Import contacts from a spreadsheet
Load clients and suppliers from a file, link people to their company, then update or export them in bulk without losing data on the way.
People with the «Contacts» permission in edit mode.
Not available in : their contacts belong to the parent account.
Your address book is usually the first thing to load, because orders, quotes, invoices and projects all hang off a contact. One file can bring every client and supplier at once, with their tax details, addresses and tags, and link each person to the company they work for.
Let's import Landmark Venues, the wedding client, and Dana Ortiz, who books their events. In Filmo, people and companies are the same kind of record: the tells them apart.
Before you start
- Filmo recognizes an existing contact by its together with its . A row with a tax ID and role you already have is an error: the import never updates a contact.
- If a row has an that another contact already uses, the row is dropped without a warning. Leave the reference empty or check it isn't in use.
Import your contacts
- Open the import In «Contacts», open «⋯» → «Import».
- Download the template The has 38 columns. Click «Download CSV template» and delete its sample rows.
- Fill in one row per contact A row for Landmark Venues with «Contact type» empresa and «Internal reference» LV-01; another for Dana Ortiz with persona.
- Upload the file Headers can be in Spanish or English.
- Check the mapping In «Map columns», only «Name» must be mapped.
- Verify the rows Click «Verify data». While a row has errors you can't continue: fix the file and upload it again.
- Import In «Verify and import», click «Import 2 contacts».
The result shows the «Contacts created», the errors and how many tags, notes and contact links were created.
What the import creates along the way
- Tags that don't exist, with the exact text of the file: VIP and vip become two different tags.
- A text custom field for each that doesn't match one you have. A # column copied by mistake creates a field without asking.
- A new payment method, in lowercase, when «Payment method» doesn't match one of yours. It becomes the contact's main method.
- A four-digit internal reference (0001, 0002…) for each row that has none.
- One note per block of «Notes» separated by ||.
Each contact's history records that it came from a file. Imported contacts don't count as «Contact created» for automations.
Prepare the file
Contact import template and columns
| Columns | How to write them | If empty or not recognized |
|---|---|---|
| Name | At least 2 characters. The only required column. | Error. |
| Tax ID | Text; saved in capitals. | No tax ID, and the contact isn't checked for duplicates. |
| Contact type | persona, empresa, person or company. | Person. |
| Role | cliente/client, proveedor/provider, prospecto/lead, deudor/debtor, acreedor/creditor, sin especificar/unspecified. | Unspecified. |
| Status | active, inactive or archived. | Active (also for activo). |
| Internal reference | Your own code; not repeated in the file. | A four-digit code is generated. |
| Emails, Phone numbers | Separated by commas; the first one is the main one. | A badly written email is saved with a warning. |
| Websites | Separated by semicolons. | — |
| Street, City, Postal code, Province, Country | The main address. | No main address. |
| Additional addresses | street|city|postal code|country|primary, blocks separated by ||. No province. | A block with fewer than five parts is skipped with a warning. |
| Tax | One or more, separated by ||: 21 or a code such as IVA_21. | Unknown ones are skipped with a warning. |
| Currency, Language | EUR, USD…; es, en, fr… | Your company's currency; English. |
| Payment method | transferencia, tarjeta, efectivo, otro, SEPA or one of your methods. | A new method is created. |
| Discount (%), Payment days, Expiration (days) | Numbers; payment days 1 to 31, separated by commas. | Out-of-range values are adjusted or dropped. |
| Related contact, Tags, Notes | References separated by commas; tags separated by commas; notes separated by ||. | — |
The template also has commercial name, position, folder, billing email, marketing and communication preferences, and the four FACe codes for invoicing public administrations.
Link people to their company in a contact import
The import doesn't guess who works where. You declare it with the column:
- Give the company a reference In the Landmark Venues row, «Contact type» empresa and «Internal reference» LV-01.
- Add the person In the Dana Ortiz row, «Contact type» persona.
- Point to the company In Dana's row, write LV-01 in «Related contact».
The link shows on both contacts. References are looked up in the file and then among your contacts; one that isn't found is ignored without a warning. To mark Dana as the contact person on orders, see Link a person to a company.
Change or download contacts later
Update contacts in bulk from a file
- Open the update In «Contacts», open «⋯» → «Update».
- Download your current data In «Important instructions», choose CSV or Excel in «Export current data». The file has every contact and the column.
- Edit only what changes Delete the columns you won't touch and the rows of contacts you won't change.
- Upload it There's no mapping step: Filmo recognizes the exported headers, in Spanish or English.
- Update Review the table and click «Update N contacts».
This follows simple rules: a column that isn't in the file isn't touched; an empty cell clears the field, except «Name», «Contact type», «Role» and «Status», which keep their value. Tags, related contacts, emails, phones, websites, payment days and additional addresses end up exactly as in the file, so an empty cell removes them all. Notes aren't part of the file.
Warning: Exporting and uploading the file untouched isn't a neutral . A contact with several taxes ends up with an invalid tax, taxes from other countries are ignored, additional addresses lose their province, and «Payment method» doesn't change the method documents suggest. Delete the «Tax», «Additional addresses» and «Payment method» columns unless you're changing them, and fix those contacts on their record.
Export contacts
«Contacts» → «⋯» → «Export», choose CSV or Excel and click «Export contacts». You get every contact, sorted by name, with «DO NOT MODIFY», the import columns except «Notes», and one # column per custom field. Type and role come out in Spanish. A related contact without an internal reference isn't written.
If you see an error
| Message or situation | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| El NIF "…" con rol "client" ya existe en la base de datos. Las re-importaciones no están permitidas. | You already have that contact (shown in Spanish, with the role in English). Remove the row, or change the contact with «Update». Many rows like this mean you're importing an address book you already loaded. |
| Fila N: NIF "…" con rol "…" está duplicado en el archivo | Two rows share a tax ID and role. Several people from one company often do: keep the tax ID only on the company's row. |
| Referencia "…" duplicada en el archivo | Two rows share an internal reference. Change one. |
| Fila N: el nombre es obligatorio y debe tener al menos 2 caracteres. | «Name» is empty or one letter. |
| Fewer contacts created than rows, and no errors | A row's internal reference already existed: it was dropped, and its notes and links were added to that existing contact. Check those contacts. |
| A company shows as a person | «Contact type» was empty or misspelled. Fix it on the record or with «Update». |
| Contacts with the role «Unspecified» | The role was written another way, such as clientes. Use the values in the columns table. |
| El archivo no coincide con el formato exportado (update) | Half or more of the headers weren't recognized. Start from a new export without renaming headers. |
| Tags or internal references disappeared after an update | Their cells were empty. Delete a column from the file when you don't want to change it. |