Employer Contact Management – Bulk Adding and Updating of Employer Contact Data 

Introduction 

It is possible to add new and update existing contacts in bulk within Bud, by supporting a CSV file of records to be updated. This is helpful if you have a large number of records you wish to add or update and don’t wish to update each record individually.

Please read this article to provide guidance and support in using this functionality as there are some key tips on how to create the data correctly and ensure a successful bulk upload.

User Roles 

  • Employer Admin 
  • General Admin 
  • Ops Manager 
  • Sales 

How to: Bulk Adding and Updating of Employer Contact Data

The video below shows how to access the relevant area within Bud to bulk add and update contact data: 

Once you have navigated to this area you will be presented with a screen to upload your file, which will then be validated. If any of the contents are invalid, then you will not be able to proceed. An error message will be displayed indicating which fields are invalid. These errors will need to be resolved before you are able to proceed.

Once any errors have been resolved, you’ll receive confirmation of which records are going to be added or updated for a final check. If you are happy, you can proceed, and the records will be added or updated in Bud.

Please note a template of the CSV can be found at the bottom of this article.

Data Formatting – Creating contact linked to an employer 

Data will need to be supplied via a CSV file which contains the following column headers: 

  • Contact ID –A globally unique identifier (GUID) for the contact (optional):

employer_contact_GUID_v1.png

  • Employer ID –A globally unique identifier (GUID) for an employer that has already been set up in Bud

employer_GUID_V1.png

  • First Name –The first name of the contact
  • Last Name –The last name of the contact
  • Email –An email address for the contact
  • Phone number - The phone number of the contact, following the format +44xxxxxxxxxx/0xxxxxxxxxx (optional)
  • Job Role –The job role of the contact

If a contact ID is not provided, it is possible to create duplicate records if the same file is accidentally uploaded again. Including a contact ID will prevent this and will present an error if the same contact ID is entered.

Data Formatting – Update an existing contact 

Data will need to be supplied via a CSV file which contains the following column headers: 

  • Contact ID – The globally unique identifier (GUID) for the existing contact
  • Employer ID – The globally unique identifier (GUID) for the existing employer in Bud
  • First Name – The first name of the contact
  • Last Name – The last name of the contact
  • Email – An email address for the contact
  • Phone  –The phone number of the contact, following the format +44xxxxxxxxxx/0xxxxxxxxxx (optional)
  • Job Role – The job role of the contact

There is a restriction of uploading a maximum of 500 rows at a time. The processing of an upload can take up to 10 minutes for the larger bulk upload options when uploading a high number of rows. If this is the case, you will be presented with a message stating that the upload will continue to be processed and to check back later.

Supporting Datawarehouse Standard Report

When updating employer contact details, you can use the ‘Bulk upload Employer Contact’ report found under ‘Standard Reports’ which will provide you with an export of the details for current employer contacts in Bud. You can then alter this report as required to make the updates and use it to upload via the bulk upload functionality.

You will be required to remove some columns from the export as the report produces more data than is required to complete a bulk upload.

Please note you will require the reporter user role enabled to view the standards reports. Please speak with your system administrator for access. 

Tips for Creating Data in Excel 

  • The files submitted for bulk upload must be a CSV. File format selected when saving the file.
  • Please be aware that it is possible to override the file format extension when naming the file – this is not sufficient, the file must be saved as a CSV specifically or the upload will fail.
  • It is possible to accidentally add a space or random character in an empty row and the bulk upload validation will error this row. To avoid this, it is worth highlighting rows below your final row (Highlight the first empty row and press Ctrl, Shift, down arrow), and delete or clear these rows to be sure there are not any accidental characters in unrequired rows.
  • It is possible to upload duplicate data files if unique identifiers are not used as noted above. Another way to prevent this from happening is to name your files with the date of upload and double-check ahead of uploading the data, that this has not already been uploaded.

Bud Recommends  

For ease, you can use the attached templates for these bulk upload options, each of which has the columns the files requires.