.

To learn more about formatting options, click here.

How to import relational fields

Some fields define a relationship with another object. For example, the country of contact is a link to a record of the ‘Country’ object. To help you import such fields, BriskForce provides three methods. You must use one and only one method per field you want to import.

For example, to reference the country of a contact, BriskForce proposes 2 different fields to import:

• Country: the name of the country. This is the easiest way when your data comes from CSV files that have been created manually. However, there may be cases where your import fails because you have multiple records with the same name. In such cases, we recommend that you modify your records so that they have unique name identifiers.

• Country/External ID: a unique BriskForce identifier. You can easily find the database ID of any record in BriskForce by exporting the record and including the External ID field in your export.

How can I import a field that accepts multiple values (e.g. a vendor record that has multiple tags)?

For example, if you want your vendor to be linked to both tags ‘Manufacturer’ and ‘Retailer’ then you will encode “Manufacturer, Retailer” in the same column of your CSV file.

How can I import records that have multiple line items (e.g. a product that has multiple vendors)

For example, If you want to import a product having several vendors; each vendor needs to be in a separate row in your Excel/CSV file. The first vendor will be imported on the same row as the information relative to the order. Any additional lines will need an additional row that does not have any information in the fields relative to the order.

Update existing records using a spreadsheet

If you import a file that contains an “External ID”, records that have already been imported will be modified instead of being created. This is very useful as it allows you to import several times the same CSV file while having made some changes in between two imports. BriskForce will take care of creating or modifying each record depending if it’s new or not. This feature allows you to use the Import/Export tool of BriskForce to modify a batch of records. To learn how to export records from BriskForce along with their External IDs, click here.

What happens if I do not provide a value for a specific field?

If you do not set all fields in your CSV file, BriskForce will assign the default value where possible. But if you set fields with empty values in your CSV file, BriskForce will import the empty value in the field, instead of assigning the default value. However, if you set empty values for a mandatory field, the import will produce an error.